Pic of the Day: August 2

Galaxy Quest

Hockey is back, so hooray for that at least....

If you were one of the lucky few who bought a calendar way back at the end of 2019, you've seen August's photo of the Milky Way over Truk Lagoon. It got me thinking about some of my other night sky shots and how the positioning of the stars changes with your latitude.

I have 3 shots of the Milky Way that I like. One from Beartooth Pass, one from the Uintas, and the one from Chuuk. All 3 were taken during the month of July (just at different times of night). I thought it would be fun to see how the positioning of the Milky Way differs in each photo. So here ya go!

Beartooth Pass, Wyoming, 44.968 deg N

Still one of my all time favorites. The Milky Way is pretty much touching the southern horizon.

Bald Mountain Pass, Utah , 40.688 deg N

Still very much in the southern sky, but no longer touching the horizon. Not too big of a change since there's only a 4 degree difference in latitude. I'm facing more toward the southeast in this one. It was also a few hours earlier in the night.

Chuuk, Micronesia 7.30 deg N

For this one I had my camera pointing straight up. I'm still facing toward the south. But the Milky Way is now directly overhead. I felt the palm trees were a nice touch when I was setting up shots this night. Soon after, the thunderstorms rolled in and blacked out the sky. Our first night in Chuuk ended up being the only one with a period of clear skies.

Here's to future travels and dark, clear nights.