Every year I anxiously await the early rising of the Milky Way Galactic Core over the Spooner’s hillside from my backyard. I am perhaps a month late this year as the presence of clouds has become the norm in the night skies over the Virgin Islands. But the tides shifted after midnight on the night of 23 April, and the sky was beautifully clean for hours until sunrise.
I never waste such golden opportunities and I started the 2026 Milky Way season as I usually do each year… shooting the Core over the Spooner’s hillside. This capture featured the first use of my newly acquired Canon R6 camera, which allowed me to take very short exposures (8 seconds) with ISO 12800 and focal ratio 4.
The featured image is a stack of 117 images using Starry Landscape Stacker, and post-processed in PixInsight and Photoshop. The result was stunning with the opportunity to bring out the colors of the Core and intricate details of the web of dark nebulas. This is indeed an improvement over my similar captures each year since 2019 (see the video below).
I am definitely looking forward to this Milky Way season. So stay tuned; but in the meantime, remember to look up and experience an amazing Universe!
The Milk Way Galactic Core captured of Spooner’s hillside 2019 – 2026