That photo of the Milky Way from a backyard changed how I see light pollution

My neighbor Dave, who runs a small telescope club, told me I could get a decent astro shot from my own yard in the suburbs if I tried after midnight. Last Tuesday at 1 AM I finally set up my old DSLR on a tripod and got a faint but real Milky Way arc over my fence. I figured you'd need to drive 3 hours to a dark sky park for anything good, but that single exposure at ISO 3200 proved him right. Has anyone else been surprised by what you can capture from a light-polluted spot like zone 7 or 8?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily971mo ago

Yeah it's wild how much hidden detail is right under our noses if we just look.

stone.jesse1mo ago

@lily97 you're totally right. I actually READ somewhere that modern CMOS sensors pick up WAY more detail than our eyes can see, so even from a zone 7 backyard you can grab stuff that would AMAZE someone from 20 years ago.