The Milky Way

I've been wanting to try to photograph the Milky Way for a long time but have never had an opportunity where I had the necessary equipment (or at least some of the basics) and a clear sky on a summer night where the galactic center is visible.  A few nights ago the skies were nearly perfect, I have the basic equipment needed, now for the big question: would the Milky Way be visible through the light pollution?

 For my first try, I'll take it... clearly there are some optical artifacts and noise artifacts from a slow lens and high ISO long exposure.  All that said, I was shocked to find that it actually worked.  I can also see that this kind of thing requires some serious time in photoshop, and see the immediate advantages to finding darker skies for better signal to noise.

While I was out, a couple of kids in the neighborhood were having a little fun with long exposures and I joined in!  The photo turned out pretty cool, fortunately they did have a fire extinguisher with them which it turned out was a good thing, they only started a small fire...

Quintessential Summer - Traverse City Michigan