THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTOS

Watch my YouTube video about these photos. Also, I do have Milky Way photos in other collections, so ask if you want to see more.

Our home in space, the Milky Way is a pinwheel shaped galaxy approximately 120,000 light-years in diameter, which contains 100–400 billion stars and may contain as many planets. The Milky Way is most visible from Earth at certain times of the year and from certain places. These photos were taken around 1AM in Sept. 2014 in Sussex County, New Jersey.

The Milky Way, while it can be seen with the naked eye, is usually quite faint, even under the best viewing conditions. But with a good camera lens, the right exposure settings and skillful post processing, you can really make the stars and dust clouds of the Milky Way pop.

I'd like to thank my fellow photographers from Facebook's New Jersey Photographers group for inspiring me to go out and shoot these photos. They are some of the most exciting images I've taken all year.