For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way core season is sadly coming to a close for this year and we will not see it again for another 5 or 6 months. In this fantastic video by Jeroen Linnenkamp, he chooses seven amazing night-time subjects that can keep you shooting throughout those core-less months.
Just because the core of the Milky Way is not going to be visible, there are still plenty of regions of the Milky Way that are in our view. Linnenkamp first shows us the Great Rift region of the Milky Way which sits above the core and is still visible to us throughout the later months.
Next up, we have Orion, which is a beautiful part of our night sky for wide-field and deep-sky astrophotography. The Orion nebula is one of the most photographed targets in our night skies that sits within the winter circle and who can blame us? it is truly stunning.
The Cygnus region of the Milky Way is next and this sits above the Great Rift region. It is a bit more subtle than the other areas of the Milky Way but it is packed with beautiful bright star clusters and also features the North American Nebula which is another amazing target for astrophotographers, especially if you have an astro-modified camera to pick up those red colors.
In the next few months, we have several meteor showers to look forward too, including the Geminids and the Orionids, so it is well worth going out around the peak of those showers. The peak of the Geminids is in December and takes place during a new moon which is perfect.
A couple of further targets available to shoot will be the Pleiades star cluster otherwise known as the Seven Sisters, and also a winter Milky Way panorama arch.
Last but no means least, is the northern lights or Aurora Borealis. We have been treated to some amazing displays over the past year in lower latitudes and hopefully as solar maximum continues, we should be treated to many more nights of beautiful aurora.
What is on your list to photograph this winter in our night skies? Let us know in the comments below.
Good stuff. I got out on the weekend and shot a widescape of the Cygnus area of the milky way for the first time. It makes a nice change from just shooting the core. Choosing other targets also opens the opportunity to shoot from different locations as you don't just have to rely on views within the usual sector of the night sky.
Absolutely, there is so much of our night sky we can enjoy and not just the core.