Milky Way Season | April to October

Astrophotographers call the time of year between mid-autumn and mid-spring ‘Milky Way season’.

This period gets its name because of how, in the southern hemisphere, it’s the best time of year to see and photograph the Milky Way. When you look towards the centre, or core, of our Milky Way Galaxy you see it is dense with stars and stretches across the dark night sky in country WA. Astrophotographers love it.

If you don’t have a telescope, the Milky Way is an amazing sight to see with a pair of binoculars. As your eyes travel across the stars, you’ll find all things amazing and beautiful. It’s an awe-inspiring sight and WA is one of the best places on Earth to see the Milky Way in all its glory.

How to see the Milky Way

The Milky Way is best seen when there’s no moonlight and you’re away from bright city lights. You’re looking for a band of cloudy or dusty-looking light stretching in an arc from the southeast to the southwest. It looks like a cloud, but billions of stars make up the Milky Way Galaxy, our home in the Universe.

In early evenings in April, the Milky Way rises from the southeast and stretches right across the sky to the west. By July, the core or heart of the Milky Way is high in the southern sky. By October and November, the Milky Way begins to set in the western sky.

Where and when to look for the Milky Way

Look to the south east and south west well after sunset on dark nights around the New Moon for some of the best views of the Milky Way.

Keep an eye on stellar WA photographer Michael Goh’s website blog to see his yearly Astro Planning Calendar available for stargazers to download. It contains a wealth of priceless information. Equipped with details including Moon luminosity, Milky Way core start and end times, and elevation details, you can decide the best days for to photograph the Milky Way.

Here are our top picks for early evening viewing:

• From 7.30pm, between 30th March – 10th April 2027
• From 7pm, between 29th April – 9th May 2027
• From 7pm, between 28th May – 8th June 2027
• From 7pm, between 27th June – 7th July 2027
• From 7pm, between 27th July – 5th August 2027
• From 7.30pm, between 25th August – 4th September 2027
• From 8pm, between 23rd September – 3rd October 2027
• From 8pm, between 23rd October – 1st November 2027

Tips for Photographing the Milky Way

Once you have planned your astrophotography shoot and found the perfect spot, it’s time to set up your camera with a tripod on a flat, stable surface. First, make sure your DSLR camera is set to manual mode, so you can control exposure, ISO, and aperture. Then, turn off additional features, such as long exposure noise reduction or lens stabilisation. A remote control for your camera is also helpful.

Choose your lens

Then, you need to know what settings you’re using for capturing the Milky Way. Before you think about your ISO setting and your exposure time, choose the right lens for your shoot. If you want to take the best photographs of the Milky Way, you need a fast-aperture, wide-angle lens. Astrophotographers agree that capturing the Milky Way needs a fast lens aperture, aiming for as close to f/1.4 as you can get, but nothing above f/2.8.

Is the longest exposure best?

You may hear that the most important factor for night photography is a long exposure time, but that’s not always right. You already know that longer exposure times means that your camera’s shutter is open for longer, letting more light reach the lens. However, if you have too long an exposure time, you’ll end up taking photographs of the stars as streaks of light. Finding the right balance is important and experts recommend an exposure time of around 15-20 seconds.

What ISO setting do you need?

With your exposure set for 15 seconds, try starting with your ISO set to 1600, depending on your camera. More advanced cameras can handle ISO settings as high as 6400, but you know your own camera best, and can adjust settings for yourself as you go along. Depending on how your photos are looking, you can experiment with things like increasing your ISO with a shorter exposure time.

Focusing on the Milky Way

Getting the perfect Milky Way shot depends in part on what you want from your picture. Do you want a picture of only the Milky Way, or do you want an object in the foreground of your shot to give it scale and perspective? The most important piece of advice is start by using your camera’s Live View setting, and focus on a bright star or bright distant light. Adjust your camera’s focus rings until the star is sharp and focused, turn off Live View, then try not to touch the focus again while you’re shooting.

If you want a foreground image also in focus for your shoots, you need to learn the secrets of focus stacking. This technique involves taking two identical shots, one focused on the Milky Way and the other shot on the object. The magic is combining your images later in processing. Check out the BBC Sky at Night magazine article on the subject and learn more about processing.

How to find the best views of the Milky Way

According to the team at Capture the Atlas, these are your best views during Milky Way season:

• During April and May, the Milky Way is diagonal at the beginning of the night, and higher in the sky with the galactic bulge moving towards the middle of the sky as the night progresses.
• From June to August, the Milky Way is diagonal at the beginning of the night, vertical during the middle of the night, and low over the horizon at the end of the night.
• During September and October, the Milky Way is vertical at the beginning of the night, decreasing in the sky until it reaches a horizontal position.

Keep watching

By the time the Southern Hemisphere summer comes around, Earth is on the other side of the Sun, between it and the edge of the Milky Way.

At night, we look towards the edge of the Milky Way. There are fewer stars, dust and gas towards the edge of the Galaxy, but it’s terrific to lie under warm evenings and see the summer constellations and the summer Milky Way.