They’re cosmically beautiful, colorful and timeless.
Our solar system takes about 240 million years to complete a single orbit of the Milky Way.
The first two weeks of July are a prime time to catch a glimpse of our cosmic neighborhood.
Once July 13 comes and goes, you’ll have to wait until early August to take another crack.
When can I see the Milky Way?
For you to be able to see the Milky Way, the sky has to be pretty dark.
The Milky Way also won’t be visible all night.
There’s only about a three to six hour window when you’ll be able to see it.
Again, that’ll vary depending on your location.
Based on the region, here’s when the Milky Way can best be spotted.
Start and end times and the total duration may vary by about half an hour.
Where can I see the Milky Way?
The hard part is getting into that environment.
Light pollution describes the phenomenon where human-made lighting artificially increases the brightness of the night sky.
LightPollutionMap.infohas a fantastic map that shows light pollution across the US.
That’s why so many good Milky Way photos are taken in the desert.
What will I need to see the Milky Way?
The Milky Way is readily visible without the use of a telescope or high-powered binoculars.
Your most important tools are darkness and elevation.
Without those, you won’t be able to see the Milky Way at all.
Tote along agood camerawith atripod.
You’ll want a fast lens.
The lower the f-stop the better.
After that, it’s just a matter of dialing in your camera’s tweaks.
The less light the moon gives out, the easier it is to see the sky around it.
After that, it’ll be the last few days of August and the first week of September.
Another useful tool is a Milky Way calendar.
The website Capture the Atlas makes them every year and emails them for free to interested users.
Thewebsite has an email signup form.
Once you sign up, it emails a list of calendars based on latitude.
