For those of us who like to sleep late, July through Sep­tem­ber are the best times to find and pho­to­graph the Milky Way and the SF bay area based Star Cir­cle Acad­e­my can help you. Look to the south­ern sky from just after sun­set to mid­night this time of year.

Depend­ing where you are, just look­ing might not be quite enough. Noc­tur­nal pho­tog­ra­ph­er Steven Chris­ten­son has post­ed 2 help­ful arti­cles on the Star Cir­cle Acad­e­my blog on the sub­ject of find­ing and pho­tograph­ing the expanse that is our home galaxy and is hap­py to answer ques­tions in the com­ments.

The Elusive Milky Way – How to Find It!

The Elusive Milky Way – Capture an Image

I have yet to cap­ture a Milky Way pho­to I want to share, so I link to one of Steven’s below.

If the pic­ture looks a bit strange, it is a 180 degree ver­tora­ma (a series of stitched pic­tures) tak­en straight over­head from hori­zon to hori­zon. The west hori­zon is at the top of the pho­to.