A Waterfall and the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright:
Xie Jie
The dream was to capture both the waterfall and the Milky Way together.
Difficulties included finding a good camera location, artificially illuminating the waterfall and the surrounding valley effectively, capturing the entire scene with numerous foreground and background shots, worrying that
fireflies would be too
distracting, keeping the camera dry,
and avoiding stepping on a poisonous snake.
Behold the result -- captured after midnight in
mid-July and digitally stitched into a wide-angle panorama.
The waterfall is the picturesque
Zhulian waterfall in the
Luoxiao Mountains in eastern
Hunan Province,
China.
The central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy crosses the sky and shows numerous
dark dust filaments and
colorful nebulas.
Bright stars dot the sky -- all residing in the nearby Milky Way -- including the
Summer Triangle with bright
Vega visible above the
Milky Way's arch.
After capturing all 78 component exposures for you to enjoy,
the photographer and friends
enjoyed the view themselves
for the rest of the night.