In a 220-degree panorama, the Summer Milky Way rises over observers at the Cherry Springs dark-sky park in Pennsylvania in the United States. Click on the image or this link for a larger version with mouse-over identifications.

Polaris and Ursa Minor are in the north at the top left hand side of the image. The Milky Way, our own galaxy seen from the inside, begins to rise in Cassiopeia at lower left. It arches up through Cygnus, Vulpecula and Sagitta at the top center, and comes down to the central region of the Milky Way in Sagittarius. Scorpius and Libra are due south on the right hand side of the picture.

Stars, star clusters, star clouds, bright emission nebulae and dark nebulae are strewn throughout the Milky Way. Dark nebulae are clouds of opaque dust and gas that block the light from stars behind them. The Great Rift in the Milky Way is an example of this which stretches from Serpens Cauda through Aquila into Cygnus. Bright nebula, such as NGC 7000, the North America Nebula in Cygnus, and M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, are glowing clouds of gas out of which stars are forming.

This image shows what the sky looks like about an hour after the end of astronomical twilight on the Summer Solstice, the first day of summer, at about 40 degrees north latitude.

• Lens: Canon 18mm-55mm f/3.5-f/5.6 IS Zoom kit lens
• Focal Length: 18mm
• F/stop: f/3.5
• Exposure: 9 Single frames - 30 second exposures each for mosaic, not stacked
• ISO: 6400
• Camera: Modified Canon EOS 550Da (T2i) DSLR
• Mode: Raw
• White Balance: Custom
• In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off
• Filter: None
• Mount: Fixed Tripod
• Date: May 18, 2012
• Start Time: 1:29 a.m. EDT
• Location: Cherry Springs, PA
• Calibration: None
• Processing: Canon Digital Photo Pro, Hugin, Photoshop CS5