The southern Milky Way in the direction of Sagittarius and Scorpius sets over amateur astronomers the Black Forest Star Party. Taken with a Canon 20Da DSLR camera and 16-35mm zoom lens working at 16mm and f/2.8 on a fixed tripod and a 55-second exposure at ISO 3200 with JPEG file format.

The remarkable sensitivity and low-noise of modern DSLR cameras are demonstrated in this image. It shows the summer Milky Way setting over observers at the Black Forest Star Party in Cherry Springs, Pennsylvania. It is a single image taken in a single exposure. It is not a composite.

The 55 second exposure at ISO 3200 was taken with a 16-35mm zoom lens working at 16mm at f/2.8 on a fixed tripod and shot as a JPEG with the in-camera noise reduction turned off. The ambient temperature was about 60F.

During the exposure a red flashlight was used to "paint" light onto the observers at their telescopes in the foreground.

The camera was placed on a tripod and the shutter set to bulb and held open with a shutter release cable. The lens, which focuses past the infinity setting, was focused on infinity by examining stars in the frame with the live video feature. The focus was then taped down so it could not be accidentally moved.

Different exposure times were used, from 10 seconds to 1 minute. The most Milky Way was naturally recorded in the longest exposure, but this is a balance against how much star trailing is acceptable. If this image is examined at high magnification the star trailing is visible, but the amount of Milky Way recorded more than offsets it from an aesthetic viewpoint.