United Kingdom Bignor Hill

Milky Way over Bignor Hill – 7 August

Captured from Bignor Hill in the South Downs on the night of 7 August, this image shows the Milky Way rising above the distant horizon, with the Galactic core cutting through the centre of the frame.

The image was created from a sequence of exposures taken with a Canon EOS R6 Mark II, then aligned and stacked to improve signal-to-noise and bring out more of the faint structure within the Milky Way. The final processing focused on revealing the dust lanes and structure of the Galactic centre while retaining a natural night-sky appearance and the warm glow from distant towns along the horizon.

There was a noticeable amount of light pollution and atmospheric glow close to the horizon, which made processing particularly challenging, but stacking helped recover considerably more detail than was visible in any individual exposure.

Location: Bignor Hill, South Downs, UK
Date: 7 August
Camera: Canon EOS R6 Mark II
Processing: Star alignment and stacking, followed by selective contrast, colour, light-pollution reduction and Milky Way enhancement in Adobe Photoshop.

I am an astrophotographer, getting used to that helps with Milky Way shots like this.

Yes, it is a parking lot.