Astrophotography enthusiast Andrew McCarthy has long dreamed of capturing the full beauty of the Milky Way galaxy in his photographs. However, the circumstances of his life in Arizona did not allow him to realize this plan. Light pollution and the latitude of the state prevented him from achieving the desired result. In order to overcome these limitations, the brave photographer undertook several international trips to get to a small island in the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
Thanks to the location of the island near the equator, McCarthy was finally able to get the long-awaited impressive picture — a complete and detailed look at the Milky Way galaxy.
“At my latitude here in the United States, the bulge of Earth’s curvature blocks much of the Milky Way. There is an entire southern portion that can’t be seen. Capturing that was a large part of my goal with this image,” explains McCarthy.
To reach the desired location, McCarthy used various types of transport, including seaplanes and a small boat. Upon arrival at his destination, he lived under the starry sky for two weeks, taking thousands of pictures of the Milky Way.
“The camera lens I used only covered a small part of the Milky Way, so I had to capture the photo in many ‘panels’ to create the final image. This was necessary to produce the detail I wanted and to avoid the distortion that usually comes from using wide-angle lenses,” he says.
For two weeks, McCarthy struggled with challenges related to weather and clouds. However, the photographer was convinced that the final result would exceed all expectations. In the end, that’s exactly what happened — his panoramic photo called Backbone of Night was scattered across many media outlets. An exciting panoramic photo of the Milky Way is an example of the fact that what you want always comes true if you clearly set yourself a goal, are persistent, and make every effort to achieve it.
Earlier, we reported on how an astrophotographer published an epic 164-megapixel portrait of the Sun.
According to PetaPixel
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