360° Image of the Milky Way along Nova Road.

On the way back from Kissimmee, Florida early July 4th around 1:00 am, I was driving along Nova Road and could see the Milky Way. Since the Milky Way is not easily visible where I live, I decided to stop along the lonely road that is infested with mosquitos to try and capture my very first 360 of the Milky Way.

Camera settings:

• ISO 2500
• Shutter Speed 25 seconds x4
• Aperture F3.5

The yellow glow around the horizon is “light pollution” from neighboring cities, St. Cloud and Cocoa.

Since this was an impromptu photo shoot and there was zero planning involved, I made a few mistakes.  Typically you would want to use a wider aperture than F3.5 but that is as wide as the Sigma 8mm fish-eye goes. If I had more time out there, I would have used my cell phones flashlight to light up the foreground.

If you want to photograph the night sky and the milky way, Aaron Priest has a great article on how it should be done. It is lengthy, however the article covers just about everything you will need to know about photographing the night sky. View some of Aaron’s work such as the Marshall Point Lighthouse and Telos Lake.