The Milky Way in the Southern Hemisphere is a sight to behold for any stargazer or casual observer. Not only does it contain constellations, nebulae, and stars not found in the northern hemisphere sky, but it also showcases the bright galactic center of the Milky Way overhead.
From a dark sky location without the interference of moonlight or light pollution, you can see intense areas of dark dust that block the bright starlight beneath it. Familiar horizon-skirting constellations like Sagittarius and Scorpius are now high overhead to enjoy in all their glory.
As an astrophotographer living in the Northern Hemisphere, I’ve always wanted to see and photograph it for myself. Thanks to an invite to speak at the ‘Star Stuff III’ event in Byron Bay, Australia, I finally got my chance.
I took the following picture of the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way using my mirrorless camera and lens from Yulara, Australia, on July 10, 2024. In this article, I’ll explain how I took the photo, the equipment I used, and the best camera settings for the perfect shot.
The Southern Hemisphere Milky Way. 34 x 60 Seconds, ISO 1600.
When I posted my image on the AstroBackyard Facebook Page, a number of people mentioned that the Milky Way was upside down in the photo. While I did rotate the photo for better composition in the portrait (4:3 format), it was only clockwise by 90° from the original image out of the camera.
Throughout the night, the band of glimmering light from the Milky Way core rotates to the other side. The exact angle and position of the Milky Way core you see in the night sky will depend on the time of year and time of night you capture it.
Milky Way Season in the Southern Hemisphere
In the Southern Hemisphere, the best time to see the Milky Way is from March to October. Amateur astronomers and stargazers often call this period ‘Milky Way Season’ due to the presence of the ‘Galactic Center’ in the night sky.
Unlike the northern hemisphere, the Milky Way core reaches high into the sky, giving a jaw-dropping view of our Milky Way Galaxy. Deep-sky objects that northern hemisphere observers are used to seeing low on the horizon (such as the Lagoon Nebula) are now high overhead in the sky.
It is best to enjoy the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way during the nights surrounding the New Moon phase (Ideally within 5 days before and after). These nights will be darker without the interference of moinlight, allowing you to see more stars and more detail in the Milky Way.
The Location of my photoshoot was Yulara, Australia. Bortle Class 3 on the Light Pollution Map.
The night I took this picture, the moon was in one of its partial phases, the waning crescent phase (19% illumination), to be exact. The moon set shortly after 9:00 pm, and I took most of my photos after the sky became much darker.
For the best Milky Way Photography results, a DSLR (or mirrorless camera) and lens are needed rather than an astronomical telescope. A high-powered telescope is great for pulling in smaller deep-sky objects, but to capture nightscapes and the Milky Way, a wide-angle camera lens is best. (14-24mm)
For my widest photo, I used a Canon EOS R (stock) with a Canon RF 15-35mm F/2.8 lens (at 15mm). Even using my shortest focal length, I couldn’t capture the entire Milky Way across the sky in a single shot. However, this photo shows just how high the Milky Way core reaches from the Southern Hemisphere.
Canon EOS R (stock) + Canon RF 15-35mm F/2.8 Lens (15mm, F/3.2).
Related Article: Choosing a Camera for Astrophotography (My Advice)
Different Constellations and Deep-Sky Objects
While a portion of the Milky Way may appear familiar to Northern Hemisphere observers, much of it is entirely new. Southern constellations like Norma, Lupus, Centaurus, and Crux are now above the horizon.
While it may be a little disorienting for northern hemisphere observers to see an entirely looking night sky (it was for me), the strangest part was seeing familiar constellations appearing upside-down. Seeing the constellation Orion in the early morning was quite a site.
If you are visiting the southern hemisphere in the near future, some of the most noteworthy constellations you’ll want to see are Centaurus, Crux, and Carina. One of the best ways to find and identify constellations in the Southern Hemisphere is to use a stargazing app like Stellarium on your smartphone.
Deep-Sky Objects in the Southern Milky Way.
If you take a closer look at my image, you can see several deep-sky objects within the Milky Way. Some notable nebulae include the Prawn Nebula and the Rim Nebula on the border of the southern constellation Norma.
There were many other exciting deep-sky objects in the Southern Hemisphere sky (such as the Large Magellanic Cloud and Omega Centauri), but they were outside of the Milky Way core area. The Carina Nebula, however, was nearby, and I captured that target on its own using a longer focal length.
My Astrophotography Equipment
For my main photograph of the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way, I used a mirrorless Canon EOS Ra camera body with an attached Sigma 24mm F/1.4 lens. This is a spectacular lens for astrophotography due to its low aperture and light-gathering ability. 24mm is on the narrow side as far as Milky Way lenses go, but the full-frame sensor on the Ra allowed me to utilize its native focal length.
I took tracked, long-exposure images using my portable, battery-powered star tracker, the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i. The star tracker was mounted to a lightweight carbon fiber tripod to keep the overall weight of my setup down.
To run a sequence of image exposures, I used an inexpensive remote shutter release cable (intervalometer). This allowed me to automate a series of hands-free long-exposure images on the camera. The cable plugs into the small remote-shutter port on the side of the camera body.
The Sky-Wacther Star Adventurer 2i is highly portable and battery-powered (8 x AA batteries).
To capture sharp images with round stars, I had to make sure that the star tracker was polar aligned with the southern celestial pole. This process is much more difficult in the southern hemisphere due to the lack of a pole star for reference. The Stellarium+ mobile app helped me isolate the direction of due-south, and I used the augmented star map in real-time to find Sigma Octanis.
Through trial and error (taking test shots and comparing the amount of drift), I was able to polar align my star tracker accurately enough to take 60-second long exposures at a focal length of 24mm. If I had used a longer focal length lens or telescope, I may have had to refine the alignment further.
All of the astrophotography equipment we brought on our trip.
Related Post: How to Travel with Astrophotography Gear
A lot of people have asked me why I chose to bring the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i over the more capable Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi. The answer is simple: I just didn’t have enough room for the slightly larger GTi and the included counterweight. While the 2i is slightly more compact, it does not include the handy GoTo features the GTi has.
Traveling to Australia for 2 weeks proved to be the ultimate packing challenge. Ashley and I found it difficult to fit all of our astrophotography equipment and clothing for the entire trip within the weight limits of our checked bags and carry-on luggage. Looking back, I could have done without the Canon RF 70-200mm F/2.8 lens as it was hardly used.
The Exact Camera Settings I Used
My approach to Milky Way photography is similar to a deep-sky astrophotography session using a camera and telescope. However, because I was capturing such a wide, generally evenly lit area of the sky at once, I used shorter exposures than I typically would on a galaxy or nebula.
Using two different cameras (one astro-modified and the other stock), I used the following camera settings to capture several individual long-exposure images. Some key settings to note are the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO used.
Always shoot in RAW image format for maximum image quality and control over your data in post-processing. A JPG file is compressed and will limit your ability to utilize powerful editing tools such as Adobe Camera Raw.
- Mode: Bulb (B)
- File Type: RAW
- White Balance: Daylight/Auto
- Focal Length: 24mm
- Focus: Manual
- F-Stop: F/2
- ISO: 1600
- Exposure Time: 60 Seconds
If you do not own an intevolometer, you can simply use Manual Mode (M) in place of Bulb Mode (B) and use the maximum exposure time of 30 seconds. If you are not using a star tracker, I suggest using a lower f-stop, higher ISO, and limiting your exposure time to 15-20 seconds (depending on the focal length of your camera lens).
You can always use the Histogram to confirm that you have chosen the best settings for Milky Way photography. When you review your image on the back of the camera’s display screen, you should see the bulk of the image data in the center or to the right of the histogram to avoid clipping shadows or highlights.
The camera settings and histogram for each of my long-exposure images.
Photo Editing Tips: Image Stacking
Whether it’s Milky Way photography or deep-sky astrophotography through a telescope, the key to any great astrophotography image is image stacking. There are several great image-stacking software tools available, but DeepSkyStacker is one of my absolute favorites.
Image stacking can improve your final image’s overall signal-to-noise ratio, as well as remove satellite trails and hot pixels. While a single image exposure of the Milky Way may look pretty good, you can dramatically increase the level of detail and overall image quality by stacking several exposures together.
To combine all of the long-exposure images of the southern Milky Way, I loaded all of my sub-frames into DeepSkyStacker. From there, I scored the images to make sure that I only stacked the images that were clear and sharp. In total, I stacked 34 frames for a grand total of 34 minutes.
I used DeepSkyStacker to combine my images for a stronger signal-to-noise ratio.
Related Video: DeepSkyStacker Tutorial
As you can see in the screenshot above, the images started with a warm red/brown color cast. To balance the colors and return the image to its natural state, I used Adobe Photoshop to set the black point (and white point) of the image.
Achieving a natural white balance in your Milky Way photo is an essential step toward creating a pleasing photo of our home galaxy. While the exact colors can be adjusted to your liking, it is best to make sure that the empty, black areas of the night sky are a neutral grey color.
If you don’t want to use DeepSkyStacker (or are using a Mac), Sequator is another great (free) image-stacking tool for Milky Way astrophotography. This program has some neat features like the ability to stack the sky images while freezing the foreground. I recorded a video tutorial using this software a few years ago.
Milky Way Image Editing Tips
I consider image processing to be an art form. The way you edit your photo of the Milky Way is up to you, and the ‘right’ way to process an astrophotography image open to interpretation.
That said, I have a few tricks that I like to use to produce pleasing-to-the-eye wide-angle images of the Milky Way. If you like the aesthetics of my astrophotography images as a whole, there is a good chance that these tips will work well for you.
Out of all the image processing software choices available, Adobe Photoshop and PixInsight are my two favorites. With these tools, I feel that I can create a version of the astrophoto I had in mind. Using Layers in Photoshop allows you to make careful iterations to the image in steps, and then adjust the opacity of those layers to find a good balance of adjustments.
The Camera Raw Filter is an incredibly powerful tool for editing Milky Way Photography. You can use this tool at any stage of your editong routine. Some of my favorite adjustments in this tool are the advanced Color Mixer controls (for boosting nebulae colors) and the Clarity slider within the Effects menu.
Use Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop for a selective saturation boost and to reduce noise.
In PixInsight, my favorite tools are Dynamic Background Extraction for neutralizing the background sky and the BlurXTerminator (BXT) script for a sharper image with smaller stars. The BXT script is a third-party (paid) plugin that you may want to look into, I believe it (along with Russ’ other AI tools) is well worth the price.
Your stacked master inage may appear to have a red or brown cast to it ‘out of the box’, so remember to balance the background (empty space) color values to a neutral grey point. Usually, R:33, G:33, B:33 works best. If you’re looking for the most accurate white balance, set a color sampler point on a white star and aim for color values of R:255, G:255, B:255.
These are only rough guidelines to follow, so don’t get to caught up in the numbers. In the end, the overall color balance and feel of your image is up to you. I, for one, am glad that all Milky Way photos don’t look the same.
You may also want to raise the blue channel of your image slightly higher than the other channels. If your Milky Way photo looks a little muddy or brown, this can create a pleasingly’ cooler’ image. If you want to learn everything I know about processing a Milky Way photo like this, you can also check out my 120-page premium guide.
While the top image has a more neutral background sky, the bottom version is more pleasing to the eye (in my opinion).
5 Keys for Epic Milky Way Photography Results
- Use a Star Tracker to Take Longer Exposure Images (60 seconds is enough).
- Leverage the Power of Image Stacking for a Cleaner Image (Less Noise, More Detail).
- Set the White Balance to a slightly “Cooler’ Temperature for a Pleasing Look (No Brown/Red Sky).
- Reduce the Size of the Stars for a More Dramatic-Looking Galactic Center (Try Using ‘BlurXTerminator).
- Capture a Still Landscape, and Blend it in with your Tracked and Stacked Milky Way Sky (Use the Rule of Thirds Composition).
I hope that this photo has inspired you to photograph the Milky Way this summer, no matter which hemisphere you are in. Until next time, clear skies!
Trevor Jones
is a deep-sky astrophotographer and a valued member of the RASC. His passion is inspiring others to start their astrophotography journey on his YouTube Channel so they can appreciate the night sky as much as he does. His images have been featured in astronomy books and online publications, including the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
