Milky-Way

On a dark night this month you can stand in a field, face south, and look almost exactly toward the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. No telescope. No binoculars, though they help. Just your eyes, a clear southern horizon, and enough patience to let them adjust. The direction sits low in the sky between two constellations that are up all July: Scorpius and Sagittarius. You won’t see the black hole itself (its light is buried behind thousands of light-years of dust), but you can point your face down the barrel toward it and see the thickest, brightest star clouds of the whole Milky Way piled up in that direction. From my usual dark spot in the Troodos mountains, that stretch of sky is the best thing summer offers. Here’s how to find it. ...

Your phone’s camera sensor is larger, faster, and smarter than anything a dedicated DSLR could offer ten years ago. If you can get yourself under a reasonably dark sky — Bortle 4 or darker — a 2024-or-newer flagship phone will record the Milky Way in a single exposure. No telescope, no star tracker, no laptop in a field at 2 AM. Just the phone, something to prop it against, and about 30 seconds of patience. ...