As we come to the end of Milky Way Hunting Season, the Galactic Center is close to the horizon. In my area, the galaxy stands pretty well straight up. That doesn’t mean it’s not time to head out for night sky image creation. I took my PhotoPills app out in the beginning of September to plan for some images in October.

AR or Augmented Reality

What is Milky Way augmented Reality? PhotoPills AR superimposes the Milky Way and the Galactic Center over the scene in front of you. Your phone camera is activate and shows you the scene and can captures what your screen is showing including date and time set. The Galactic Center is represented by the orange circle. The beauty of this is you can visit a location during the day and see where the Milky Way will be at any time and any date past present or future. And, you can save a picture of the scene in your camera for future reference. See how I used it below.

augmented reality photopills APP
PhotoPills with AR (Augmented Reality) activated shows the Galactic Center. Milky Way is layered over the scene showing info for October 1, 2024 at 7:30PM
photopills planner screen at Bell rock sedona augmented reality
Same location and time as above but with a wider iPhone lens chosen.

Planner

photopills planner screen sedona az
Planner shows possible location using the pin on Courthouse Butte Trail. At 7:40 PM the Galactic center of the Milky Way would be directly over Bell Rock.
photopills planner screen
Showing the same location as above but at 9:49 PM the GC has moved to the right of Bell Rock. For the easiest view activate only the Milky Way and turn off the other representations of the sun, moon or meteor showers.

Before heading out to see specific locations, I worked the Planner Pill. Planner Pill has various maps including a Standard, Satellite, Terrain and my personal favorite, the Google Hybrid map. PhotoPills has a representation of the Milky Way using dots. You place the pin representing you on location and scrub through the timeline. This gives you an idea of where the Milky Way will be at various times.

Hiking in a bit further showing a different composition with the lens zoomed in a bit.
Same location as above with the composition in a vertical format.

On location

Hiking to possible photographing locations after using the planner enables you to more thoroughly decide what your foreground will look like. Upon activating the Augmented Reality PhotoPills uses your phone’s camera. If you have multiple focal lengths available you can invoke them for different views representing wide, medium and tighter representations of how the MW will look in your scene helping with your planning.

In addition, PhotoPills shows Milky Way star trails. This is looking North straight at Polaris which would result in a circle of star trails.

Saved photos can help you remember where you want to be, at what time, on the day you wish to capture the starry skies off in the future.

Just because the “Hunting Season” for the Galactic Center is just about over for this year doesn’t mean it’s time to put up PhotoPills. There are star trails, meteor showers, sun and moon placements for which to plan. And, don’t forget, just because the Galactic center may be below the horizon the Milky Way is in the sky year round.

Yours in Creative Photography,

Bob