Where And When to Get the Best Photos of the Milky Way

7. Acadia National Park, Maine

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Welcome to Mount Desert Island on the Atlantic coast, home to Cadillac Mountain. The highest point on the east coast of the U.S., it’s the best place to see the Milky Way, though there are plenty of other spots in amateur astronomers’ favorite Acadia National Park.

8. Arches National Park, Utah

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Book yourself into the Devils Garden Campground in Arches and you can take a starlit stroll down the Devil's Garden Trailhead, surely one of the most iconic spots for Milky Way astrophotography. From Landscape Arch to Double O Arch, incredible compositions are all around.

 

How to take photographs of the Milky Way

You need a manual camera. Maybe that’s a DSLR, a mirrorless camera, or a compact camera, but it needs to have manual settings. Don’t use any zoom, and if you have a choice of lenses, go for as wide-angle as possible. With your camera on a tripod, set the focus to infinity (auto-focus on a distant object during the day to find out where that point is on your lens), the ISO to 800, then open the shutter for 20-25 seconds. Experiment with other settings, such as ISO 1600 or higher, but more than 25 seconds and the stars will badly blur — Earth is rotating faster than you think!