August and September are great months for Milky Way watching in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Behind the Shot

This is a blend of about 45 images. 15 images of the land, 15 images of the Milky Way, and 15 images of the Milky Way with an H-alpha filter that captures only a specific band of red.

Here are the stitched components.

Milky Way

I remove the stars because too many detract from the nebula and milky way gasses.

Milky Way Starless

H-Alpha Sequence

The Land

Blue Hour Blends

I like doing “Blue Hour Blends”.

The blue hour is roughly a 1-hour period after sunset before it is dark enough to see the Milky Way. I have a lot of extra land and sky on the left and right to avoid edge distortion and to allow flexible cropping.

I blended all of the above together with masks in Photoshop, then cropped the result to what you see in the lead image, adding back only the stars that I wanted.

Milky Way Cycle

In March, the Milky Way rises in the Southeast very early in the morning. You need to be up at 3:00 AM to see it. It forms a big arch in the Spring.

In Summer, the Milky Way rises in the South and forms a diagonal. Depending on the month, its appearance shifts noticeably. In early summer, the bright galactic core—centered near the constellation Sagittarius—rises earlier in the evening, often becoming visible after 10 PM or so. By midnight it climbs higher in the southern sky, creating a striking diagonal or near-vertical band that stretches from the southern horizon up through the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, and Altair) toward the north.

July offers peak conditions for most mid-northern latitudes: the core is highest around midnight to 1 AM and remains visible for much of the night under dark skies, forming a dramatic glowing arch packed with stars, dark dust lanes, and nebulae.

As summer progresses into August, the Milky Way forms a strong diagonal in the southern sky an hour after sunset. As the evening progresses, the Milky Way rotates into a vertical position by 1:00AM Mountain Time in Utah.

In September and October, the Milky Way rises in a vertical or near vertical position about an hour after sunset.

Visibility of the bright core gradually shortens as the season advances, and by late October the window becomes limited to early evening.

During winter (roughly December through February), the dense, luminous galactic center lies on the daytime side of Earth and is not visible at night.

Instead, observers see the fainter outer arms of the Milky Way, stretching more north–south through constellations such as Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, and Orion.

The Winter Milky Way core is subtler and less spectacular under all but the darkest skies, though it still offers a beautiful, quieter band of stars. The show in winter is Orion, and the Winter sky is much brighter.

Orion and the Winter Arch

Orion the Hunter is the perfect guide to the winter Milky Way. The constellation sits right alongside the arch and is one of the easiest ways to locate it.

• The faint winter band runs behind (or immediately to the east/left of) Orion, grazing its eastern side.
• It passes near the bright red star Betelgeuse (Orion’s shoulder) and continues through the faint constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn) just to Orion’s left.
• From Orion it flows south toward Sirius and north toward Gemini and Auriga.

Once you find Orion’s distinctive three-star belt rising in the southeast or standing high in the south on winter evenings, look just to the left of the constellation (or “behind” Betelgeuse) for the hazy band. The Milky Way meanders right through the middle of the famous Winter Hexagon (or Winter Circle) of bright stars that surrounds Orion.

Orion itself lies within the Orion Arm (also called the Local Arm or Orion Spur) — the minor spiral arm that contains our Solar System. That is why so many of the winter sky’s brightest stars and famous deep-sky objects (the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula, the Christmas Tree Cluster, etc.) are concentrated in this region.

Photographing the Winter Arch

Wide-field images of the full winter arch taken with modified cameras often show a continuous chain of these red nebulae stretching from the south (near Sirius and Canis Major) up through Orion and into Auriga/Perseus — something that looks far more sparse with an unmodified camera.

So while the winter Milky Way itself is fainter and less “milky” than the summer version, its treasure trove of H-alpha nebulae makes it especially rewarding for astrophotographers with modified gear.

I am looking forward to this.

Camera Sensor Enhancement

I have a modified EOS R5 camera from Spencer’s Camera to capture more of the red H-alpha wavelength.

While it primarily boosts the magenta H-alpha emission nebulae, it also helps pull out the faint, deep-red hydroxyl emissions in the atmospheric glow, making the overall color gradient much more vivid.

Dealing with 250,000 Stars, Literally

The above image snip is before I blended in the H-Alpha sequence.

The program I use for merging the 3-image astro stacks tells me how many stars it finds. In one panel the count was over 44,000 stars.

This is a result of a super-fast lens and accurate tracking. You end up capturing more stars than you want. Some like all the stars. Most, including me, would rather see more of the Milky Way structure.

There are apps that will remove stars. They don’t do a perfect job, but I have a way of cleaning up errors.

Working with H-Alpha Filters

H-Alpha filters block so much light they are near-impossible to focus in the field at night for Canon users. I eventually gave up trying.

Instead, I focus during the daytime on an object 35 miles away (a tiny part of Zion) that I can see from my backyard. Then I leave the camera turned on and tape down the lens so the focus does not shift.

Sony users have a night view in their camera allowing easier focus.

Blending in the H-alpha filter is another treat, and so is getting it aligned with the regular milky way shot. That’s two more learning processes (alignment and blending).

Working With Star Trackers

I use a Benro Polaris star tracker.

A star tracker is a device that rotates at he same speed as the Milky Way. If you use a tracker, you must take the land separately or the land will be blurry.

I generally take the land images after sunset in the blue hour so there is no direct light on the scene.

If you are considering getting a star tracker (or are simply interested in more details of what it takes to get a shot like like this), please see my article Astro Photography Tips and a Benro Polaris Star Tracker Review

My post also covers camera modifications and H-Alpha filters. You cannot capture any the H-Alpha emission without a specially modified camera.

Dan Zafra has some excellent courses and a review of the Benro Polaris. I link to his courses and review.

Please check it out.

I started working with the Benro Polaris in March. It was not until May that I was finally able to take images in the field using it. I lost many milky way night sessions struggling with it.

Are Star Trackers for You?

The answer mostly depends on your time commitment. Some of the learning curves are steep. There is hardware, software, and many apps to learn. But one does not need specially-modified cameras or H-alpha filters to benefit from a tracker.

So this is not an all at once, all or nothing, kind of thing.

I go over learning curve of the Benro Polaris, star trackers in general, camera modifications, and H-alpha filters in my review.

Related to the Benro Polaris, there are many Canon-Nikon issues that Sony users don’t have. I also go over those issues and solutions in my post.

Equipment

These images were taken with an exceptionally fast RF-mount 20 MM F1.4 Canon lens at F 2.0 (F1.8 for the H-alpha set) on a modified R5 camera.

It’s one of Canon’s best lenses ever, and a nice compromise between 14MM and 20MM for taking wide-angle panoramas.

14MM makes backgrounds too small for my tastes, and 24 is a tad too narrow.

Even at F1.4, focusing with the H-Alpha filter is very difficult.

I also used a Capture-the-Atlas Night Filter.

The filter cuts through light pollution to recover contrast in the night sky, and gives a subtle boost to Hydrogen Alpha nebulae. It is compatible with both standard and astro-modified cameras.

I only use the filter for the sky, not the land.

Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.

To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky with One Hand Waving Free

To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky with One Hand Waving Free is a line from Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man.

Related Posts

July 23, 2026: Capturing a Milky Way Panorama at Zion, A Photographer’s Guide

In May, I captured a full arch Milky Way image at the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Part. Here is the result.

August 7, 2026: Road to Infinity, Grand Staircase-Escalante Milky Way and Airglow

In May, I captured a full arch Milky Way image at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Please Share!

If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.

Please Click to Subscribe by Email.

Fine Art Images

Need art for your walls?

Be sure to check out Mish Moments Fine Art Images.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock