Milky Way: Planet Earth is located within the Milky Way galaxy, a fairly large galaxy (as galaxies go) at over 100,000 light years across.

From a very dark site, the structure shown in this photo is very apparent to the naked eye; unfortunately, there are few dark sites left near any populations. Since the Milky Way is no longer visible from our yeard, we went down to Texas to photograph it, during the new moon time in September of 2026. We chose the area of Ft. Davis, Texas, because there is a professional observatory complex nearby, so we figured it would have a VERY dark sky; we were not disappointed.

This was taken from Davis Mountains State Park, near Ft. Davis, Texas. The structure was built by the CCC during the Great Depression.

The mix of dark brown, light brown and very light areas within the Milky Way reflects the fact that earth is within the disc of the galaxy, so we are, essentailly, looking at the galaxy edge on. Click here to see a view from earth of a fairly similar galaxy to ours, showing the dust lanes as part of the galaxy disc.

Technical Information:

This is a single image, not tracking the motion of the sky.

Equipment: Canon R5 Mark II camera wearing a Sigma ART 14mm f/1.8 lens, atop a simple tripod; f/1.8, ISO3200 and 20 seconds.

Location: Davis Mountains State Park, Ft. Davis, Texas, USA

Date: Data acquired 03:21 UT, September 9, 2026; image posted September 13, 2026

Copyright Mark de Regt, 2026