Image Captures What Milky Way Looks Like From Australia, Stuns Internet

A mesmerizing image of the Milky Way captured from a dark sky sanctuary in the Australian outback has captivated users on Reddit.
The photograph of the Milky Way was taken by Oisin McDonnell, who is based in South Australia. He shared the image in a Reddit post under the username Poisin55 around two weeks ago in late October. But the photo was taken earlier this year on April 18 at 5:30 a.m, McDonnell told Newsweek.
The image was captured at the Arkaroola International Dark Sky Sanctuary. The poster snapped the picture just outside his room during his stay there.
He and his friends went on a road trip there “for the sky and just for pleasure,” McDonnell said. “I’d planned to go out and photograph the sky as I was in the best place to do so.”
The image was taken with a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone camera using the Astrophoto mode and the picture was processed using the Lightroom mobile app.
McDonnell noted “I’ve taken some pictures before with mobile [phone], but not as good as this.”
Described as a “celestial beauty in the Australian outback” that’s “untouched by light pollution,” the Arkaroola International Dark Sky Sanctuary offers “unparalleled stargazing and the splendour of the Milky Way, planets, and distant galaxies in crystal-clear skies,” according to its website.
The sun and the planets around it form part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
“The Milky Way is a large barred spiral galaxy. All the stars we see in the night sky are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way because it appears as a milky band of light in the sky when you see it in a really dark area,” according to NASA.
This band can only be seen with the naked eye in areas with dark night skies.
The Milky Way is made up of approximately 100 billion stars, which form a large disk with a diameter of about 100,000 light-years. Our solar system is around 25,000 light-years away from the center of our galaxy and the sun travels around the center of the Milky Way. It takes 250 million years for the sun and the solar system to go all the way around the center of the Milky Way, according to NASA.
Viewers on Reddit praised the incredible image shared in the recent post.
N0rmNormis0n said “Nice phot!” and MyAirIsBetter said “Beautiful Photo.”
User kyousoma wrote “Really cool! I like colors!”
User shellyh1990 asked “PLEASE tell me how you got this AMAZING picture…”
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