Imaging Technique WIDE SKY SUBJECTS The noctilucent clouds panorama (top) is made of six segments with an 85-mm lens, stitched in Adobe Camera Raw (within Photoshop). The twilight scene above is assembled from nine segments shot with a 28-mm lens and stitched using Photoshop's Photomerge command. galaxy spans the eastern half of the sky, from Perseus in the north to Sagittarius rising in the southeast. There's a second and less well-known Milky Way arch season: During February and March evenings, the dimmer winter Milky Way and panoply of bright stars in and around Orion set in the west. From the Southern Hemisphere, the season is similar, but the Milky Way is very different. It arcs high across the south on austral autumn nights, from Orion setting in the west to Scorpius rising in the east. September to November spring evenings bring another opportunity for austral photographers to frame the arch of the Milky Way as it spans the western half of the sky with the galactic core setting. A planetarium program or app such as Stellarium (stellarium.org) or SkySafari (skysafariastronomy.com) is indispensable Acratech pan head MIOPS capsule motion controller Leveling head for previewing when and where the Milky Way will be visible. These apps include the ability to add field-of-view indicators for your gear so you can tell what lens and camera orientation will work best to frame your composition. Even more useful are specialized apps such as The Photographer's Ephemeris (photoephemeris.com) or PhotoPills (photopills.com), which show where the Milky Way and its photogenic galactic core will be in relation to the landscape features at your chosen site. Choosing the Right Gear What gear do you need besides your camera and a few lenses? A tripod head with an azimuth scale is essential. This allows moving the camera horizontally by a consistent amount, typically by 15° to 45°, from frame to frame. There are two additional items I PROGRAMMING PANOS The MIOPS Capsule360 (since superseded by the newer Capsule Pro) connects to the camera to fire its shutter automatically after every programmed move to a new segment. The mobile app (left) calculates the number of segments needed to cover a given field based on the lens and overlap amount desired. 62 FEBRUARY 2023 * SKY & TELESCOPEhttp://www.photoephemeris.com http://www.photopills.com http://www.stellarium.org http://www.skysafariastronomy.com