Milky Way Close to Home

Although technically the Milky Way is above us during the right seasons, we cannot see it due to weather conditions and light pollution. This year, I was lucky to see it twice. Both times, it was towards Kanakapura. An attempt to spot it near Magadi did not yield much success. I captured this image at a farm house 50 km from Bangalore. By far, this is the best spot to gaze at the skies. We were in a well protected enclosure, and the light pollution levels were certainly manageable. The weather did not play spoilsport and around 10 of us spent the night looking up at the night sky. Some of them were astronomers and had telescopes – big and small. I also got a sight of Jupiter through one of the telescopes!