The Elusive Milky Way in High Desert

From the photographer: “I’m back from our Bolivia High Desert and Uyuni Salt Flats Astro Photo Tour, and finally I am having a chance to look at some of the non cellphone images that I took. We planned to get many Milky Way pics, especially epic reflections in the flooded salt flats of Uyuni, but the clouds were relentless at times. Some nights, half the sky was clear and the side with the galactic centre was covered. The clouds at night were a result of some dramatic storms that developed in the late afternoon. So looking back, we had some incredible daytime landscape shots. The group that we had was amazing. I will miss each person who joined us this year.

This image is a vertical pano from our last night of the tour in the high desert at an elevation of 14400 ft (right next to our hotel). The top half of the pano was the best of many images that I captured just before sunrise, hoping that the Milky Way would reveal itself from behind the clouds. It finally did… just before it got too bright. I love the ptgui software!! Without it, I don’t think this little pano would have worked out. Also in this image, you can see the zodiacal light and Venus rising.”

Technical details:
Canon R6 iso3200, sigma 15mm fish eye, f2.8, 15 seconds. 2 x landscape orientated frames stitched together