Stars, stars, and still more stars!
Digital has made all the difference—it’s been a game changer for would-be astrophotographers everywhere, training their lenses skyward at night to capture the splendor of the Milky Way.
In the foregoing era of film, the light insensitivity of cameras in dark conditions confounded photographers trying to portray this dimly-lit spectacle. Digital has since shattered that boundary by bringing forth the Milky Way with a sensitivity to color once reserved only for high-end telescopes and NASA productions.
Novel techniques and software innovations also allowed photographers to blend separate foregrounds and backgrounds to create artistic composites hitherto unheard of outside of Hollywood special effects studios. Magic was made possible from the comfort of your home PC.
As pro-grade cameras increasingly proliferated and fell into the hands of more everyday people, the pool of astrophotographers exploded exponentially across the globe. The grandeur of the Milky Way has never been so readily available. Literally, the click of a mouse is all it takes.
The Internet brought all this together; online photography competitions focused on revealing the beauty of our galaxy have connected star artists to public hubs and allowed them to present and exhibit the crème de la crème of their niche.
Words can do their work no justice; you must see it yourself. You can expect to see sublime star arches that will cause you to contemplate your own minuscule existence in this vast universe.
The celestial arc parading over Castillo de Aunqueospese in Spain makes the 12th-century castle seem almost brand-new by comparison.
The diamond-studded night sky over the mystical island of Socotra in Yemen calls to mind an alien landscape with its bizarre dragon’s blood trees reaching skyward like the antennae of some strange lifeform.
The same can be said for the twinkling stars over the reddish rock formations of Cafayate Salta, in northwestern Argentina, whose surreal towers and portals saw them fittingly dubbed “star factory” by the photographer.
These are but a few panoramas you will witness in this year’s pageant. There’s so much more. We'll leave it to your eyes to feast upon and appreciate their splendor.
By bringing all this artistic talent and imagery together, Capture the Atlas achieves its goal: to offer new astrophotographers a pair of experienced shoulders to stand upon and boost them forth on their own photographic journey through inspiration; and bring “our galaxy closer so everyone can learn and discover more about our Milky Way.”
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