In honor of my 62nd birthday (today) I decided to get up at 3:50 am and be out the door shortly after 4:00 am! My goal was to take advantage of the Milky Way core finally being back above the horizon. Here in the Northland the core disappears from the night sky in October. In early Spring the Milky Way crosses the southeastern sky. Given research I knew that I had a short window of opportunity to photograph the Milky Way with the Davidson Windmill lined up properly. As one moves towards Summer, the Milky Way moves to the south and southwest, and becomes more vertical to the zenith across the sky.

I determined all these facts by using PlanIt! for Photographers. This great little app, well worth the small amout of money I paid allows me to research and plan photographs in advance all over the world. In my case, this generally means the Lake Superior region, but it could be anywhere! I determined the sky would be dark without a moon with the Milky Way in the proper location relative to my vantage point and the windmill’s blades.

Here are my two images from this morning, followed by some screenshots I took within the app.

And my screenshots from my apps, which allowed me know the darkness of the night sky, the arc of the Milky Way, sunrise, moonrise and when true night darkness would end. The app allows me to move time forward or back in units as small as a few minutes.