Milky Way Arcs Over Earthly Rock Arch in Spectacular Photo

Corona Arch At Night
Astrophotographer Mike Taylor took this image on May 27, 2014 from Bootlegger Canyon just outside of Moab, Utah. (Image credit: © Mike Taylor - Taylor Photography )

The glimmering Milky Way seems to sit atop the Corona Arch in Utah in this spectacular photo captured by a veteran night sky photographer.

Astrophotographer Mike Taylor took this image on May 27 from Bootlegger Canyon just outside of Moab, Utah. 

"There was quite a bit of airglow in the sky this evening," Taylor wrote in an email to Space.com. However, the airglow, which is a weak emission of light by a planet's atmosphere, did not deter Taylor,who also added:"I'm having a blast out in Utah." [Amazing Stargazing Photos of June 2014]

To capture this view, Taylor used a Nikon D600 camera & 14-24 @ 14mm f/2.8  at a 30 sec exposure and ISO 3200. The Corona Arch was lit with an orange LED to match the surrounding landscape. This image is a blend of two shots, one for the sky and one for the foreground.

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Our host galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy seen as a band of light in the night sky. It stretches between 100, 000 and 120,000 light-years in diameter. It is estimated that the galaxy has approximately 400 billion stars. At the center of our galaxy lies a gigantic black hole billions of times the size of the sun.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

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Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.