This photo captures the light of the galactic core of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

We were staying at the Wallowa Lake Lodge, a classic lodge outside of Joseph, Oregon. Wallowa Lake is at 4372 ft (1333 m) altitude and remote by US standards. So the summer sky can be very clear without very much light pollution. I headed out at about 2:00 a.m. to see what I could see...

This image shows the light of our galaxy as it quot;setsquot; over the Wallowa Mountains in the foreground. I pumped the ISO to 3200 and used a 30 second exposure to capture the light. My eyes did not see the full color range shown here in the photo. This partially owing to differences in light capture between the human eye and light quot;dataquot; captured on the CCD of the camera (essentially, with an extended exposure, the camera captures more quot;dataquot;). But, I did see the defined galactic core. We in the 21st century rarely see the night sky as it has been seen for millennia.

By the way, as I was setting up for this photo, I saw the ISS pass overhead. Totally amazing.