Akash Ganga seen like never before: 10 best Milky Way photos from the world

The 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection showcases 25 stunning images of our galaxy captured under the darkest skies on Earth. From Botswana to New Zealand, these photos reveal what light pollution is silently erasing from our night sky.

In Short

• 25 stunning Milky Way images from across the world revealed.
• Light pollution is erasing the night sky, these photos prove.
• Photographers climbed mountains and crossed deserts to capture the galaxy.

Every year, thousands of photographers drive hours into the dark and wait in freezing cold, sweltering heat, or howling wind for one perfect shot of the night sky.

The best of them end up in the annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year, a curated collection that has, since 2018, become one of the most celebrated showcases in astrophotography. The organiser and founder of this competition is Capture the Atlas.

The 2026 edition features 25 images captured under some of the darkest skies left on Earth. From the salt flats of Argentina to the volcanic peaks of the Canary Islands, this year’s selection is as much about adventure and endurance as it is about beauty.

It is also a quiet alarm bell. As cities grow and artificial lighting spreads, truly dark skies are vanishing. Scientists estimate that over one-third of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way from where they live.

These photographs show what is still out there, and what we stand to lose.

AORAKI MT COOK

Owain Scullion navigated steep rocky terrain and unstable snow in winter conditions to position himself beneath New Zealand’s highest peak.

As night fell, the Milky Way appeared alongside zodiacal light, a faint cone-shaped glow caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the solar system, with exceptional clarity.

The western arc of the galaxy moved into perfect alignment above the mountain for a brief, fleeting window.

THE MILKY WAY OVER A FIELD OF LUPINES

In Twizel, New Zealand, spring wildflowers transform the landscape beneath the night sky every November.

Alvin Wu shot this scene using a fisheye lens, a wide-angle lens that creates a 180-degree view, so that the blooming lupines encircle the entire composition, forming a vivid natural frame that draws the eye upward into the galaxy above.

GEMINID SYMPHONY OVER LA PALMA'S GUARDIAN OF THE SKY

The Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma is the largest optical telescope in the world, its mirror spanning 10.4 metres.

Uros Fink spent five nights with six cameras capturing Geminid meteors above it, the result of Earth passing through debris left by an asteroid.

Storms closed the road to the summit for three of those nights. When the sky finally opened around midnight, the Milky Way appeared above a layer of cloud below, looking almost three-dimensional.

The final image is approximately 400 megapixels.

GALACTIC GANDALF

When Evan McKay arrived at his chosen spot on the Wairarapa Coast of New Zealand after dark, a large seal had settled precisely where he planned to put his tripod. It refused to move.

Eventually, it shifted slightly to the side, remaining in frame for the entire shoot. It can still be spotted in the final image, an unplanned but memorable presence beneath the southern Milky Way.

FIREWATER

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone is the largest hot spring in the United States, roughly 113 metres across, surrounded by constantly shifting steam.

Baillie Farley timed the intervals between wind shifts to capture the Milky Way above it, accompanied by a display of airglow, a natural faint light caused by chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere that appears as a pale green or reddish shimmer in photographs.

LOST IN THE RIPPLES OF SPACE AND TIME

An ancient limestone pillar in Western Australia's Pinnacles Desert aligns almost perfectly with the South Celestial Pole beneath the Milky Way.

The faint red glow to the right of the frame is the Gum Nebula, the expanding remnant of a star that exploded thousands of years ago.

DOUBLE MILKY WAY OVER MONFRAGUE NATIONAL PARK

Because Earth orbits the Sun, different sections of the Milky Way are visible in different seasons.

Luis Cajete photographed the sky above Monfrague National Park in Spain during one of the few nights a year when both the winter and summer arcs are visible in the same sky.

The composite, combining frames taken hours apart, creates a full arch of the galaxy stretching from horizon to horizon.

VALLE DE LA LUNA

Ischigualasto Provincial Park in Argentina is the only place on Earth where the complete rock sequence of the Triassic Period, roughly 252 to 201 million years ago, can be observed in one location.

Gonzalo Javier Santile’s photograph is the first full Milky Way arch ever captured here. Every step required extreme care to avoid disturbing irreplaceable fossil terrain.

FIREBALL IN PARADISE

Jason Rice had not planned to be at Cape San Blas, Florida that night. The forecast had called for rain. Shortly after midnight, the ground around him lit up green.

A fireball, a much larger and brighter meteor than a typical shooting star, moved slowly across the Milky Way for nearly five seconds.

The glowing trail it left behind remained visible for almost 15 minutes. His camera, left running on a time-lapse, caught all of it.

BOTSWANA BAOBABS BY NIGHT

Stefano Pellegrini spent 10 days living out of his car in the Botswana desert. He found his location almost by accident, spotting two Jeeps and following them across a vast salt pan for three hours.

At the centre was an island of ancient baobab trees, some over a thousand years old. He spent the night alone among them, building the final image from 16 separate exposures.

These photographs, taken by people who drove into the deserts, climbed into snow, and waited in the dark for hours, are a record of what the night sky still looks like when we get out of our own way.

They are also an invitation. All it takes, as every photographer in this collection will tell you, is to look up.

- Ends