The Milky Way over a Utah meadow

Same night, same dark stretch of Utah sky as the ridge-line Milky Way shot, turned instead toward a quiet meadow and a fence line barely visible in the starlight. A faint greenish glow along the horizon is airglow — natural light from the upper atmosphere, distinct from the aurora and visible on clear, dark nights even far from the poles.

Getting the shot

Same settings as the companion frame — 20 seconds at f/2.8 — but recomposed lower and wider to bring in the foreground meadow and fence rather than the distant ridge. The horizon and treeline anchor the sky, giving it a sense of scale a star field alone doesn’t have.