A B.C. photographer can now boast one of the most viral photos in the galaxy, after he shared an image online of the Milky Way swirling in the night sky over Australia.
The breathtaking composite image was created by Christian Sasse, of Surrey, B.C., using a stationary time-lapse camera and a bit of photo-editing magic. "The picture basically shows us the beautiful Milky Way marching across the sky," he told CTV Vancouver.
Sasse created the image by layering a series of photos over top of each other, with each photo taken 50 minutes apart. The result is what looks like a swirl of stars overhead, as the Milky Way rotates through the sky.
"It's all about patterns and light," Sasse said.
The photo has been shared and liked thousands of times on Twitter, and published in several publications, including National Geographic. Famed British scientist Brian Cox was among those who shared the photo on Twitter, bringing it to the attention of his more than 2.5 million followers.
Sasse said he was "shocked and surprised" by the reaction to his image. "I thought it was a nice image. I liked it but I did not expect this reaction at all."
Sasse captured the images one night in southern Australia, after taking a camper van out to a remote area to watch the sky.
"When you look up to the zenith you see this incredible three-dimensional Milky Way with light, with its dust cloud sticking out like that, and I wanted to capture that," he said.
With files from CTV Vancouver
