Wednesday, July 6, 2022 – 12:48 PM
Sharjah, 6th July / WAM / The Emirates Astronomical Society said that this period of the year, which extends from the beginning of summer to the beginning of autumn – from the beginning of June until the beginning of September – is considered the best time of the year to view the Milky Way, and it is at midnight at the height of its ascent in the sky In mid-July, a picture of the Galaxy River was taken from the sky of the Emirates during the past days by astrophotographer Tamim Al-Tamimi in areas in the far south of the country.
Ibrahim Al-Jarwan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Astronomy Society, member of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, said the Milky Way is known as a cosmic system that includes huge numbers of stars and nebulae, as well as gases and dust. Observe the Galaxy River or the Milky Way in the awakening atmosphere, dark areas, and the times when the moonlight fades at the end or beginning of the lunar month.
And he continued, when it rises in the sky, its brightest parts extend from the southwestern to the northeastern part of the sky and appear almost in the form of an arc extending in the sky. As the Arabs saw it in the past, it takes the brightest and richest range in the middle of summer when the archer arm (the bow) ascends, which is one of the five main arms in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and the archer’s arm is considered one of the longest arms in the galaxy.
Al-Jarwan said, “At this time of the year, in the middle of summer, you see it on dark nights, away from artificial lighting, such as lighting cities or roads, or natural lighting, such as moonlighting, and in a clear and pure atmosphere away from air pollutants. Where its illumination is less than that of the Earth’s sky at night, which makes it difficult to distinguish it, especially in places that witness light pollution or where moonlight shines, and you see a density of stars that extend across the width of the sky, extending from the northeast of the sky, crossing the middle of the sky, and then extending towards the extreme southwest.
And he added, with the development of monitoring tools, it became possible to see the stars clearly through a long exposure when photographing. In photography, exposure means the amount of light that is allowed to fall on the light-sensitive photographic slide during the photographic process by adjusting the width of the lens aperture, shutter speed and sensitivity of the optical sensor, the higher its value. Increased ability to capture more light in low-light environments.
Umm / Batoul Kashwani / Dina Omar