Shooting the Milky Way

[Shireen Gonzaga]

I am interested in getting into Milky Way photography this summer. Does anyone have suggestions for "safe" places that are publicly accessible within a 2.5 hour drive of Baltimore? I am a bit nervous about venturing out on my own at night so any tips would be  greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

  Shireen

[Rich]

Add me to the list of those interested in this as well.

-Rich

On Jun 9, 2026, at 10:09 AM, Shireen Gonzaga <shireen...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am interested in getting into Milky Way photography this summer. Does anyone have suggestions for "safe" places that are publicly accessible within a 2.5 hour drive of Baltimore? I am a bit nervous about venturing out on my own at night so any tips would be  greatly appreciated. 

Thanks,

  Shireen

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[Bruce Elliott]

Shireen and Rich,

I'm sure you'll get plenty of good suggestions from this group, but here's one from me, in case it might work for you. Full disclosure: I haven't been to this location yet myself, so I can't personally vouch for it, but I'm hoping to get there soon.

Location: Green Ridge Overlook, Flintstone MD.

Plusses: 

• As dark a sky as you'll get in less than three hours from Baltimore (Bortle 4)
• Good southern exposure with a relatively low horizon (if you look on Google maps and view the uploaded images, you'll see plenty of examples)
• Pretty easy to get to, being right off the interstate, however there is a walk of around 200 ft to reach the overlook platform itself

Minuses:

• At 2 hrs 20 minutes from Baltimore, it's hitting the limit for an easy drive
• It's pretty remote, so unless you bring a friend or two, you might get lonely.

As I said, I haven't been there yet, but I'm looking forward to checking it out when I get a chance.

Bruce

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[Sundar Raghavachari]

Hi Shireen:

I have been driving to relatively dark sky areas in and around Maryland for the last couple of years primarily to see and photograph the Milky Way during the summer season. I use my Pixel 10 Pro's Astro mode to do the imaging of Milky Way for me! You can check out 'Capture the Atlas' by Dan Zofra and download the Milky way calendar for 2026 season by searching for the key words.

I use his calender to pick out the best days to capture the milky way in this part of the world. Here are the places I drove to image the Milky Way:

1. Blackwater falls state park in West Virginia ( a good 4 hour drive from Baltimore). But you will need to arrange for a stay at a nearby place preferably at the Blackwater falls state lodge for this option. Thanks to Jamie (a fellow HAL member for introducing me to this place).

2. Artemas, PA (near New Orleans, MD).  This is under 2 hours drive from where I live (Ellicott city, MD). I have been to this place a couple of times so far. Again you will need to stay in a cabin nearby (Roadkill Cafe Cabins, Artemas, PA) to pull this off. This is a relatively dark sky area to be able to image the Milky way. I guess its a Bortle 3 area.

3. The overlook deck at Greenridge State Forest, MD.  I had been to this place a few times but I would not recommend it because I felt a bit unsafe though nothing untoward happened to me! It just felt unsafe for whatever reason to me! There is a deck overlooking the mountain that you can use to set up the Scope and your rigs. You can check this out during the day time to see if it is suitable for You. This place is very near Artemas,PA. I took some nice Milky Way pictures from this area in 2024!!

4.  Assateague Island National Park / Seashore near Ocean City, MD. This is again a Bortle 3-4 area. I have taken some nice Milky Way pictures from this place too! Its best to combine this with a stay at Ocean City, MD as I always do. Since this park is open 24 hours and the gates remain open during night hours (the entrance stations are not manned after 5 p.m. I guess), you don't need any Park pass to enter though I have the America the Beautiful annual park pass.

I used to drive upto the parking lot at the end of the park, right in the middle of the island for imaging the Milky Way.

5. Boliver Heights near Harper's Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia. This is another place I found out recently that is somewhat dark and also suitable for a day trip. This is an open park about 5 minutes drive from the above park  and also part of the park. I would say its a Bortle 4 sky but I am not sure if we can see the Mikly way as I discovered this only recently. This place is about an hour's drive from where I live.

If you need more information and specifics, please reach out to me.

Thanks ,

Sundar Raghavachari.

'Action absorbs anxiety' - Scott Galloway

On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 12:48 PM Rich <jpms...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[cynthia cocchiaro]

Tuckahoe State Park  off of 404 isn’t a bad drive unless you hit beach traffic getting over the bay bridge. They have a stargazing viewing field there. 

Cindy

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[richa...@gmail.com]

Assategue Island has decent  skies- if you head away from Ocean City onto the beach…and off season, new moon night preferred….

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[Daniel Lohin]

A little over 2.5 hours, but about as good as it gets.  And would provide safety in numbers along with lots of nerdy folks to talk to.

I have also had good luck at Assateque.  You can camp there, but I am not sure on the safety of it all.  I went with a group when we went.

Good luck!

AHSP (composite)

Assateque (composite)

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[Matt Krutar]

 

It’s good to be cautious, right when I first got my telescope a few years ago I was so excited to set it up in a park at night… and on the very first night the police came and spoke to me.  It’s a good thing that this club has some dedicated spaces that open up for nighttime viewing.  

—Matt 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 9, 2026, at 15:24, Sundar Raghavachari <sundar.ra...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[peter marquis]

I know blackwater national wildlife refuge has dark skies. It appears that there is a friends of blackwater group that does a night sky tour. 

Perhaps reach out to them? 

https://www.friendsofblackwater.org/night-sky-tours.html

Probably a pack the bug spray situation in the warmer months. 

-Peter

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[Rich]

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this topic. 

-Rich

On Jun 9, 2026, at 3:24 PM, Sundar Raghavachari <sundar.ra...@gmail.com> wrote:



[johnjhudak]

HAL Members,

  I am wondering if we may be overlooking the power of using light pollution filters right in our light polluted backyards. I have been amazed at the many high quality photos taken by HAL members from their home locations under light polluted skys. Perhaps we do not need suffer the inconvenience of driving for hours to get to Bortle 3 skies but just need to select the right type of filter to deal with the pollution.

  Could some of our expert astrophotographers please share their secrets on how they create such striking photos under light polluted conditions? 

  Doing so might save HAL Members a lot of time and money and eliminate the frustrating inconvenience of packing our telescopes and traveling for hours.

Many thanks for this forum,

JOHN

On Tue, Jun 9, 2026 at 3:32 PM cynthia cocchiaro <cindy.c...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Shireen Gonzaga]

Just FYI. One of my colleagues recently used a full-spectrum Sony A7s and a 720 nm filter to take a near-infrared image of the Milky Way in Baltimore. He took 20x10s subs and stacked them. The results were amazing! It turns out that our galaxy is quite lovely in the near-IR. (Sorry I can’t share a link to the image — he posted it on a private Slack channel at STScI.)

Shireen Gonzaga

shireen...@gmail.com

[Bruce Elliott]

John,

The most powerful weapon of astrophotographers under light polluted skies is filters. Light pollution filters that target the wavelengths of traditional light pollution (i.e. from sodium and mercury vapor lights) can be somewhat effective for color cameras, although with the recent popularity of broad-spectrum LED lighting, they are less effective than they used to be. The most powerful filters are the narrowband filters that are used with monochrome cameras. They block everything except very specific individual wavelengths (hence the term "narrowband"), so they're very effective for shooting under all kinds of light pollution, even moonlight.

But ... if one wants to take Milky Way images, which are almost always full-color broadband images, then filters aren't really applicable.

On the other hand - as Shireen mentioned - shooting only in IR can be a very effective way to deal with LP. Since IR is not visible to us, however, I believe false-coloring imaging is required. I've seen an example of someone using IR data to enhance a color image, but I've never done it myself.

Bruce

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[Bruce Elliott]

Sorry - Here's a little more to add to my previous message.

This is the video from Cuiv that I'd been thinking about, from 3.5 years ago, and which I'd mostly forgotten: https://youtu.be/vUX0KqfZ37U?si=NuNpuEJQLPrXRNgx

Two things I noted:
1. The LP filter from IDAS that he uses for comparison does seem to target white light LEDs as well as traditional lights, so it's probably more effective today than the older Na and Hg LP filters.

2. As Cuiv points out, the IR pass filter works only if you have a camera that's sensitive to IR. I wasn't quite right about needing to use false color imaging, however, since the sensor in question has similar sensitivity for all three color bands (RG&B) in the IR, so that portion will register as nearly white. As you can see in the video, however, Cuiv uses the data from the IR pass filter as a luminance channel, since it got so much more data than the regular LP filter, which he used for color.

Interesting possibilities, but it requires somewhat advanced techniques for both capture and processing.

Bruce

[Shireen Gonzaga]

Hi everyone,

I deeply appreciate all the suggestions for Milky Way dark sky sites nearby. Thank you so much. I just got a Move-Shoot-Move tracker and am excited to give it a try. 

cheers,

  Shireen 

[Shireen Gonzaga]

This is their website: https://www.moveshootmove.com/

I bought the Paige Dana Astro kit. Unfortunately, the 3D phone holder broke last night while I was practicing polar alignment, so I requested a refund. Not sure if they will do it. But I ordered another (cheaper) phone holder to replace it. 

Shireen Gonzaga

shireen...@gmail.com

On Jun 16, 2026, at 8:22 AM, Matt Krutar <matt....@gmail.com> wrote:

Curious if you can post a link to the bit of kit you got.  

[Matt Krutar]

Curious if you can post a link to the bit of kit you got.  

—Matt

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 16, 2026, at 07:43, Shireen Gonzaga <shireen...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone,

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