Summer Triangle - Milky Way

[Avdhoeven]

Summer Triangle and Milky Way by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr

In this image we see the Summer Triangle as seen from Austria in the summer of 2015.

The image was taken using a Nikon D810a equipped with a Nikkor 14-24mm lens.

The Summer Triangle is a Northern Hemisphere asterism (stars of similar brightness recognized in a distinctive shape). Unlike many other asterisms, the Summer Triangle is actually an amalgamation of stars from three separate constellations.

Three stars make up the triangle: Deneb, Vega and Altair. Deneb is the farthest away from Earth among these three, and is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus; it forms the tail of the Swan. Coincidentally, Deneb is also the head of another asterism known as the Northern Cross, which is contained in Cygnus.

Vega is the brightest star of an otherwise dim and small constellation, Lyra (the Harp). Vega is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. (Sirius is the brightest in the night sky, but appears in the winter of the Northern Hemisphere.) About 12,000 years ago, it used to be the North Star due to an effect called precession, where the Earth's north-pointing direction changes due to a wobbling axis. Rounding out the asterism is Altair, which is the brightest star in the constellation Aquilia (the Eagle.) Altair is one of the brightest close stars to Earth.

The term Summer Triangle was popularized by American author H.A. Rey and British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore in the 1950s. The name can be found in constellation guidebooks as far back as 1913. The Austrian astronomer Oswald Thomas described these stars as Grosses Dreieck (Great Triangle) in the late 1920s and Sommerliches Dreieck (Summerly Triangle) in 1934. The asterism was remarked upon by J. J. Littrow, who described it as the "conspicuous triangle" in the text of his atlas (1866), and Bode connected the stars in a map in a book in 1816, although without label. These are the same stars recognized in the Chinese legend of The Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, a story dating back some 2,600 years, celebrated in the Qixi Festival. In the mid- to late-20th century, before INS, GPS and other electronic/mechanical equipment took their places in military aircraft, United States Air Force navigators referred to this asterism as the "Navigator's Triangle".

Near midnight, the Summer Triangle lies virtually overhead at mid-northern latitudes during the summer months, but can also be seen during spring in the early morning to the East. In the autumn the summer triangle is visible in the evening to the West well until November. From the southern hemisphere it appears upside down and low in the sky during the winter months.

Source: space.com/Wikipedia

[laudropb]

Very nice image. Nice detail.

[MilwaukeeLion]

Beautiful image, also like how you oriented the camera, don't see wide screens like this often well done !   

[Dave Lloyd]

Nice reminder of the summer skies.

[Avdhoeven]

Had to update the file, so the original link got lost. Here is it again:

Summer Triangle and Milky Way by Andre van der Hoeven, on Flickr