Photographer Captures 'Impossible' View of Milky Way from Light-Polluted Singapore (Video, Photo)

by Nina Sen, SPACE.com Contributor
The band of our Milky Way galaxy can be seen along with planet Venus over light-polluted skies above Singapore in this image taken by astrophotographer Justin Ng on Feb. 28, 2014.

An avid night sky photographer proves the naysayers wrong with this "impossible" single-exposure image and video of the Milky Way and bright planet Venus rising over the light-polluted skies of Singapore.

"My dream to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy in Singapore has finally come true this morning after the monsoon season is over," night sky photographer Justin Ng told Space.com in an email. He captured this single-exposure shot on Feb. 28, 2014 at 6:11 a.m. local time. "Singapore is known for its heavy light pollution and many people believe that it's impossible to shoot stars and Milky Way in Singapore."

Ng made a video of the Milky Way and Venus over Singapore as proof of the feat.

Dense light pollution is apparent in the photo near the horizon, just below the Milky Way. Glowing planet Venus is visible toward the center of the shot, above the lone tree. [See more of Justin Ng's amazing night sky photography here]

"This image aims to prove the popular belief wrong and I hope to inspire more astrophotographers residing in heavily light polluted cities to try to capture these 'impossible' images," Ng said.

You can also see Ng's video of the Milky Way from Singapore on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/87933500

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy appearing as a dazzling band of light in the night sky. It comprises approximately 400 billion stars and stretches between 100,000 and 120,000 light-years in diameter. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).A massive black hole billions of times the size of the sun lies at the center of the galaxy.

To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by Space.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

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