The Milky Way is what we can see of our home galaxy by looking at it from the inside. This video taken with time-lapse photography on the summit of Mauna Kea, where the Subaru Telescope is located, shows the Milky Way rising on a summer night. This night, the Moon shines near full phase. In the moment the Moon sets, it illuminates the Subaru Telescope with red light like the setting Sun. Then after the Moon fully sets, the stars shine brightly throughout the entire sky and the presence of the ascended Milky Way increases. Laser light projected by the neighboring Keck Telescopes to serve as an adaptive optics guide star also reaches towards the center of the Milky Way.

Author: Hideaki Fujiwara (Subaru Telescope)