In June last year, a scene of the Milky Way's center rising between two rocky peaks was captured in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. This was not just a simple coincidence; the location and timing were precisely calculated to obtain this scene.
The center of the Milky Way contains about 400 billion stars, and it can only be observed in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer months. As the Earth orbits the sun, the angle and position from which the Milky Way is visible change over time, and due to its rotation, the direction of the Milky Way also continuously shifts. This causes the Milky Way to sometimes appear vertically in the sky and other times parallel to the horizon, making observation challenging at times.
Especially in New Zealand, which is located in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere, the Milky Way can be seen rising near the horizon and soaring vertically across the night sky shortly after sunset in early June. This photo was taken to coincide with that period.