06/22/2026
While the Milky Way core gets most of the love, the Cygnus region is a spot that deserves more love.
This part of the Milky Way crosses through the Summer Triangle, a group of 3 bright stars (Altair, Vega, and Deneb).
Altair shines on the right part of the sky, part of the constellation Aquila (the Eagle). This constellation was thought to have originated in Babylon, but to add some mystery to the constellation’s origins, the Polynesians and Aboriginal Australians also saw it as a bird. It’s interesting how cultures who had no known contact with one another share similar sky mythology. Makes you wonder…
The constellation Cygnus (the Swan) runs through a majority of this region of the Milky Way, hence the name “Cygnus region”. The star Deneb, the tail of the swan, is the bright point of light sitting in the Milky Way’s dust.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Contact (great film btw) the signal they receive comes from Vega, the bright star near the top of the image.
Photo taken with my Fujifilm XT4 and 12mm lens. Sky is tracked and stacked.
