The Milky Way glows over the White Mountains of New Hampshire in this image. Christopher Georgia took this 15-shot panoramic image north of Franconia Notch State Park, N.H. on July 13. He used a Nikon D3s camera, Nikon 14-24mm lens at 15mm, exposure 22 seconds x 15, f/2.8 and ISO 2500, to capture the photo.

A veteran astrophotographer’s gut feeling led to a spectacular panoramic image of the Milky Way over the wild White Mountains of New Hampshire.

"On the 13th of July I went out on a whim. The weather wasn't looking too great but I had a feeling that it would be clear north of Franconia Notch State Park," Christopher Georgia wrote SPACE.com via email. Georgia used a Nikon D3s camera, Nikon 14-24mm lens at 15mm, exposure 22 seconds x 15, f/2.8 and ISO 2500, to capture the image.

The 15-shot panoramic photo spans more than 200 degrees of horizon. The ridge feature on the left is Franconia Ridge, which serves as a backbone of the Franconia Mountain Range, located in the White Mountains. Cannon Mountain is pictured to the right of the photo with Echo Lake to the left. Cars along winding I-93 as well as the interstate’s lights caused the overexposed sections seen scattered throughout the image. A bit of the aurora borealis can also be seen to the far left of the photo.

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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