{"id":418650,"date":"2026-05-08T23:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418650\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T23:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T23:10:14","slug":"this-is-your-best-chance-to-spot-the-milky-ways-core-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/418650\/","title":{"rendered":"This is your best chance to spot the Milky Way’s core in May"},"content":{"rendered":"

The moonless nights of mid-May are a fantastic time to spot the glowing band of the Milky Way arching across the spring sky, before the encroaching twilight of the summer months shortens the viewing window.<\/p>\n

When is the best time to spot the Milky Way?<\/p>\n

The best time to spot the Milky Way<\/a> in the northern hemisphere is from February to October, often referred to as “Core Season”, when Earth<\/a>‘s orbit brings the bright heart of our galaxy into view.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Each Core Season has peak windows of visibility centering around the monthly new moon. This month’s new moon<\/a> on May 16 will provide darker skies ideal for spotting our galaxy’s glowing core.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

The best time to see the Milky Way’s core is between midnight and dawn, when the ribbon of interstellar dust, gas and countless stars<\/a> is at its highest in the night sky. The May new moon also provides a longer window for viewing the deep sky wonder compared to the June new moon, which occurs close to the summer solstice<\/a>, when twilight eats further into the dark of night.<\/p>\n

Where to look to see the Milky Way<\/p>\n

For the best view of the Milky Way, you’ll need to head out to a dark sky location and direct your gaze to the southern sky. There, you’ll see the dense core of our galaxy arching past the constellations<\/a> Aquila, Scutum, Sagittarius<\/a> and Scorpius<\/a> as it tumbles towards the horizon.<\/p>\n

Nikon Z8<\/p>\n

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\"Nikon\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Jase Parnell-Brookes)<\/p>\n

The Nikon Z8<\/a> excels in just about every department and we rate it as the best overall camera out there. It features a full-frame 45.7MP sensor, 8K video capabilities, excellent low-light performance, very high FPS burst speed and more. It is pricey, but you get a lot of bang for your buck. Check out our Nikon Z8 review<\/a> for a more in-depth look.<\/p>\n

Remember to use a trusted website like DarkSky.org<\/a> to find a dark sky location near you, along with smartphone astronomy apps<\/a> like Stellarium<\/a> or Sky Safari 7 Pro<\/a> to help plan your skywatching excursion. We would also recommend using Time and Date’s daylight tracker<\/a> to discover the exact timings for twilight and night for your specific location.<\/p>\n

Want to capture gorgeous images of our galaxy shining in the night sky? Then be sure to read our beginner’s guide to photographing the Milky Way<\/a>, along with our roundups of the best cameras<\/a> and lenses for astrophotography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your photos of the Milky Way with Space.com’s readers, then please send your image(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The moonless nights of mid-May are a fantastic time to spot the glowing band of the Milky Way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-418650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}