Taken around midnight last week in Karval, Colorado, near the reservoir, a really dark site that ranks as a Class 2 site on the Bortle Scale, located about an hour and a half east of Colorado Springs.

Besides the Milky Way, you can see Jupiter rising above the horizon, and a shooting star in the upper left. The three lights on the horizon are the towns of Pueblo, La Junta, and Trinidad, all in southeast Colorado.

I used a Canon 6D DSLR camera and a Rokinon 14mm F2.8 ultra wide lens.

Last night, my wife and I ventured east to Karval, Colorado, located in the high plains about an hour and a half from Colorado Springs, to the Karval Reservoir. This was our first time shooting in Karval, and we were impressed with how dark and desolate the area is. Other than a few cattle farms, it's surrounded by nothing but endless plains. We walked around the reservoir while we waited for the Milky Way to rise, and then began taking pics around midnight.

Last night was new moon, and the perfect occasion to get a shot of the Milky Way rising around midnight. The red lights in this photo are from a nearby wind farm. The green in the sky is an atmospheric phenomenon known as "airglow". I took this photo with a Canon 6D DSLR camera and a Rokinon 14mm F2.8 ultra wide lens.