Galaxy far, far away: Milky Way from the Isle of Wight

THE BRIGHT lights of the Milky Way provide a breath-taking backdrop to Isle of Wight’s most famous landmarks

Scroll down for the full story

Ainsley has to stay awake throughout the night to capture his photos

The southern island’s dark skies unpolluted by bright lights afford perfect conditions to see the spectacular edge of the galaxy.

Ainsley Bennett, 38, took the photos of its glittering skies with a Nikon D800, fast lens, high ISO and a long exposure of 20 to 30 seconds.

The Milky Way pictured over the English Channel on the southern side of the island at Castlehaven Niton

The camera enhanced the Milky Way to make each detail and colour visible in print which was otherwise imperceptible to the human eye.

Ainsley –who lives in the Isle of Wight – said: “I have been interested in photography since December 2012 after I bought my first DSLR in the form of a canon 650D.

Tracks in the field lead toward the billions of stars

Hay bales have a stunning background as clouds partially cover the Milky Way

At this time I began to take an interest in landscape and seascapes around the Isle of Wight.

A self-portrait of Ainsley Bennett, silhouetted by the stunning Milky Way

The clouds clear to show the bright Milky Way at Steephill Cove

“I have always been interested in the night sky and the universe with a fascination for planetary science.

“It was early 2014 that I started to take regular images at night getting up during the early hours of the morning to catch images of the Milky Way as it rose above the horizon.

Blue and green colours are seen in the sky behind a barn

A sea of poppies in front of the glittering skies

I am very lucky to live on the Isle of Wight where we have extremely dark skies on the southern side of the Island free from the heavily light polluted areas of mainland Britain.”