Travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has released the eighth edition of its annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year, a curated collection showcasing the 25 best Milky Way photos captured around the world—and for the first time ever, from space.
This year’s collection features a milestone: a photograph of the Milky Way taken from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who recently returned from his latest mission aboard the ISS.
“One in a Billion ” – Don Pettit. ISS (International Space Station). I float in the Cupola, looking out the seven windows composing this faceted transparent jewel. While my mind is submerged in contemplation, my eyes gorge on the dim reflections from a nighttime Earth. There are over eight billion people that call this planet home. There are seven of us that can say the same for Space Station. What a privilege it is to be here. I used an orbital star tracker to take out the star streak motion from orbit.
The 2025 edition received over 6,000 entries and includes images from photographers of 16 different nationalities.
The selection highlights not just classic astrophotography locations but also rare and remote landscapes—from the deserts of Chad and the peaks of the Andes to the surreal scenery of Socotra Island and the untouched skies of New Zealand and Namibia.
“Diamond Beach Emerald Sky” – Brent Martin, Great Ocean Road, Australia. With a clear night forecast and the Milky Way core returning for 2025, I set out to explore the Great Ocean Road. After a few setbacks—such as a failed composition and getting the car stuck on a sandy track—I almost gave up. However, I pushed on and found a great spot above the beach to capture the scene. The night was full of color, with Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas and a pink aurora in the early hours, followed by the Milky Way rising amid intense green airglow near dawn. Despite the challenges, the reward of this stunning image and the memory of the view made it all worthwhile.
Closer to home, Aussie astrophotographer Brent Martin's shot from the Great Ocean Road made the cut, as did an image by NZ photographer Kavan Chay, a recent finalist in The Landscape Awards 2025.
“Evolution of Stars” – Kavan Chay, Otago, New Zealand. The first image I captured from this spot is the one I feel truly kickstarted my astrophotography journey years ago. It was the first time I shot a tracked panorama using a “longer” focal length lens (50mm). The set of sea stacks provided a prominent foreground subject facing the right direction, and being a local spot relatively free of light pollution, it was the perfect location to capture the Milky Way core.
Each year, Capture the Atlas editor Dan Zafra curates the list based on image quality, the story behind the shot, and the overall inspiration it provides.
The project aims to inspire people to connect with the night sky and to encourage photographers to explore and photograph the Milky Way from new angles—now including the perspective of space itself.
The Milky Way season typically runs from January to November in the Southern Hemisphere, with May and June offering the longest visibility.
You can see a selection of the finalist images below.
“The Wave” – Luis Cajete, Coyote Buttes, UT, USA. One of my greatest passions is visiting stunning natural wonders and paying my personal tribute to them through night photography. This image was taken at Coyote Buttes, a geological masterpiece located in Arizona, where special access permits are required to protect it for future generations.“A Sea of Lupines” – Max Inwood, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. The annual lupine bloom in New Zealand is spectacular, with fields of colorful flowers stretching across the Mackenzie Basin. This region, located in the heart of the South Island, is renowned for its dark skies, making the scene even more surreal at night.“Double Milky Way Arch Over Matterhorn” – Angel Fux. Zermatt, Switzerland. This image captures the rare Double Arch Milky Way, where both the Winter Milky Way (with Orion rising) and the Summer Milky Way (with the Galactic Center) appear in the same night—a seamless transition between seasons. Taken at 3,200 meters in the heart of winter, the night was brutally cold, testing both my endurance and equipment. This is a time blend, preserving the real positions of both arches by combining frames taken hours apart, with the foreground captured at dawn for the best detail.“Bottle Tree Paradise” – Benjamin Barakat, Socotra, Yemen. Socotra is one of my favorite places on Earth, but when it comes to a specific location, this one stands out. It doesn’t have an official name, as it’s not a destination for the few fortunate tourists who visit Socotra. After shooting there for the past four years and scouting the island, I’ve discovered hidden gems like this one, which I call Bottle Tree Paradise.“Fortress of Light” – Mauricio Salazar, Jujuy, Argentina. Since I started shooting the night sky, I’ve always sought out landscapes that feel like they belong to another planet — remote, untouched, and far from light pollution. That’s exactly what I found in “The Cathedral,” a surreal rock formation in Jujuy, Argentina.“Galaxy of the Stone Array” – Alvin Wu, Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand. The Milky Way hangs over the sea. The night sky of the Southern Hemisphere condenses the poetry of Li Bai, a poet from China’s Tang Dynasty, into eternity. On a clear night, the Milky Way pours down over the sea like a waterfall from the sky, intertwining with the atmospheric glow on the water’s surface.“Lake RT5” – Tanay Das, Zanskar, Himalayas. Lake RT5 is a pristine alpine lake nestled at 5,700 meters above sea level. My passion has always been to capture the unseen Himalayas in their rawest form. This journey led us through rugged mountains and glaciers, where we discovered several unknown alpine lakes and named them along the way. We endured multiple nights in extremely cold, unpredictable conditions. Due to the ever-changing weather and limited time, I used a blue hour blend to achieve a cleaner foreground. Since my campsite was right beside the lake, I was able to capture the tracked sky shot from the exact same position later that night.“Cosmic Fire” – Sergio Montúfar. Volcán Acatenango, Guatemala On the early morning of June 2, 2024, I summited Acatenango Volcano for the first time, hoping to witness the fiery beauty of the neighboring Volcan de Fuego against the Milky Way’s backdrop. That night, the volcano was incredibly active—each thunderous explosion reverberated in my chest, while glowing lava illuminated the dark slopes. Above, the Milky Way stretched diagonally across the sky, a mesmerizing band of stars contrasting with the chaos below. As the volcano erupted, the ash plume rose vertically, forming an acute angle of about 45 degrees with the galaxy’s diagonal path, creating a stunning visual contrast between Earth’s fury and the cosmos’ serenity.“Boot Arch Perseids” – Mike Abramyan. Alabama Hills, CA, USA. The Perseid Meteor Shower occurs every August, raining down hundreds of meteors over a few nights. In 2024, I had planned to photograph it from the Canadian Rockies, but wildfires forced me to change my plans at the last minute. After checking wildfire maps, I found a safe haven in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. After three full nights of capturing meteors, I created this image. Sitting on the rock is my friend Arne, who often joins me on these adventures, gazing up at the magnificent core of our galaxy. Each meteor is painstakingly aligned to its true location in the night sky. The final depiction shows all the meteors I captured, combined into one frame—as if the Earth hadn’t been rotating and all the meteors had fallen at once.“The Night Guardians” – Rositsa Dimitrova. Easter Island, Chile. Easter Island had been on my bucket list for a long time, and it once seemed almost impossible to reach. On our first night there, the weather forecast looked promising, so we decided to go ahead with the tour our group had booked 4–5 months earlier. However, Rapa Nui sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the weather is notoriously unpredictable. When we woke up at 3 a.m. in our hotel, the sky was completely covered in clouds. Still, we decided to take the risk, knowing the forecast for the next few nights was even worse. An hour later, we were frantically photographing the statues at Rano Raraku—the quarry where nearly all of the island’s 900 statues were carved—when the sky suddenly began to clear. By 5 a.m., it was completely clear, and we had less than two hours to capture all the shots we wanted. We felt incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time.“Winter Fairy Tale” – Uroš Fink, Dobratsch Nature Park, Austria. Undoubtedly my wildest location this winter: Austria’s Dobratsch mountain! If I had to describe it in two words, it would be a “Winter Fairytale”! Despite a 5 a.m. work shift, I drove to Austria by 1 p.m., worried about my fitness and lack of sleep. After a 2-hour hike through the snow with a 22kg backpack and sled, the stunning views kept me energized.“Blosoom” – Ethan Su. Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park, Taiwan. After three years of waiting, the Yushan alpine rhododendrons are finally in bloom once again on Taiwan’s 3,000-meter-high Hehuan Mountain. On this special night, distant clouds helped block city light pollution, revealing an exceptionally clear view of the Milky Way. A solar flare from active region AR3664 reached Earth that evening, intensifying the airglow and adding an otherworldly touch to the sky.“Tololo Lunar Eclipse Sky” – Petr Horálek. Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile. On March 14, 2025, a total lunar eclipse occurred, especially visible over the Americas and the Pacific Ocean. I was fortunate to observe this particular eclipse from the NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. You can see how epic the sky was during totality, as the Moon darkened enough for the majestic Milky Way, the faint belt of Zodiacal Light, and prominent airglow to stand out.“Valle de los Cactus” – Pablo Ruiz. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. A panoramic shot of the Milky Way in a remote area of the Atacama Cactus Valley, known for its large concentration of cactus plants. I love this place with its countless possibilities. The panorama was taken just as the galactic center began to rise, with the spectacular Gum Nebula visible on the right.
