On the cover: 2022 SUMMER Guide
Paddling under the Milky Way on Oak Pond in Skowhegan, Maine.
Photo: John T. Meader.
This composite image of the night sky, featuring Jupiter (the bright “star”) and the Milky Way was shot by John Meader of Fairfield, Maine in September 2019. “Night sky photography requires long exposures of 20-30 seconds to capture the Milky Way and a rich starfield. But to capture an image of a person paddling requires a much faster exposure under better lighting,” Meader says. To get this shot, he set his camera on a tripod on the shore just before dusk and paddled out in front of it. He used a remote shutter to capture the paddling image. Then, two hours later, with the camera still in place on the tripod, he shot the scene again without the paddler. The two images were then combined to create the composite.
John Meader has been a photographer and an astronomy educators since the early 1980s. He is the owner/director of Northern Stars Planetarium, a portable planetarium business that travels to schools, libraries and museums across Maine. He is also the vice president of Dark Sky Maine, a non-profit devoted to the preservation of Maine’s Dark Sky Heritage. John says that his love of the sky has always been about sharing the wonders of the heavens with his fellow Mainers, whether it be under the dome of his planetarium, through his photography or outdoors under Maine’s beautiful dark night skies.
Maine is blessed with some of the country’s best stargazing–including an official International Dark Sky Sanctuary, one of just 13 worldwide.