Milky Way Mosaic

I believe this to be my first mosaic of the Milky Way:

I was on Palomar Mountain the night of May 31th, when a marine layer covered the surrounding area, leaving the sky unfettered by light pollution. My 28 mm focal length lens creates some distortion at the edges, and it's lowest f stop (2.8) introduces some brightness difference between the center and edge. I spliced two images and corrected the brightness and distortion in Photoshop. Perhaps "corrected" is the wrong word. I minimized the most obvious mismatches between the images.

This time of year is a good time to watch the Milky Way. It rises in the east, and in Southern California, many of our favorite viewing locations have desert to the east, thus reducing the impact from light pollution.

jg