Sierra magazine’s photo essay on Luis Cajete’s image shows the summer and winter Milky Way together, which happens only a few nights a year
Night Watch: Two Milky Ways in One Sky Over Monfrague, and a Naturalist Lies Down in the Grass
Sierra magazine’s photo essay on Luis Cajete’s image shows the summer and winter Milky Way together, which happens only a few nights a year
By Öko Angebot, naturalist and diarist
Friday, Clear Sky
Dear diary, the sky is clear and cold, and I have a photograph to describe. Sierra magazine published a photo essay online on 23 October 2026, in its September to October issue, about an award-winning image by the Spanish photographer Luis Cajete. The article does not name the award or the contest, so I will not.
The picture shows the Milky Way above Monfrague National Park in Spain.
The Place
Monfrague is described as a protected Mediterranean forest known for its nearly 300 bird species. In the image, a river runs through rocky mountains under orange swirls of the galaxy. I have never been there. I want to go in spring, with binoculars and low expectations.
The article says Cajete was inspired to take up photography after visiting US national parks. I like that: a European inspired by American parks who then photographs a Spanish one.
Two Milky Ways
The photograph combines the summer Milky Way, with its bold galactic centre, and the winter Milky Way, with its gossamer band of light. The two views can appear in the same sky only a few nights each year, according to the article.
Cajete, the piece says, captured the celestial transition in separate images and then merged them. I think that is honest. I would rather read about a clever composite than be told a lie about a single shot.
What I Know About Dark Skies
The Netherlands is a poor place for stars. We have a lot of streetlights and a great fondness for them. I have stood in a field near Groningen and counted perhaps a dozen stars and a distant glow from a greenhouse.
The article is not about light pollution and does not discuss it. I bring it up because every naturalist should.
A Night Out
Tonight I took a blanket to the end of the lane and lay down. A fox crossed the track some way off. An owl said one syllable. I saw several stars, more than a dozen, and then a cloud arrived like a landlord.
I do not claim that this is the Milky Way. I claim that it is dark and cold and that I was glad.
Why This Counts as Nature
It may seem strange to put a galaxy in a naturalist’s diary. I say the sky is part of habitat. Whatever lives under it, from owls to foxes, lives under the same sky I do. I give this as a feeling and not as a finding.
A photographer who stays out all night for a picture of the stars is a field naturalist in all but name.
Go and Look
If you wish to see the image, it is on the Sierra website and Cajete’s other work is linked from there. I have no information about printing it or buying it.
What I can say is that it made me look up, and that is a good test of a photograph.
Bedtime
The blanket is on the radiator. The tea is cold. I have written this on a notebook that smells of grass.
Goodnight, diary. Goodnight, galaxy.
A Short Guide to Lying in a Field
Take a blanket and a hat, tell someone where you are going, and choose a night with no moon if you can. Let your eyes adjust for twenty minutes, which is the one thing I know to be true about dark adaptation from my own experience. Do not look at your phone.
If it clouds over, go home. The sky has been there a long time and is not going anywhere.
What the Photograph Teaches
The lesson of a composite photograph is that the truth of the sky is bigger than any one frame. The summer and winter Milky Ways are both real, and neither is the whole. I find this comforting in a world that demands single answers.
The article gives no more detail about technique, so I will leave it there.
What Was in the Field Bag
Between hides and hedgerows I read the comic papers, because the weather does not always cooperate. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/