Incredible Astrophoto: The Milky Way and Mt. Fuji as a 'Galactic Volcano'

By Nancy Atkinson - July 18, 2013 at 2:48 PM UTC | Milky Way
mt-fuji.jpg

It is a Japanese tradition to climb Mt. Fuji at night to be able to watch sunrise from the peak of the volcano in the morning. And so at night, climbers use flashlights to make their way to the summit. This inspired photographer Yuga Kurita to create a truly stunning image that makes the iconic Mt. Fuji appear like a galactic volcano.

"When I arrived at Fujiyoshida in Yamanashi Prefecture, I saw people climbing up Mt. Fuji with flash lights and I thought they looked like lava streams,"

Kurita explained on G+.

"Then I came up with this composition, since nowadays, the Milky Way appears vertically in the sky so probably I could liken Mt. Fuji to an imaginary galactic volcano, that is, people climbing up with torches are lava streams and the Milky Way is the volcano smoke."

Kurita said he checked out maps to find out the best potential spots where the image could be taken for full effect, and then spent a whole day driving and hiking around Mt. Fuji to check out the candidate spots. "I eventually found out the right spot for the composition and visited the spot three consecutive nights," he said. "The result is this photograph. I'm quite happy with the outcome."

Amazing and truly spectacular!

Thanks to Yuga Kurita for allowing Universe Today to post this image. You can see more of his work at

G+

and on

Facebook.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com