{"id":946839,"date":"2026-05-08T20:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946839\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T20:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:44:23","slug":"photographer-spends-night-on-freezing-mountain-to-capture-rare-triple-galaxy-arch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/946839\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Spends Night on Freezing Mountain to Capture Rare Triple Galaxy Arch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Snow-coveredThe two arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, and Gegenschein caused by scattered sunlight. | Photo by Angel Fux <\/p>\n

Few people get to see the full splendor of the Milky Way Galaxy arch \u2014 even fewer get to see the summer and winter arms in the same night. <\/p>\n

Intrepid photographer Angel Fux had to meticulously plan her trip to the top of Dent d\u2019H\u00e9rens on the border of Italy and Switzerland \u2014 a summit just under 14,000 feet high near the Matterhorn \u2014 where she would spend the night in temperatures approaching minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit). <\/p>\n

\"APhotographing above the Matterhorn. <\/p>\n

A double Milky Way Galaxy arch is only visible to people on Earth for a short period of time each year, around the equinox. <\/p>\n

\u201cI first discovered the phenomenon two or three years ago, and from the moment I understood what it was, I knew I wanted to photograph it,\u201d Fux tells PetaPixel. <\/p>\n

\u201cI attempted it for the first time last year from around 3,000 meters [9,800 feet], and the image received a lot of attention. I have since noticed more and more photographers attempting it, which I find genuinely exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ALast year\u2019s effort on top of Gornergrat. <\/p>\n

But to get a better photo, Fux needed darker skies, and that meant going higher. The Dent d\u2019H\u00e9rens was the perfect vantage point, but it\u2019s a summit that even the most serious of climbers may not attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhotographers do not go there, certainly not in winter, certainly not at night,\u201d Fux, who lives in the Alps, writes on her blog<\/a>. \u201cThe gear required for astrophotography and the gear required for alpine climbing are simply incompatible in most situations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AFux hitched a ride in a helicopter. <\/p>\n

Fux enlisted the help of mountain guide Richard Lehner. Together, they hatched a plan to get a helicopter lift to the top of the mountain. <\/p>\n

Along with her astro-modified Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor Z 20mm f\/1.8, and Benro Polaris star tracker, Fux had to bring a sleeping bag rated for sleeping in minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), three-layer mountaineering boots with attachable crampons, and lots of warm clothing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had a rope and harness system prepared because once on the summit, I had to be connected at all times when outside the tent,\u201d adds Fux. \u201cBecause the cornices surrounding the area made any unroped movement genuinely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a serious chance that the helicopter might not be able to make it up the mountain for their return trip. The severity of the trip made Fux hesitant about telling family and friends about her plans. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I showed my parents where we would be landing and spending the night, it looked like what it was \u2014 high mountaineering \u2014 and they went into a fairly stressed mode, asking why on earth I had to go to a place like that for an image,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy answer is usually that if something moves me that deeply, and the risk is manageable, then why not pursue it?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

None of this was theater. It was the minimum required to make that night survivable.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fux went early to Gornergrat to acclimate and practice with her equipment. It was there she discovered a problem with her camera. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shot an entire hour and a half sequence and recorded nothing,\u201d she says. \u201cThe images existed on the display but not on the card. Apparently, this is a known issue with mirrorless cameras in extreme cold, but I had never experienced it before.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTurns out that switching the camera off and on again helps,\u201d she adds. \u201cBut it also means checking your images regularly to make sure you\u2019re not missing any shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, on March 19, Fux and her guide Richard, along with his son Arnaud, flew to the summit of Dent d\u2019H\u00e9rens. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment the helicopter left, and the sound faded, something settled in,\u201d she writes. \u201cThere was no going back until morning at best.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AFux\u2019s strict schedule for the night. \"AAstronomical schedule. Celestial Surprise <\/p>\n

In the first half of the night, the winter arch appeared. In the second half, the summer arch came out. Out of the two, the summer arch is the better-known one, as it contains the galactic center and is densely populated. <\/p>\n

But as Fux reviewed the images, she noticed a third arch, which didn\u2019t belong to the Milky Way Galaxy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a faint oval arch extending in the direction opposite to the Sun, crossing the frame in a subtle but unmistakable gradient,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is called the Gegenschein, or counterglow, which is a diffuse brightening of the night sky caused by sunlight backscattering off interplanetary dust, directly opposite the Sun\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AGegenschein. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely faint and rarely captured in photography. It was there, visible even in the unprocessed files, which told me immediately that the final image would contain more than I had planned for,\u201d she adds. <\/p>\n

The double arch had become the triple arch. And after safely returning to a more sensible altitude, she recovered from her efforts, and began to edit. <\/p>\n

\"ThreeArnaud, Angel, and Richard celebrate after a tough night on the summit. 40 Hours and 300 Gigabytes <\/p>\n

Fux says on her blog that it was the longest time she had ever spent editing a single image \u2014 40 hours. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis time I worked entirely with FITS files, a format used in scientific astronomy that stores raw light data with a much higher bit depth and dynamic range than standard RAW files opened directly in Photoshop,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Photoshop works in 16-bit, FITS files preserve the full precision of your sensor data, which means more information survives the stacking process.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTo get there, I stacked each panorama panel in PixInsight, a professional astronomical imaging software, then stitched the FITS panoramas in AstroPixel Processor, the only software that can currently mosaic FITS frames, before returning to PixInsight for calibration and final sky processing,\u201d she continues. <\/p>\n

Fux says the process was gruelling: the first 10 hours were spent just looking at numbers, histograms, calibration scripts, and lines of code \u2014 no images<\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone who is accustomed to seeing what they are working on, this was genuinely disorienting,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\"A\u2018I admit I wanted to throw my computer out the window multiple times.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The final image contains 260 individual exposures: 17 panels for the winter arch and 16 for the summer arch, each panel being a stack of four tracked frames at 40 seconds, supplemented with additional H-alpha data captured through a 12nm clip-in filter, plus 32 landscape shots taken at nautical twilight. That\u2019s a total project size of roughly 300 gigabytes.<\/p>\n

\"Snow-coveredThe final image consisting of the Matterhorn, the summer arch (left), the Gegenschein (center), and the winter arm of the Milky Way (right).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a unique view of the Alps and a celestial phenomenon that has never been captured in this exact way before. It\u2019s also a view that is fast disappearing as artificial light continues to pollute the skies. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Europe, if you want truly the darkest skies possible and an unobstructed 360-degree horizon, you have to go up \u2014 light pollution is everywhere at lower elevations,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

And as for her worried parents? <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came back and shared the final image a few days later, their reaction completely changed,\u201d she says. \u201cThey told me they wanted to be the first to get a large print of it. So I think it answered the question for them.\u201d <\/p>\n

More of Fux\u2019s work can be found on her website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> Photographs by Angel Fux<\/p>\n