A 360 degree by 180 degree panorama of the northern spring sky taken from Alberta, Canada, on a very clear night April 20, 2020. This is the sky with as little Milky Way as is possible from this latitude. North is at top, south at bottom; west is to the right, east to the left. The North Pole of the Milky Way is just below centre here, near the large Coma Berenices star cluster. I shot this as a demonstration of the view looking up out of the plane of the Milky Way toward its galactic pole and the realm of the galaxies in the spring sky. As a result of the orientation of the Earth at this time of year, the Milky Way is as low as it gets from the latitude of 51 degrees North and appears here as a low arc across the northern horizon at top. To the south at bottom the faint glow of Gegenschein is visible in Virgo around the star Spica. There is the suggestion of the even fainter Zodiacal Band stretching across the south over to the western sky at right brightened by light pollution and with a few annoying clouds over the urban areas to the west. Gemini, Cancer and Leo are at right; Auriga and Perseus are at top right. Arcturus is the bright star left of centre, Vega is the bright star at top left, rising. The Big Dipper and Ursa Major are overhead at the zenith. Polaris is above centre due north.
