Reader's photo essay: Spectacular pictures of the Milky Way taken from Abu Dhabi's desert

Fond of stargazing? You can get beautiful shots of the Milky Way in the UAE, but where is the best location to capture it? One of the best spots is in Al Quaa desert in Abu Dhabi, according to Adam Dela Pedra, a hobbyist photographer for five years now, who shared these spectacular pictures of the Milky Way. These photographers camp under the Milky Way, meteors and planet Venus.

Dela Pedra is a warehouseman on weekdays and dedicates his weekends to photography. He also teaches photography at the Emirates Education Centre. He said: "We used torch light to add extra creativity in capturing pictures of the Milky Way in Al Quaa desert, which is almost one hour away from Abu Dhabi city and more than a two hours away from Dubai."

He added: "In the UAE the best season to capture the Milky Way, starts from March and can be seen better until August. The location to view it must be in a very dark place where it's very dim, like the internal areas of the desert." In this picture: A group of four stand in the horizon to have their photo taken under the Milky Way.

For this shot, Dela Pedra said that he used a long exposure technique to capture the Milky Way. He used 25 to 30 seconds camera exposure for this particular shot..

Dela Pedra perfectly captured a meteor passing in front of the Milky Way at the right time. He said: "We were able to see a number of meteors falling during our photography session."

He said: "A light glaring suddenly appears in this picture of the Milky Way."

This was a steel wool light painting performed while photographers stood in line to capture the moment. He added: "This is our first Milky Way photo walk this year, which is a combination of two photography groups, Shutter Hunters of Dubai and Pitik Mata Eskwela of Abu Dhabi. The photo walk was held on March 12 to March 13, 2022."