21 LAPS AROUND THE SUN | 7 YEARS BEHIND THE CAMERA ✨
I picked up a camera under the night sky as a young teenager in 2019 with no idea it would shape my life. I thought it would be a cool idea for these milestones to share some of my original images for you to see what my photography has developed from!
I love looking back at these old images. From digital art and landscapes to astro, from local spots to wild places in Australia and the USA, from my first blurry shots to capturing the night sky in ways I once thought were impossible, the journey has been unreal.
I went from not knowing what aperture or manual focus was on my first shoot, to winning multiple international awards in the last few years and having the incredible support of all of you on this path.
Astrophotography, like anything, is a skill built through practice, trial and error and originality. My current skillset is the result of 7 years of learning. Finding your style, developing the skills to tackle any photo idea and mastering the technical side is what I try to fast track for others through my workshops.
One of the most rewarding parts has been teaching. Watching people capture their first Milky Way shot or finally understand their camera settings never gets old. Road trips and sleepless nights under the stars with some awesome people.
Turning 21 feels crazy, but having 7 years of behind the lens feels even bigger. Still learning. Still chasing better compositions. Still figuring out how to improve my teaching and the meaning behind my work.
Here’s to the next chapter 🚀
#astrophotography #nightsky #nikonnz
All photographs have a story, but few begin with a rope disappearing into darkness…
I rappelled over 100 metres straight down into a vast cave system in New Zealand’s North Island at night. Below me, the cavern came alive with glow worms and fragile ecosystems; an otherworldly show hidden deep in a landscape shaped over millions of years. Above, the beautiful New Zealand night sky shone brightly with the constellation of the Southern Cross!
AI can’t experience a scene like this.
Which shot is your favourite?
#astrophotography #glowworms #newzealand
I’m Tom Rae, an astrophotographer and photo tour guide from New Zealand who specialises in capturing our night sky with an earthly perspective. A thank you to the @europeanspaceagency for the opportunity to share my collection of images with you!
Astrophotography lives at the intersection of science and art. Every image begins with physics: photons travelling for thousands or millions of years, hydrogen glowing at precise wavelengths, gravity shaping dust and stars. The science is real, measurable and incredible.
When I press the shutter and begin to capture this, it becomes personal. I started this adventure very young, and what began as curiosity turned into long nights in deserts, alpine basins, and dark sky reserves learning the technical side of tracking, filters, calibration, and then learning how to translate all of that into something that feels like standing beneath it.
It’s about the experience of standing underneath our galaxy, the perspective and appreciation of it all, and being able to convert something so vast into something that inspires our human response.
If you’re here from ESO, welcome! I hope you like my images, am I’m so happy to share them all with you.
1: The Milky Way’s galactic centre over Queenstown, New Zealand from the alps.
2: the entrance to the Aoraki / Mackenzie Dark Sky reserve.
3: Night sky over Tasman Lake
4: Aurora over Church of the Good Shepherd
5: Southern Cross through a 100 m glow-worm chasm, Waitomo
6: Real alignment of Andromeda over Aoraki / Mt Cook.
7: G5 geomagnetic aurora + Milky Way over the Southern Alps.
8: Hydrogen + Orion over Mt Sefton.
9: Gigapixel Milky Way arch over the Southern Alps.
10: Dawn at Mesa Arch, Canyonlands, USA.
11: Milky Way core over glacial stream and alps.
12: Horseshoe Bend with a comet + meteor.
13: Rho Ophiuchi + lunar eclipse (2021).
14: Comet G3 ATLAS over Mt John Observatory.
15: Me under southern constellations.
16: Cygnus over petroglyphs.
17: Milky Way over Yosemite.
18: Glow worms + southern Milky Way.
#astrophotography #youresa
New Zealand’s nights through my lens…
A few of my favourite timelapses captured under the stars across Aotearoa over the past few years.
Let me know your favourite. I hope these take you there for a moment!
#astrophotography #newzealand #timelapse
Milky Way Photographer of the Year 2026 ✨
I’m honoured to have my images selected in the top Milky Way photographs from around the world this year!
To receive this for my third year alongside such a talented group of photographers is incredible, and the quality of work in this community is wild.
About the Image:
The winter Milky Way arch sets above the Remarkables, with the lights of Queenstown glowing far below. A rare moment where galaxy, mountains, and human presence all align.
There’s something surreal about watching the quiet, ancient light of the Milky Way above a place so full of motion, noise and activity.
Most people beneath city lights will never see a sky like this. Even in remote places, light pollution is quietly erasing the stars.
Creating this image meant climbing steep snow and ice, then enduring hours of wind and freezing cold through the night, before sleeping in the snow. Clouds and conditions changed constantly, and the result was uncertain. For a brief moment, everything aligned: mountain, light, and the fading presence of the Milky Way above.
A congratulations to the others featured and a thank you to @capturetheatlas ✨
EXIF / GEAR:
Nikon Z6A + Sigma 28mm F1.4 Art + iOptron Skyguider Pro
Sky: 21 x 30s / ISO 1600 / F2.5
Foreground: 12 x 30s / ISO 1600 / F2.8
#astrophotography #queenstown #nightsky
A sign that only makes sense after dark…
The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is one of the largest Gold Tier reserves on Earth, a place where the Milky Way still burns bright across the sky largely untouched by light pollution.
It’s somewhere I’m incredibly lucky to both photograph and teach in.
This July, I’ll be taking a small group out here to learn night photography in one of the best locations on the planet. Link in bio if you’re keen!
Nikon Z6 / Sigma 28mm / Tracked Panorama
#astrophotography #laketekapo #nightsky
These photos began with a rope and a 100m drop into darkness.
Deep beneath New Zealand’s North Island, I descended into an otherworldly cave that most people will never see: silent, spooky, and glowing with life unseen at the surface.
This is why I do what I do. What an adventure, and blessed to be able to experience and photograph places like this!
AI can generate an image, but it can’t experience something like this…
A huge thanks to @waitomoadventures and our awesome team and guides for making this possible.
Which image is your favourite?
#astrophotography #glowworms #newzealand
Most people have never seen the night sky like this…
With this past week being Dark Sky Week, it felt like the right time to share what we’re quietly losing: not just stars, but perspective. The kind that reminds you how small you are, in the best possible way.
Through my work here in New Zealand, I spend a lot of time under skies that still hold that feeling. Every time I take people out, it’s the same reaction. Silence first, then disbelief and awe.
Because for most people, that sky no longer exists. A sky that’s an insight into the fact we’re standing on a small planet, orbiting a single star, in a galaxy among hundreds of billions more.
Light pollution disconnects Earth from it’s natural rhythms, and from the sense of wonder our ancestors lived with every night.
These images are a reflection of that. I hope you enjoy them and appreciate our dark skies!
#astrophotography #darkskyweek #nightsky
Mitre Peak, one of New Zealand’s most iconic mountains, underneath the Angelfish Nebula and a fleeting green meteor.
The giant red glowing cloud in the sky is the Angelfish Nebula (Sh2-264), a vast emission nebula spanning hundreds of light years. Its faint hydrogen glow is energized by the hot, massive star Lambda Orionis, whose radiation illuminates this delicate cosmic structure. I used a filter that captures a specific wavelength of red hydrogen light to reveal this more intensely than would be seen in a normal photograph.
What looks like a single moment is actually a collision of timescales. A meteor lasting less than a second, a mountain shaped over millions of years, and a nebula evolving across millions more, its light traveling 1,500 light years to reach my camera.
So lucky to have a clear night in one of New Zealand’s most notoriously cloudy regions!
Nikon Z7IIA + Nikkor 85mm F1.8
Foreground: 120s / ISO 3200 / F2.2
Sky: 10 x 60s / ISO 800 / F2.5
HA: 6 x 120s / ISO 3200 / F2.5
#astrophotography #milfordsound #mitrepeak
A Moment in the Infinite
The galactic core of the Milky Way, formed from billions of suns, igniting the sky above Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, within the largest Gold Tier Dark Sky Reserve on Earth.
This was one of the most stunning scenes I have ever experienced in my 7 years of Astrophotography with a stillness, clarity, and calm in a place usually so wild and unpredictable.
Below, the Tasman Glacier (New Zealand’s largest glacier) slowly reshapes a landscape that won’t look the same in years to come. Above, the Milky Way burns on, ancient, eternal and vast.
This image is a meeting point of timescales. Fleeting human experiences, our evolving world and glaciers, and the ageless river of stars stretching across the sky. Each subtle element in this scene reminds us how small we are, and how lucky we are to witness it.
Nikon Z7II Astromodified + Nikkor 20mm F1.8
#astrophotography #tasmanglacier #nightsky
July Milky Way workshop now open! ✨
I’m running a 7-day hands-on astrophotography workshop in New Zealand’s Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve this July.
Every year I wait for this window. When winter hits New Zealand, everything changes. The skies get cleaner, the Milky Way brighter, the nights get longer, and the landscape turns completely silent in a photographers paradise.
We’ll spend a full week exploring and shooting some of the darkest skies on Earth capturing the Milky Way over alpine landscapes, lakes, and remote locations across New Zealand’s South Island, locations gathered in my years of night photography experience in this area.
This is a small group workshop with only 6 people & two guides, (myself and @max.nti ) giving extensive depth in everything from planning and camera setup through to composition, shooting techniques, and post-processing.
If you want to seriously level up your night photography while experiencing one of the best astro locations in the world in the premium time of year, this is it!
Link in bio for details & booking!
#astrophotography #newzealand #nightsky
The Milky Way core, setting over Lake Pukaki and the Southern Alps in the heart of the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve ✨
Below, the shallow water reflects that same ancient light, with the earth mirroring the universe above. Seeing the Milky Way in both the sky and in the landscape was unreal.
This image was captured last year, during my Milky Way workshop in September. Some phenomenal images were created by my guests with this scene! Such a great feeling when I can share these skies with you.
Moments like this remind me how small we really are, standing beneath mountains and the Milky Way watching the galaxy drift overhead.
Nikon Z6 / Nikkor 20mm F1.8
#astrophotography #mtcook #nightsky
