Welcome to the seventh edition of our User Story series.

This time, we're featuring Luca Gallucci (IG @lucagalluccii) and his stunning Winter Milky Way panorama captured in Val d'Orcia, Italy.

📍A Different Season, A Different Story

Val d'Orcia is probably one of the most photographed locations in Italy. Most photographers visit during spring, when the rolling hills turn vibrant green and the landscape takes on the iconic appearance that has made this region famous around the world.

For this image, however, I wanted to tell a different story.
I chose to visit at the end of February, a time of year when Val d'Orcia is far less frequented. The fields have not yet turned green, and the landscape feels quieter and more austere. Yet this atmosphere provided the perfect opportunity to photograph a spectacle that few people associate with this area: the Winter Milky Way.

My goal was to capture the entire Milky Way arch above one of Tuscany's most iconic locations.

🗺️ Planning the Shot

As with every landscape astrophotography project, the work began several days before the actual shoot.

Using Planit Pro, I carefully studied the alignment of the sky to identify the ideal shooting window.

My goal was to achieve the perfect balance between the position of the Milky Way arch and the composition of the landscape.

✨ Eventually, a late-February evening provided exactly the conditions I had been waiting for.

On Location

I arrived before sunset to set up my equipment and fine-tune the composition while there was still daylight.

The entire setup was supported by a Sunwayfoto T2840CK tripod, while a Move Shoot Move NOMAD tracker was used for the sky acquisition.

Given the large number of panels required to complete the panorama, an accurate polar alignment was essential.

Once darkness fell, I began capturing the sky sequence. The silence was absolute. One of the aspects I enjoyed most about this session was experiencing Val d'Orcia outside the tourist season, with no other photographers around and my full attention focused on the sky above.

Knowing that the panorama would require multiple panels and several separate acquisition sequences, one of my main concerns was completing the entire project before the Milky Way sank too low toward the horizon.

Every step had to be executed carefully, leaving little room for error. Between the RGB data, the H-alpha acquisition, and the foreground exposures, the session lasted several hours and required constant attention throughout the night.

Equipment and Acquisition

🌄 For the foreground, I used a Nikon Z6II paired with a Tamron 15-30mm G2, capturing a 6-panel panorama with exposures of 240 seconds at f/4 and ISO 1000.

🌌 For the RGB sky data, I used the same Nikon Z6II and Tamron 15-30mm G2 combination, capturing 7 panels consisting of four 90-second exposures each at f/2.8 and ISO 1000.

To enhance the hydrogen emission regions visible throughout the Winter Milky Way, I captured a dedicated H-alpha dataset using a Nikon D5600 modified with a Super UV/IR Cut conversion, paired with an Irix 21mm lens and an STC Astro Duo Narrowband filter.

This sequence consisted of 5 panels, each with five 130-second exposures at f/2.2 and ISO 2500. All sky data were acquired using the Move Shoot Move NOMAD tracker, which allowed me to gather enough signal to reveal the faint emission nebulae distributed across the galactic arch.

🖥️ Processing

The processing stage was probably the most demanding part of the project.

The RGB and H-alpha panels were calibrated and processed in PixInsight, where I focused primarily on nebula extraction and noise reduction.

The panoramas were then stitched together in PTGui to create the complete Milky Way arch.

Finally, Photoshop was used to blend the tracked sky with the foreground and refine the overall balance of the image.

💭 Final Thoughts

This image perfectly represents what I love most about landscape astrophotography: finding a new perspective in locations that seem to have already been photographed in every possible way.

While most people wait for the green colors of spring before visiting Val d'Orcia, I wanted to capture that brief transition when winter is quietly coming to an end.

Above the sleeping landscape, the Winter Milky Way writes its final chapter before giving way to a new season.

⚙️ Gear List