Astrophotography in Turkey: Antalya's Observatory Mountain, Cappadocia and Lake Salda

Where to see the Milky Way in Turkey

The best places to see the stars in Turkey are the Bakirlitepe plateau above Antalya, where the national observatory stands, the valleys of Cappadocia, Lake Salda and the summit of Mount Nemrut. Summer, from June to September, has the clear dry nights.

Turkey has mountains, high plateaus and a lot of empty country between the cities, and the national observatory sits on one of its best skies. The coast is lit in summer, but an hour inland and a thousand metres up the sky changes.

Bakirlitepe, above Antalya

The TUBITAK National Observatory stands on Bakirlitepe at about 2,500 metres in the Taurus mountains north of Antalya. The observatory chose the site for its clear, dry summer nights, and the plateau around it is open to anyone who drives up the mountain road. Antalya glows to the south, below the horizon from the summit.

Suits: the sharpest sky in the country for deep-sky work, and summer nights.

Cappadocia

The rock valleys around Goreme are famous for their balloons at dawn, and the same formations stand under a dark sky at night. The towns are small and the valleys between them are dark, with fairy chimneys and cave churches as foreground. Summer and early autumn have the clear nights.

Suits: nightscapes with rock formations, and the Milky Way over the valleys.

Lake Salda and Mount Nemrut

Lake Salda, in Burdur province, is a crater lake with white shores and little around it, and the water gives reflections of the Milky Way. Mount Nemrut, in the south-east, has the stone heads of the Commagene kings on its summit at over two thousand metres, lit by starlight after the sunset crowds leave.

Suits: reflections at Salda, and a foreground at Nemrut that nowhere else has.

Timing a night

Summer, from June to September, is the season for the mountains and the plateaus, with dry, clear nights. Winter brings snow to all of them. The coast is humid in summer and the haze takes the faint end of the sky.

What to shoot from Turkey

From 36 to 42 degrees north the sky is like that of southern Europe: the galactic core is up in the south in summer, lower than from the Gulf, and the winter sky has Orion, the Pleiades and Andromeda high all night.

Processing what you bring home

Akastroid stacks and finishes your frames on your own computer, with nothing uploaded. The free download processes five sessions and allows two exports, enough for one mountain night. If you buy a licence later, it can be paid for with a debit or credit card.

Across the Middle East

The same guide for the rest of the region: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel.