Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 September 27

                        The Annotated Galactic Center
       Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

   Explanation: The center of our Milky Way galaxy can be found some
   26,000 light-years away toward the constellation Sagittarius. Even on a
   dark night, you can't really see it though. Gaze in that direction, and
   your sight-line is quickly obscured by intervening interstellar dust.
   In fact, dark dust clouds, glowing nebulae, and crowded starfieds are
   packed along the fertile galactic plane and central regions of our
   galaxy. This annotated view, a mosaic of dark sky images, highlights
   some favorites, particularly for small telescope or binocular equipped
   skygazers. The cropped version puts the direction to the galactic
   center on the far right. It identifies well-known Messier objects like
   the Lagoon nebula (M8), the Trifid (M20), star cloud M24, and some of
   E.E. Barnard's dark markings on the sky. A full version extends the
   view to the right toward the constellation Scorpius, in all covering
   over 20 degrees across the center of the Milky Way.

                   Tomorrow's picture: analemma of the sun
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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