Explanation:
From Sagittarius to Scorpius, the central
Milky Way is a truly beautiful part of planet Earth's night sky.
The gorgeous region is captured here,
an expansive
gigapixel mosaic of 52 fields spanning 34 by 20 degrees
in 1200 individual images and 200 hours of exposure time.
Part of ESO's
Gigagalaxy Zoom Project,
the images were collected
over 29 nights with a small telescope
under the exceptionally clear, dark skies of the ESO
Paranal Observatory in Chile.
The breathtaking cosmic vista shows off intricate dust lanes,
bright nebulae, and star clusters
scattered through our galaxy's rich central starfields.
Starting on the left, look for the
Lagoon and Trifid nebulae, the
Cat's Paw, the
Pipe dark nebula, and the colorful clouds of
Rho Ophiuchi and Antares (right).
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