Explanation:
Climb up to 5000 meters (16,500 feet) above sea level, near
Cerro Chajnantor
in the northern
Chilean Andes,
and your night sky could encompass this cosmic vista.
Recorded from that
high and dry
locale, the spectacular fish-eye image features the myriad stars
and sprawling dust clouds of our
Milky Way Galaxy.
The direction toward the
center of the Galaxy is near the zenith
and center of the picture, but the
Galactic Center itself is hidden
from view, located far behind the obscuring dust.
Brilliant Jupiter rules this scene just above the
Milky Way's
central bulge with the noticeably fainter, yellowish,
giant star
Antares
to its right.
Small and faint, near the right edge of the picture is
one of the Milky Way's many
satellite
galaxies, the
Small Magellanic Cloud.
The Amateur Astronomers Association of New York Presents:
APOD Editor's Lecture: Tonight -
American Museum of Natural History
