images

The Milky Way, looking towards the Galactic Centre

by

Anglo-Australian Observatory/David Malin Images/Novapix

Reference

a-vlc04-00001

Date

2006-11-02

The Milky Way is best seen on winter nights (May to August) from the southern hemisphere. This wide-angle picture shows a broad span of the southern Milky Way and is a photograph made using colour film in a conventional camera. The camera which was pointed towards the centre of our Galaxy, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius. The Galactic centre itself is totally hidden at visible wavelengths by the band of dust which divides the Milky Way along much of its length. The dust lane is only visible because it blots out background stars. Embedded in the dust are many star-forming regions, seen as bright red emission nebulae. The brightest, left of the centre of the picture, is Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula, which is visible to the unaided eye. The bright 'star' at lower left is the planet Jupiter.