License: CC0
Original Size: 10000 × 6995 pixels
Description: View towards the galactic bulge
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
Some deep-sky objects, the complex of dark clouds that form the Pipe Nebula, and the wall of stars in the Sagittarius Cloud are clearly visible in this wide field image. Within the star cloud is the so-called Baade’s Window, a relatively sparse patch of nearby stars and dust that allows us to peer almost to the center of the Milky Way. The true Galactic Center, however, is obscured by a thick blanket of dust and gas along our line of sight and relatively close to the Solar System. When we present a photo of the Milky Way in the region of Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius, it represents our Galaxy only “in the direction” of its central region. Everything we see in a photograph (in the visible light) is still in our neighborhood, practically around the corner, within a few thousand light-years of the Sun. Some of the most spectacular objects in that region of the sky, which delight astronomers, are truly “just a stone’s throw” from us. Regions like the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, Antares, M8, M20, and even some globular clusters, are within the confines of the so-called Local Bubble. In that direction, we can barely see more than 10,000 light-years away, through narrow, more transparent windows. The Galactic Center, the nucleus of the Galaxy, as well as its Central Bulge, are much further away, hidden by a thick blanket of dust clouds, gas, and a thick wall of stars about 26,000 light-years away. Ultimately, the beautiful photographs of objects in that direction cannot be attributed to the Galactic Center, but merely to our immediate surroundings.
Canon 24mm STM @f/4 + DIY 18-22mm f/2