Thursday, March 15, 2018

Across The Universe - The Complete Galactic Plane: Up and Down

The Complete Galactic Plane: Up and Down:

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.


2018 March 13




See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.
Explanation:
Is it possible to capture the entire plane of our galaxy in a single image?

Yes, but not in one exposure -- and it took some planning to do it in two.

The top part of the
featured image is the night sky above
Lebanon,
north of the equator, taken in 2017 June.

The image was taken at a time when the central band of the
Milky Way Galaxy passed directly overhead.

The bottom half was similarly captured six months later in
latitude-opposite
Chile, south of
Earth's equator.

Each image therefore captured the night sky in
exactly the opposite direction of the other, when fully half the Galactic plane was visible.

The southern half was then inverted -- car and all -- and digitally
appended
to the top half to show the entire central
band of our Galaxy, as a circle, in a single image.

Many stars and nebulas are visible, with the
Large Magellanic Cloud
being particularly notable inside the lower half of the complete galactic circle.

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