Sagittarius and the Central Milky Way
What does the center of our
Milky Way Galaxy look like? No one knows! It
is not possible to see the Galactic center in light our eyes are sensitive
to because the thick
dust in the
plane of our Galaxy obscures it. If one
looks in the direction of our Galaxy's center - which is toward the
constellation of Sagittarius - many beautiful wonders become apparent,
though. The center of the Milky Way is behind the center of the photo.
Large dust lanes and star clouds dominate the picture.
As many as 30
Messier Objects
are
visible, including all types of nebula and star
clusters. Two notable nebula include the
Lagoon Nebula (M8), a small red
patch just above center, and slightly above this is the red and blue
Trifid
Nebula (M20). The lines through picture were caused by airplanes, and the
dark objects in the foreground are trees.