A Southern Sky View
Credit and Copyright:
G. Garradd
From horizon to horizon,
the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia
was photographed by astronomer
Gordon Garradd
on March 22, 1996.
Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a
fish-eye lens,
resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view.
This gorgeous sky view is dominated by the luminous band of
the Milky Way
cut by dramatic, dark interstellar dust clouds.
Along with the bright stars of our Galaxy,
the Large Magellanic Cloud
is visible at the upper right (about 1 o'clock)
and the
long, lovely, bluish tail of
comet Hyakutake can be seen
toward the bottom of the image, near the bright star
Arcturus.
Bright city lights from nearby Tamworth glow along
the Northwestern horizon.