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Old 12-09-2010, 05:50 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
Highest Observatory in Oz

strongmanmike is offline
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 17,689
The centre of the Milky Way

What does the region around the centre of the Milky Way look like?

I've always wanted to image this piece of sky in Sagittarius

The invisible object located at the centre of the image is called Sagittarius A or Sgr A and this is a direct reference to the powerful radio sourch located there at a distance of some 26 000 Ltyrs .

Located on the Sagittarius-Scorpius border it is a lovely stary field with some faint nebulosity but it's not a visually mind blowing region and don't expect to actually see Sgr A, as there is 25 magnitudes of extinction of the optical component but it is a very important area of sky!

Wide field view (1.6deg X 1.6deg)

Narrow field view

Mike
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