From the Northern to the Southern Cross
Explanation:
There is a road that connects the
Northern to the
Southern Cross
but you have to be at the right place and time to see it.
The road, as pictured above, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy;
the right place, in this case, is dark
Laguna Cejar in
Salar de Atacama of Northern
Chile;
and the right time was in early October, just after sunset.
Many sky wonders were captured then, including the
bright Moon, inside the
Milky Way arch;
Venus, just above the Moon;
Saturn and
Mercury, just below the Moon;
the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds satellite galaxies, on the far left;
red
airglow near the horizon on the image left;
and the lights of small towns at several locations across the
horizon.
One might guess that composing
this 30-image panorama would have been a serene experience,
but for that one would have required earplugs to ignore the continued
brays of wild
donkeys.
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
