From the Atacama Desert, straight to the centre of our galaxy

Majestic night landscape, captured from the Atacama Desert, home of the ESO observatories since the 1960´s, and selected site for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the world´s biggest eye on the sky. Across the plan of the picture, is the Milky Way, our own galaxy, a disc-shaped structure seen perfectly edge-on. The whole plan of the galaxy, seen toward its centre, is populated by hundred thousand million of stars, as well as a conspicuous amount interstellar gas and dust. The dust absorbs the visible light, forming prominent dark lanes. By following the one which seems to grow from the centre of the Galaxy toward the top, we find the yellowish nebula around Antares (Alpha Scorpii), accompanied by the bluish one around Rho Ophiuchi. The Galactic Centre itself lies in the constellation of Sagittarius.