This is a portion of the summer Milky Way extending through Sagittarius and Scorpius. This view shows how the Milky Way appears in the southern hemisphere, and is upside down from the way the sky appears to observers in the northern hemisphere. The prominent red nebula in the lower center of the photograph is the Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8. In this photograph, the Sagittarius Star Cloud is located above M8. M24 is the large star group below M8 and only partially shown at the bottom edge of the photograph. The star cluster at the bottom edge on the right of M24 is M25. The star cluster at the bottom edge on the left of M24 is M23.
The red nebula near the upper left portion of the photograph, along with the star clusters above it, are collectively known as the "false comet." The two red nebula in the dark region between the Lagoon Nebula and the "false comet" are NGC 6357 and NGC 6334. The star cluster in the dark region to the lower left of NGC 6334 is the Butterfly Cluster M6. The star cluster above and to the right of M6 is M7. Dark clouds of dust obscure stars of the Milky Way in this region of the sky and form dark nebulae. A large dark nebula known as the Great Rift extends from this region of the sky all of the way into Cygnus.
This piggyback photo was taken using a Takahashi FCT-76 and a Nikon F2 camera.
Constellations: Sagittarius and Scorpius
May 13, 2004
Photo by Sid Leach
Sunglow Ranch, Arizona
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