APOD: Milky Way over Moon Valley (2014 Dec 05)

[APOD Robot]

Milky Way over Moon Valley

Explanation: Our Milky Way Galaxy arcs over a desolate landscape in this fantastic panoramic night skyview. The otherworldly scene looks across the arid, eroded terrain of the Valle de la Luna in the Chilean Atacama desert. Just along the horizon are lights from San Pedro, Chile, as well as the small villages of Socaire and Toconao, and a torturous winding road from the city of Calama to San Pedro. Taken on October 18th, the five panel mosaic also features the four galaxies easily visible from our fair planet's dark sky regions. At the far left, satellite galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are framed by their terrestrial namesakes. Much fainter and at the right, beyond the Milky Way's central bulge, is the Andromeda Galaxy. The most distant in view, Andromeda lies some 2.5 million light-years away.

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[Ann]

What a galactic bonanza!

I guess that it would have been possible, theoretically at least, to squeeze mone more galaxy into an image like this. M33 isn't too far away from M31 in the skies of the Earth.

Ann

[Markus Schwarz]

What is the "object" below the Magellanic Clouds? It appears to be in front of the (water) clouds, so it must be something terrestrial?

Milky-Way-over-Moon-Valley-600px-by-Rafael-Defavari_Edit.jpg (94.05 KiB) Viewed 19263 times

[hoohaw]

I can't say I like today's APOD much - the land is dim and undistinguished, and the clouds subtract rather than add....

[Nitpicker]

What is the "object" below the Magellanic Clouds? It appears to be in front of the (water) clouds, so it must be something terrestrial?

I think it is Canopus, second brightest star in the night sky. The clouds look thin enough in this area to let it and a few dimmer stars through.

[Cousin Ricky]

I think I can spot the Triangulum Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) as well, to the upper right of M31. It's a little farther away from beta Andromedae than I expected, but that's probably just camera distortion.

[NGC3314]

What is the "object" below the Magellanic Clouds? It appears to be in front of the (water) clouds, so it must be something terrestrial?

It's in the right place to be Canopus, which is plenty bright, if its light is scattered into a blur by the foreground clouds.