That is a truly lovely image!
(And it proves, of course, that the Earth is flat!
)
Seriously, what we have here is two images stitched together, separated by a dark "horizon skyline" of land. The top image shows the region around Polaris to the left side of the image - you can see the somewhat distorted-looking shape of the Big Dipper to the upper left (distorted because of the projection here). The pointer stars of the Big Dipper are pointing to the lower right, so Polaris is at the lower right of the Big Dipper.
The bottom image shows the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds to the lower right. The part of the sky situated directly above the Earth's South Pole is somewhere between the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds.
Where is the Milky Way in this image? It is hugging the horizon. When viewed from some parts of the world, both on the North and the South hemisphere, the Milky Way appears to be "glued to the horizon", and the two pictures that are stitched together to make this image were taken at such locations. That's why you can't see much of the glowing band of the Milky Way at all in this image, and what you might possibly see is right next to that dark "lane" of land running horizontally across the image.
However, you
can see Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi region pretty much smack in the middle of this image, a little bit above the dark "lane of land". If you stay in the upper part of the image and move to the left, so that you are about half-way between Antares and the left edge of the image, you can see a blue-white star there. Look more closely and you'll be able to discern the shape of the constellation of Lyra here. The blue-white star is Vega. Now move from Vega to the lower left. Just above an oblong dark cloud another white star is peeking out. That is Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus, the Swan. Deneb is so close to the horizon because Deneb sits in the middle of the Milky Way band, unlike Vega, which is somewhat removed from it (from our point of view, of course).
Now move to the lower image, but stay in the left part of it. Can you see what appears to be a small edge-on galaxy there? The galaxy is "askew", leaning from the upper left to the lower right. That is the Andromeda galaxy.
To the left of the Andromeda galaxy, very close to the left edge of the picture, is a slightly fuzzy blue-white patch. That is the Pleiades.
Let's move to the far right of the image instead, but stay in the lower half of it. You should be able to make out the shape of Orion near the right edge of the lower picture. Note the bright Orion Nebula and the large red but faint Barnard's Arc. Also note the circular faint red nebula surrounding Lambda Orionis at the top of the shape of Orion. Sirius is to the upper left of Orion, near the horizon (because Sirius is close to the band of the Milky Way).
What about the "S"-shaped band that can be seen across the sky in this picture? It is the so-called Zodiacal glow. The glow marks the plane of our solar system, the plane where all the planets except Mercury are orbiting. (Mercury's orbit is slightly inclined to this plane.)
The S-shape is the plane of our solar system seen projected across the sky. The plane of our solar system is filled with tiny bits of debris, dust, ice crystals, grains of sand and what not. The density of such debris is greater along the plane of the solar system than away from this plane. The tiny bits of debris faintly reflect the light of the Sun, even when the Sun has set as seen from the Earth. What you see here is, essentially, the plane of our solar system glowing faintly in space.
Look at the picture again. Can you see that really bright point of light in the lower part of the picture? It sits right in the middle of that faint diffuse glow of our solar system. What is the bright point of light? I can't be sure, but I would be surprised if it isn't Jupiter. This is, after all, exactly where you would expect to find Jupiter: somewhere is that S-shape that marks the plane of our solar system, where Jupiter is orbiting, of course.
Where is Saturn? I think it is in the upper part of the picture, near the top of the S-shape, to the left of a fainter-looking point of light.
Where is Venus? It is probably too close to the Sun to be seen in this picture.
Where is Mars? Beats me, but it is probably so faint that it isn't obvious.
However, you can find more than the planets in this S-shaped band. All of the constellations of the Zodiac should be in or very close to this S-shaped band. (The constellations are not
inside the solar system, of course, but instead our solar system is projected on the constellations of the Zodiac as seen from the Earth. And that is why the constellations of the Zodiac should be seen in or very close to the Zodiacal light of our solar system.)
Look at the far right part of the upper picture. You can see the slightly distorted shape of Leo there. Regulus, alpha Leo, is sitting smack in the middle of the diffuse band of Zodiacal light. To the lower right of Regulus is a faint patch of light, which is the Beehive cluster in the constellation of Cancer. Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini, can be seen slightly above the S-shaped band to the far right. (It is the feet of the twins, not their heads, which are inside the glow of the Zodiacal light.)
Look at the far left of the image again, and look at the lower half of the image. There are the Pleaides again. They are right in the middle of the Zodiacal glow. The Pleiades are in the constellation of Taurus, the Bull.
Finally, why is the Zodiacal light S-shaped? It isn't. If you were to buy today's APOD as a poster, you could glue the right and the left sides together, creating a sort of cylinder. Now the S-shape would suddenly be a ring.
As you can see, there is a cornucopia of information to be extracted from this picture. I hope I may have helped somebody out there to make a little more sense of it.
Ann
A Tale of Two Hemispheres
