                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2023 December 1

                              Milky Way Rising
                  Image Credit & Copyright: José Rodrigues

   Explanation: The core of the Milky Way is rising beyond the Chilean
   mountain-top La Silla Observatory in this deep night skyscape. Seen
   toward the constellation Sagittarius, our home galaxy's center is
   flanked on the left, by the European Southern Observatory's New
   Technology Telescope which pioneered the use of active optics to
   accurately control the shape of large telescope mirrors. To the right
   stands the ESO 3.6-meter Telescope, home of the exoplanet hunting HARPS
   and NIRPS spectrographs. Between them, the galaxy's central bulge is
   filled with obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, bright stars,
   clusters, and nebulae. Prominent reddish hydrogen emission from the
   star-forming Lagoon Nebula, M8, is near center. The Trifid Nebula, M20,
   combines blue light of a dusty reflection nebula with reddish emission
   just left of the cosmic Lagoon. Both are popular stops on telescopic
   tours of the galactic center. The composited image is a stack of
   separate exposures for ground and sky made in April 2023, all captured
   consecutively with the same framing and camera equipment.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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