APOD 4.7

Wonder and Mystery Above the Very Large Telescopes
May 9, 2011

I chose this picture for the week because if shows a panorama of the night sky, granted that it was taken in Chile so the Southern Hemisphere is visible. We have just finished our last constellation of the week quiz where we added on new constellations. From here on out, we will just be reviewing them. No more new ones. I wasn't really able to identify constellations in this photo because the perspective is so different. I could point out Orion, but that's about it. An interesting feature of this picture is the amount of light that it captures. The light at the bottom of the photo is called Zodiacal Light. This light is a reflection of the dust in the Zodiacal Cloud. The dust is actually reflecting sunlight. Then of course is the Milky Way Galaxy.  The beautiful band of millions of stars that stretches across the sky. In Sarasota, it is nearly impossible to see the Milky Way, but one day I hope to see it. Like I said before, the picture was taken in Chile, which is in the southern hemisphere. The Very Large Telescopes are located here. The VLS are actually part of the European Space Agency. The aperture of the these telescopes are around 8.2 meters. Also observed in the photo are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These are small irregular galaxies. In addition is the Barnard Loop, found in Orion. Add all these ingredients together and you get our universe, or at least what we can see.