Explore the Center of the Milky Way! Pan, Zoom, and gasp.

A very talented Astro-photographer has posted a very large image of the central region of our Milky Way.
It's a mosaic made of of many photos, taken through Red, Green, and Blue filters. Pixel count is over a billion.
So there is some nice detail contained within.
Details from the Site:

This image is a 1 billion pixel RVB mosaic of the galactic center region (340 millions pixels in each R,V and B color). It shows the region spanning from Sagittarius (with the Milky Way center and M8/M20 area on the left) to Scorpius (with colorful Antares and Rho Ophiuchus region on the right) and cat paw nebula (red nebula at the bottom). This mosaic was assembled from 52 different sky fields made from 1200 individual images and 200 hours total exposure time, final image size is 24000x14000 pixels. The images were taken with a SBIG STL camera + Takahashi FSQ106Ed f/3.6 telescope and NJP160 mount from the clear skies of ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile. This mosaic is one of the three parts of the ESO Gigagalaxy Zoom project together with this incredible whole sky mosaic image by ESO/S.Brunier and this fantastic ESO mosaic image of the Lagoon nebula region.

Take a little time to look around. Something that struck me, was how this image was able to convey the light blocking abilities of dust clouds. I was finally able to get the feeling that in seeing nothing, I was actually looking at something. Dark clouds of dust!

Enjoy the image. It can be seen here:
www.astrosurf.com...

when you're done there. go to the main page of this guys site, and look at the other beautiful images he has to offer. Many of them are animated.
www.astrosurf.com...

Every time I look at pictures from Hubble or any other telescope it just blows my mind. I try to imagine what it would be like to hop into the Starship Enterprise and GO.

Thanks for this awesome post...S&F

WOW.....
I like to play connect the dots with the stars in this photo and make my own HUGE constellations.
I get real bored sometimes.
Awesome link.

Wow, it's just fascinating to see! There are thousands of lightyears and millions of stars contained in that picture and we can actually photograph it, seeing what our viewpoint is from Earth. The guy who made this has a lot of patience. Thank you for finding this and sharing!

double

I zoom in and look at all the light dots and think how crowded and busy it is out there.Must be full of life!

Thanks for the link! Those are some gorgeous pictures
It's amazing what things can look like when there's no pollution clouding it up!

Its shows what a little insignificant spec of dust we really are.

Amazing

Nice find! Try zooming in on a fairly light area; the amount of stars you can see is... well.. astronomical.
If one in a million of those stars support intelligent life then this galaxy is a very populated place.

Thanks for the kind comments.
I'd love to be actually responsible for taking the images. But this fellow had access to a great high altitude location, and some excellent equipment. I'm assuming he also works for ESO.

Finally a thread that is just a good smile! This rocks and I love it. Thank you for sharing. Just wait, someone will swear they see Niburu or something in it and take a good look and ruin it. LOL!

I went and downloaded the HD video version of this so I could play it on the big screen. It made me feel oddly homesick. Thanks for posting OP, flagged this one.

WOW these pics are awesome! I could stare and zoom in on these all day long!!

I love the links! Thanks for sharing these. I swear looking at pics of the galaxy really do show how insignificant we really are.

If you look closely and zoom in at the upper right quadrant Im fairly certain you can see Nibiru on its way to engulf us all,in the dust clouds there is a definite satanic face.........er only joking!!!

It makes me feel really insignificant but at the same time a tiny part of something so immense and awe inspiring. Beautiful find OP. S n F

I love it. So will my kids.
I will set back now, enjoy looking around the Galaxy and feeling tiny.

Thanks alot for this Great post/thread. This is the first time i have ever done the zoom in thing and to be able to do it in outer space is Amazing to say the least. I keep zooming in on this blue object that looks like it it a sun mayby but i don't know enough about this stuff to really make it out. Thanks again, TheMystro

The image is just mind numbing.. All of those stars

First person to spot a UFO gets an ice cream!

Thanks for the find! It always amazes me just how insignificant we really are, in the grand scheme (or scale) of the Universe. Star and Flag!

omg i love that, i love looking into the stars at night, i will do it for hours and hours on end, to me the universe is the most important thing in my life (seriously above friends and family)

i could look at it forever if i could, i love pictures of it as well, it really shows how large and beautiful it really it.

Enjoy conscienceness it is really a gift

Really cool! It looks like I am looking down at the sand at the beach.
So complex and full of substance....nah, there is no life out there, we're the only ones.

Peace,
spec