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

Great pics one and all.

Anyone who can sit and stare into these photos and still honestly manage to believe that we are all alone and that there is nothing else out there, my hat is off to you. And this is just one small hidden corner of a vast and endless universe.

Wow

reply to post by PronoEast


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Originally posted by spacedoubt
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...

Thanks a million for the link.

S&F Absolutely awe inspiring. nothing puts life into perspective to me more than watching time lapse on the globe spinning with the sun and the moon coming in and out of view. there celestial bodies along with the universe move as such different speeds to us that our lives must seem like insignificant bacteria infesting on a fleas backside. awesome simply awesome.

There's something very calming with watching space. I love it.

Thanks for the link, dude.

scroll to the bottom right hand corner of this pic



that is something interesting for those nibiru lovers

Billions of Stars in billions of Galaxies.

We are truly insignificant. Nothing. A tiny atom of nothingness. Yet our species is like a puffer fish at every corner.

Only just joined ATS and this is the first thing i looked at. If this site got more things as amazing as this, I gunna spend all my time with you guys

WOW! When looking up at the sky at night you can see plenty of stars, but WOW! It is amazing how many there really are. Somewhere out there, there must be life. It is too unbelievable that we are the only ones.

Peace,

Seq

I feel as I'm looking at all those stars, that in one of those stars is our unknown neighbors.

I wish that everytime I have the "intelligent species" debate with someone that I had this link to show people how small we really are.

Just think if we were born 1000 years ahead of now, that picture of our galaxy would be our map with travel routes and points of interest such as pulsars/quasars, life inhabiting planets, intelligent life inhabiting planets, ect.

Sigh, makes me sad we're stuck on this planet and I'll never get to explore those stars, unless ofcourse scientists reverse death while im alive, which im not relying on :O

reply to post by spacedoubt


Great find, this is one of the reasons I joined ATS. I absolutely love viewing the cosmos and this image is very well done and I find the enhanced zoom and detail extremely captivating!

This is something special, our universe is such a beautiful place I wonder if there is anyone else out there looking at the milky way from the other side saying the same thing lol

Has anyone finished counting all the dots yet?
I got up to abut 100, and the phone rang.
I told them I was busy doing a census of the galactic center.
Mom didn't understand.
That first link in the OP, contains another link where they are building a complete galaxy survey.
It's here:
www.gigagalaxyzoom.org...

If you click on the "ZOOM IN!" button at the top of the pic, you can pan and zoom in a similar fashion.
It's so amazing to think that all this stuff is part of our Milky way. And that's just one of billions of galaxies.
Makes my head hurt, but also makes me think that we probably aren't alone, even if the odds of other intelligent life is low.

Gorgeous pic...and nice to be able to zoom in and out.

.....And to think that everything and everyone you have ever known in this life exists on one tiny speck somewhere amidst this...

Mind-boggling.

Reminds me of the way "I" felt when I smoked '___' and I finally began to grasp what Forever actually means....
The total absence of time...
All I could do was weep in ecstasy when I understood that I simply AM! There is no end for me or you EVER! Together we have always been and always will be....


*oooohhh this pic and the memory of it is giving me goosebumps again*

Great find. It's nice to know other people feel the same way I do when looking at these pics; there's something oddly calming and peaceful when I see pics of space and the universe. It's almost like I've been there before and every cell in my body wants to go back.

reply to post by answerseeker81


That's a great thing to read.
Welcome!
It's nice to find a place with lots of curious people.
Looking forward to reading your input on things.

Great pic!! It is amazing looking at images of the universe. Too bad its not as peaceful as it looks right. Beautiful though.

reply to post by Dr UAE


I was just about to to ask if any space ships have been found... Yours is a start not a spaceship, but at least an anomaly... And that's just one direction.

That is great. Thanks for posting. Does anyone know if there's a way to download/save the whole 'zoomed-in' image? I want to make an A0 size print of this. Thanks

Uninteresting......just dots...big deal.