Galactic Center

The Galactic Center is the rotational center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is located at a distance of ~27,000 ly from our Solar System and can be located between the constellations of Sagittarius, Ophiucus and Scorpius. The center of the Milky Way appears brightest due to the (suppossed) existence of a supermassive black hole, Saggitarius A*.

The image was taken with a Nikon D3100 and the kit lense without any tracking. 13 exposures of 20" to avoid trailing, 3 darks and 3 bias stacked with Deep Sky Stacker. The contrast was enhaced to make more explicit the Great Rift.

The Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Side, Dark Rift, or, less commonly, Dark River) is a series of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds that are located between our Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way at an estimated distance of 300 ly. The Great Rift stretches from Cygnus to Saggitarius.
This is a clear example that there's no need of expensive equipment to enjoy the wonders of the space and to start working on astrophotography.


Enjoy!