Beautiful 360° Time-Lapse of the Galactic Center
We’ve featured astrophotographer Stéphane Guisard‘s beautiful time-lapse work capturing the stars once before when he put together the time-lapse of the comet Lovejoy rising above the Andes mountains. His most recent video, however, takes a much larger field of view, and teaches us a little bit about our place (or rather placement) in the Milky Way all at the same time.
The time-lapse above was shot at the Paranal Observatory in Chile using a Fisheye lens, and offers a 360° x 200° view of the rising of our very own Milky Way Galaxy.
Because our solar system is found somewhere near the outer edge of the Milky Way, astrophotography takes advantage by capturing an edge-on view of our barred spiral galaxy with the bulge at the center located in the vicinity of the constellation Sagittarius.
This time-lapse captures the rising of the Milky Way, culminating in a beautiful view of the Galactic Center as it makes its way to the zenith of the frame and then back down.
In addition to the gorgeous bar of stars, gas clouds and dust that instantly grabs your attention, careful observers will also see two of our neighboring galaxies, the large and the small Magellanic clouds, located in the top left of the screen.
Finally, the time-lapse begins and ends with the breathtaking and often-invisible shaft of light known as the “zodiacal light” in the bottom left (sunset) at the beginning and top right (sunrise) at the end:
To see more of Guisard’s beautiful astrophotography, head over to his website by clicking here.
(via The Atlantic)
