The Bridge: Discuss an Astronomy Picture of the Day • APOD: Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles (2025 Feb 09)

Today's APOD is a gorgeous and stunning image. It's melancholy, majestic and desolate. It is a fantastic portrait of the Milky Way, too.

APOD 9 February 2025 annotated.png

Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles. Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Goh

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APOD 9 February 2025 detail annotated.png



As you can see, Antares is "hanging down" from the Milky Way. So, if you don't mind my saying so - and even if you do mind it - this picture is upside down. Well, you know, in the same way that Australia is upside down.

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As a self-appointed Color Commentator, I note the lack of red stuff in the portrait of the Milky Way in this APOD. Compare the APOD with this Milky Way portrait by aryeh95:

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Can you spot the tiny little rosy-red Lagoon Nebula just left of center in the Milky Way? The reason why it looks so red is that aryeh95 used a hydrogen alpha filter to bring out red nebulosity. But as you can see, there is not a lot of the red stuff in the Milky Way, even when you use an Ha filter to detect it.

Oh, and yes: I note that the Milky Way is "upright" in the picture from Peru. Antares is floating above the plane of the Milky Way.

Ann

Wait a minute. Both Peru and Australia are in the Southern Hemisphere, right? Why don't they share the same orientation of the Milky Way overhead?

One picture was taken facing southish, and the other northish. A rising Milky Way looks upside down compared with a setting one.

Statistics: Posted by johnnydeep — Sun Feb 09, 2025 7:47 pm — Replies 5 — Views 114