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ESO PICTURE OF THE WEEK

The European Southern Observatory is associated with official Photo Ambassadors, and the results are outstanding. Here two of ESO's Very Large Telescope's unit telescopes bask under the skies of the southern hemisphere.

Noticeable in the centre of the image are our two neighbouring dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These two galaxies are about 160,000-200,000 light years from our own Galaxy.

The arc of the Milky Way also stretches overhead. Dark patches, including the Coal-sack nebula are prominent. In the southern sky, these dark nebulae are more prominent than in the northern hemisphere. As a result, Australian Aboriginal astronomers identified their constellations, not by stars – but by these dark patches. The Inca in South America also used dark nebulae (one of which they named the Llama) as the basis of their astronomy.

(from The Universe FB page, Oct. 4)