darrellbear

darrellbear t1_iuduzht wrote

You also managed to catch the head of Taurus the Bull at upper right--the V shaped asterism is the Hyades star cluster, which forms the bull's head. The red star there is Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull. If you extend the two legs of the V toward the upper left the two bright stars you see are the tips of the bull's horns. The planet Mars is presently hanging out between the tips of the horns; I don't see it in the image.

Betelgeuse is the bright reddish star at Orion's top left (his right shoulder as he's facing us).

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darrellbear t1_isdj42m wrote

It's dark nebulosity along the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and it's many trillions of miles (many light years) away, as are the stars. See the dark cloud shaped like a pipe, just right of the Milky Way, above center? It's called the Pipe Nebula. The center of the galaxy is a little to the lower left of the bowl of the Pipe, behind the one band of dark nebulosity. The Teapot of Sagittarius is on the left side of the Milky Way, opposite the Pipe. The stem of the Pipe points right at Scorpius the Scorpion. The Pipe also forms the back leg of the Dark Horse, which extends to the upper right. You can make out its crooked front leg, neck and head.

There is a ton going on in the pic, I won't bore you with it all.

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darrellbear t1_irlu212 wrote

There is a dark pipe-shaped cloud to lower right of center, it's called, well, the Pipe Nebula. It also forms the back leg of what's called the Dark Horse--its body, bent front leg and head extend to the upper right. See it? Also, the center of the Milky Way galaxy lies just to the lower left of the bowl of the Pipe, in the middle of the dark cloud.

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darrellbear t1_iqu41i5 wrote

There are actually three galaxies visible in the image--Messier 31 is the big one. The round fuzzy to the left is M32, the oval fuzzy to the right is M110. Both are satellite galaxies of M31, like the Magellanic clouds are to our Milky Way.

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