#galactic core

[a-dream-seeking-light]

Valley of the Gods by Dan Zafra

[spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace]

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[ackcrabbit]

Doodled a steve concept. Local man selling time shares that no one gives a rat's ass about. But I care

[malavoie1]

Cape Forchu At Night

📍 Location: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

I captured this image from the balcony of the rental cottage where we were staying near Yarmouth, and it turned out to be the perfect vantage point. The galactic core stretched almost vertically across the sky, rising above the treetops and disappearing into thousands of stars overhead. The dark silhouettes of the evergreens framed the scene and kept my attention on the night sky. The streak of light crossing the middle ground came from a car travelling toward the Cape Forchu Lighthouse during the three-minute exposure. A faint green band of natural airglow along the horizon was an unexpected bonus that added another layer of atmosphere to the image.

What makes this image especially interesting is that it was captured as a single 180-second exposure using the Pentax O-GPS2 Astrotracer. Instead of following the stars with a traditional equatorial mount, Astrotracer uses the camera's GPS, compass, and in-body image stabilization to precisely move the sensor and compensate for Earth's rotation. The result is tack-sharp stars over an exposure that would normally produce long star trails, all from a relatively compact camera setup.

For the composition, I positioned the Milky Way along the right third of the frame so it would naturally lead the eye upward through the image. The silhouetted trees provide a sense of scale, while the lights along the shoreline balance the darker foreground without distracting from the galaxy above. Shooting at 10mm allowed me to capture both the sweeping sky and enough of the landscape to give the scene context. Thanks to Astrotracer, I was able to use a 180-second exposure at ISO 200, revealing intricate detail in the galactic dust lanes while keeping image noise exceptionally low. The slight streaking in the shoreline lights is a subtle reminder that while the camera was tracking the stars, the landscape itself was moving relative to the sensor—a unique characteristic of tracked nightscape photography.

Processed with Affinity Studio and Topaz Photo AI.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: Tamron SP AF 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical [IF] 10mm / ƒ/4 / 180s / ISO 200 Taken: September 4, 2024

[darkenergyslivers]

The Night Sky posted by u/Aggressive-Winner561 via r/Stargazing

[smbhax]

"An image of the Milky Way captured by the MeerKAT radio telescope array [...] spans 1,000 light-years [...].   "At the center of the MeerKAT image the region surrounding the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole blazes bright. [...] Like a super-long exposure photograph, MeerKAT shows the bubble-like remnants of supernovas that exploded over millennia, capturing the dynamic nature of the Milky Way’s chaotic core.  "Astronomers think the strong magnetic fields in the heart of the galaxy are shaping the filaments seen by MeerKAT [...]. "Credits Image NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, Samuel Crowe (UVA), John Bally (CU), Ruben Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), Ian Heywood (Oxford)"

[brightestofcentaurus]

Galactic Core

"This dazzling infrared image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy."

Image and information from NASA.

[timbercow]

A flock of dust around a galaxy.