Dark River, Wide Field

Explanation: A Dark River of dust seems to run from our Galactic Center, then pool into a starfield containing photogenic sky wonders. Scrolling right will reveal many of these objects including (can you find?) the bright orange star Antares , a blue(-eyed) horsehead nebula , the white globular star cluster M4 , the bright blue star system Rho Ophiuchi , the dark brown Pipe nebula , the red Lagoon nebula , the red and blue Trifid nebula , the red Cat's Paw Nebula , and the multicolored but still important center of our Galaxy . This wide view captures in exquisite detail about 50 degrees of the nighttime sky , 100 times the size of the full Moon, covering constellations from the Archer ( Sagittarius ) through the Snake Holder ( Ophiuchus ), to the Scorpion ( Scorpius ). The Dark River itself can be identified as the brown dust lane connected to Antares , and spans about 100 light years. Since the Dark River dust lane lies only about 500 light years away, it only appears as a bridge to the much more distant Galactic Center , that actually lies about 25,000 light years farther away.