Core-ward into the Milky Way
The exact center of this Dark Ranger Telescope Tour Astro Art is where you would see the core of our galaxy and a supermassive black hole that lurks there. The problem is that there are three galactic arms between us and the core that blocks our visible light view. Radio waves, X-ray, and gamma rays coming off that central black hole and other energetic stars that make up the core can pass through the arms but not regular light.
Try this visual: Imagine your friend's head is the core of the galaxy. Now Stretch your right arm out bending at the elbow so that your forearm blocks the view of their head. Take your left arm and do the same but from the other direction. Finally take your middle arm and hold it in front of the other two. See how hard it would be to see your friend's head or galactic core with all those arms in the way? NOTE: This is easier to simulate for denizens of the Betelgeuse star system, many of whom, like Zaphod Beeblebrox, apparently have three graspers.
Can you find the pink-purple cloud on the left edge of the frame? That's the Lagoon nebula. Next look below and left of center for the two blue stars very close together. They are Shaula and Lesath which represent the stinger at the end of the tail of the constellation known as Scorpius. The bright star right of center is not a star at all (but could have been if it was 40 times more massive) but is actually the planet Jupiter. What does it mean when Jupiter is in Scorpius?! Absolutely nothing! Because that would astrological "thinking" and as EVERY astronomer will tell you, astrology means absolutely nothing! While some people can afford to be ENTERTAINED by astrology, nobody can afford to be INFORMED by astrology, because astrology predicts absolutely nothing.
While most northern cultures visualize their constellations by connecting stars with imaginary lines, some who live in the southern hemisphere, where much more of the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy is visible, made their constellations from the dark clouds of dusts that Dark Rangers (and other cool astronomers), call "lumpy darkness." The only dark-lane constellation visible from the northern hemisphere is called the Horse and Rider. See how there's a horse turned sideways with its four legs pointed horizontally to the right? Now imagine an exhausted native American warrior sleeping against his horse's neck as together they ride on through the night to warn that General Custer is coming.
When your guests gasp in awe at this image and ask "Was the Milky Way really that bright when you visited the Dark Ranger Observatory?" Please explain no and that this is a 15-minute long exposure capturing far more detail than the human eye ever could. Don't forget to add how you observed with your own eyes that the Milky Way is varying shades of grey and brown and that anybody else's art that shows blues, greens, or reds is faked -- merely jerking the color sliders around in their photo editing software. Because we the Dark Rangers provide an authentic telescope experience you can be certain our astrophotography is just as honest.
