Near the center of the Milky Way is the topic of Part #4 of our image presentation, where we want to share the results from our astrophotography-trip to the Hacienda Los Andes in Chile.

This time we will show you images of the Milky Way itself and of objects inside constellations in the vicinity of the center of the Milky Way. The covered constellations are: Sagittarius, Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Norma and Ara. The young open star cluster NGC 6520 is embedded in a star rich region of the constellation Sagittarius which also includes the very dense dark nebula Barnard 86. M4 is a large apparent size globular cluster right next to Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. The reason why M4 is bright and large is simply due to its distance. At only 7,200 light years, it's one of the closest globular clusters to our Solar System. The beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. The nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry, which makes it similar in appearance to the more common and familiar planetary nebulae. NGC 6164 is aproximately 4,200 light-years away and belongs to the southern constellation of Norma.

The two reflection nebulae IC 4603 und IC 4604 are part the large Rho Ophiuchus Nebula Complex Region. Especially IC 4604 is one of the most colorful and most beautiful regions in the sky. Another beautiful reflection nebula is IC 4592 (also known as the Blue Horsehead Nebula), which belongs to the constellation Scorpius.

In the wide field image of M 6 you can also find the open star cluster NGC 6383, NGC 6357 - an expansive emission nebula complex and NGC 6334 - also known as the Cat's Paw Nebula. Last but not least we have captured a mosaic image of the Milky Way between Sagittarius and Carina.