Summer is the best season to see the Milky Way. If the weather is clear at night, we can see a milky white band of light across the sky, north and south, which is the Milky Way made up of hundreds of billions of stars. The Milky Way and its surrounding constellations are brilliant and spectacular.
"The Milky Way can be seen almost all year round. Normally, it is a faintly glowing ribbon, but it has a 'highlight moment' in the summer, when the Earth's night hemisphere is headed towards the center of the Milky Way. Wang Kechao, director of science popularization at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the Milky Way can be seen almost all night in summer. After dark, the "Milky Way Arch Bridge" rises from the eastern sky and runs through the sky; Around midnight, the Milky Way will rise to its highest point in the north and south night sky, and facing south, we will see the Milky Way almost standing upright, showing the scene of "the Milky Way falling for nine days".
Among the brilliant stars in the sky, what are the "treasures"? Wang Kechao introduced, there are many bright stars in the Milky Way and its surroundings in summer, the most conspicuous is the "summer triangle": on both sides of the Milky Way, you can see the well-known Cowherd Star and Vega Star, which form a triangle with the main star of Cygnus in the north of the Milky Way, Tianjin Four, which is the symbol of the summer starry sky. The Milky Way passes through famous constellations such as Sagittarius, Scorpio, Aquila, Cygnus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Orion, etc. On summer nights, Scorpio and Sagittarius are located in the southeast of the sky and are also the brightest places in the Milky Way. In the Milky Way River, there are also the bright constellation Cassiopeia and the "winged high" Cygnus.
In summer, the Milky Way also "hides" a large number of deep-sky objects. There are the Trilobe Nebula (M 20) in the constellation Sagittarius, the Lagoon Nebula (NGC 6523), the Dumbbell Nebula (NGC 6853) in the constellation Fox, the North American Nebula (NGC 7000) in the constellation Cygnus, and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070...... A must-see for photography enthusiasts.
In addition, summer is a great time to observe the central region of the Milky Way, the heart of the galaxy. The galactic center is a denser area of stars and nebulae in the Milky Way, located in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Due to the low declination of the Silver Heart, the lower latitudes are more suitable for the Northern Hemisphere public.
Wang Kechao reminded that on a sunny night, the public avoids the moonlight and city lights, and can watch the summer Milky Way with the naked eye. If you shoot with a long exposure camera, you can get beautiful photos of the Milky Way.
Curator: Liu Xinhui
Reporter: Wang Juejun, Qiu Bingqing
Poster: Lai Yin-rhu
Editor: Zhu Shun
Jointly produced by Xinhua News Agency and Xinhua News Agency Jiangsu Branch
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