Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 February 27 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Two Hemisphere Night Sky Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Petr Horálek/ESO, [5]Juan Carlos Casado/IAC ([6]TWAN) Explanation: The Sun is hidden by a horizon that runs across the middle in this two hemisphere view of [7]Earth's night sky. The digitally stitched mosaics were recorded from corresponding latitudes, one 29 degrees north and one 29 degrees south of the planet's equator. On top is the northern view from the [8]IAC observatory at La Palma taken in February 2020. Below is a well-matched southern scene from the [9]ESO La Silla Observatory recorded in April 2016. In this projection, the Milky Way runs almost vertically above and below the horizon. Its dark clouds and and bright nebulae are prominent near the galactic center in the lower half of the frame. In the upper half, brilliant Venus is immersed in zodiacal light. Sunlight faintly scattered by interplanetary dust, the zodiacal light traces the [10]Solar System's ecliptic plane in a complete circle through the starry sky. Large telescope domes bulge along the inverted horizon from La Silla while at La Palma, multi-mirror Magic telescopes stand above center. [11]Explore this two hemisphere night sky and you can also find the Andromeda Galaxy and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [12]< | [13]Archive | [14]Submissions | [15]Index | [16]Search | [17]Calendar | [18]RSS | [19]Education | [20]About APOD | [21]Discuss | [22]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [23]Robert Nemiroff ([24]MTU) & [25]Jerry Bonnell ([26]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [27]Specific rights apply. [28]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC & [32]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2002/LaSillaLaPalma_Horalek_Casado_ZLCircle_viz_1500px.png 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?page_id=20 5. http://www.twanight.org/casado 6. http://www.twanight.org/ 7. http://twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp 8. https://www.iac.es/en/observatorios-de-canarias/roque-de-los-muchachos-observatory 9. https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ 10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ 11. http://www.astronom.cz/horalek/?p=5529 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200226.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 16. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 21. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200227 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200228.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 26. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 28. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. http://www.mtu.edu/