Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

Combining my love of time-lapse photography with astronomy, this video captures something that is surprisingly not highlighted very often.

In it you can clearly see the center of our milky way galaxy, long considered the entirety of the universe (we are so damn egotistical) rising to zenith over a star party. A star party, for those who don’t know is when a bunch of astronomers, amateur and otherwise, gather together to share equipment, knowledge and the sky with each other. I have yet to attend one of these.

I find the video absolutely awesome. Our own galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years across and that it is just one of about 30 galaxies that comprise the “local group” of galaxies and all this is just a tiny fraction of the galaxies out there… it can make your heart skip a beat just trying to conceive of it at all.

Here is our galaxy for your viewing pleasure.