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| The region around the anticenter of the Galaxy at the border between Taurus and Auriga is rich in open clusters (circled) and variable stars (yellow labels). They outline a large blank area to the left of center, the Taurus-Auriga dark cloud, a complex of dusty molecule-filled star-forming clouds 460 light years away that blocks the light of the more-distant background. Small portions of Orion and Gemini are at lower left. Contrast the faintness of the Milky Way here with that at the center of the Galaxy in Sagittarius. See the full resolution version and the associated article Through Taurus to the Anticenter in the February 2005 Sky and Telescope, p. 91. |
