The southern Milky Way from Puppis (top) to Norma (bottom) slashes the sky above the deck of the MS Roald Amundsen in early December 2021. Although I knew this for a fact, it had taken years to experience it firsthand. Despite the loss of the Sagittarius-Scorpius section to solar glare, I really got a sense of the Milky Way as a circle rather than a band. It felt so liberating to 'keep on going' and follow the starry flow onward through Vela and Crux all the way to Norma. Because of nightlong twilights I saw only Sirius and Canopus from Antarctica, but Falkland skies delivered spectacular views of the southern Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds.įrom my home in Minnesota, the southern horizon cuts off the Milky Way a short distance below Canis Major. While the eclipse was clouded out, we scored four nights of mostly clear skies farther north in the Falkland Islands, which were also on the ship's itinerary. Last December I joined Sky & Telescope Senior Editor Kelly Beatty on a solar eclipse cruise to Antarctica.
Farther down the Milky Way to the right is the prominent dark nebula, the Coal Sack. The bright knot to the right of center is the Eta Carinae Nebula. Bradley Popovich of Lansing, Michigan, takes in the grand spread of the southern Milky Way from the deck of the MS Roald Amundsen in the Falkland Islands at latitude 51° south in early December 2021.
