#baade's window

"The sky toward the center of our galaxy is filled with a wide variety of celestial wonders. Most are visible with only binoculars. Constellations of nearby stars include Sagittarius, Libra, Scorpius, Scutum, and Ophiuchus. Nebulae include Messier objects M8, M16, M17, M20, and the Pipe Nebula. Open clusters include M6, M7, M18, M21, M21, M23, M24, M25. Globular clusters include M9, M22, M28, M54, M69, M70. And don't forget Baade's Window."

Taken by me (Michelle Park) using the Slooh Canary Two telescope on September 27th, 2020 at 23:58 UTC.

"What is the shape and composition of our Milky Way galaxy? This question would be easier to answer if there wasn't so much obscuring dust! In the 1940s, however, astronomer Walter Baade identified a "window" near the center of our galaxy where there is comparatively little opaque dust. Now called "Baade's Window", this sky region contains millions of stars and is used for many studies of the distant Milky Way. One clever use, devised by Bohdan Paczynski, is to monitor millions of stars in our galactic bulge - many through Baade's window - for sudden brightening due to gravitational lensing. Observations by the OGLE and MACHO collaborations have identified dozens of gravitational amplification events. This unexpectedly large number supported previous claims that our galaxy has a "bar" of stars across the central nucleus, pointed nearly at the Sun."