Milky Way arm photographed from the heart of Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Astronomers have photographed part of the Milky Way from the heart of Abu Dhabi, using infrared imaging and digital processing to reveal dense star fields despite the city’s light pollution.

The International Astronomical Center (IAC) said the image captured a broad section of one of the Milky Way’s arms, including most of the constellation Scorpius and large parts of Sagittarius, in the direction of the centre of our galaxy, which lies about 26,000 light years from Earth.

Mohammed Shawkat Awda, Director of the International Astronomical Center (IAC), said the image revealed dense stellar fields towards the galactic centre, a region where large quantities of dust obscure many stars when viewed in visible light.

Infrared wavelengths are better able to penetrate that dust, allowing stars and regions that are harder to see in ordinary visible-light images to emerge more clearly.

The team used a highly sensitive monochrome astronomical camera together with a filter that allowed infrared radiation to pass through.

That combination helped partially overcome the effects of light pollution in the urban environment while preserving the light from large numbers of stars and bringing out more detail.

The photograph was built from 180 individual frames, each with an exposure time of 10 seconds, giving a total exposure of 30 minutes.

Those frames were then digitally combined and stacked.

A wide-field lens with an equivalent focal length of 19mm allowed the camera to capture a large stretch of sky while also including several Abu Dhabi landmarks in the scene, among them Mohammed bin Rashid Tower.

The experiment showed how modern digital imaging, high-efficiency sensors and image stacking can allow some astronomical detail to be recorded from within cities.

The centre stressed, however, that urban skies are not a substitute for dark astronomical sites, where far more detail can be observed without the interference caused by artificial light.