Galactic Center in the Direction of Sagittarius

One thing that amazes me about looking out at the summer sky is that if you look to the southern horizon, in the direction of the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius, you are looking toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy.  

As if that wasn't awe inspiring enough, the dust and faint stars we see in that direction are not even close to the actual center of our galaxy.  There is about 27,000 light years worth of distance between Earth, and the Galactic Center.  

A light year is a distance of about 6 trillion miles.  Put into perspective,  a trip at the speed of light toward Galactic Center would take 27,000 years.  So much for galactic travel huh?

In any case, the purple line in the image below represents the plane of our galaxy, and Galactic Center lies along that line just above the spout of the "Teapot" asterism of Sagittarius.  

Created by the Author using Stellarium.