The southern hemisphere view of the Milky Way, from the Carina Nebula and the Southern Cross to the bright galactic central bulge in constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. Mars, shining at its brightest during opposition with the Earth appears next to bright blue-white star Spica in Virgo, photographed from La Silla Observatory in the southern Atacama Desert, Chile, operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The two closer telescopes in the middle are the 1-meter Schmidt (left) and the 1.5 meter Danish National Telescope.