May 15, 1996
In the time it took you to read this, the Earth moved another thousand miles through space. You are not standing still. You never have been.
The Milky Way Near the Northern Cross
Birthday · May 15, 1996
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published May 15, 1996. Credit: Andy Steere. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This beautiful image of the sky near the bright star Deneb (just above center) reveals the stars, nebulae, and dark clouds along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy as seen from the northern hemisphere (near Columbia Missouri, USA). Just below Deneb lies the suggestively shaped North America emission nebula. Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, located in the tail of this celestial swan. Cygnus contains the asterism known as the Northern Cross and marks one side of the "Great Rift" in the Milky Way, a series of dark obscuring dust clouds which stretches on through the constellation Sagittarius. Deneb defines the top of the Northern Cross while the body of the cross extends past the upper right corner of the picture. Cygnus also harbors the most famous candidate for a black hole in our galaxy, Cygnus X-1.
Image credit: Andy Steere