Chilean Desert Milky Way

The spectacular view of our home galaxy as seen from the extremely dark desert of Atacama, Chile. Also notable are the Southern Cross and Coal Sack dark nebula at the far top right corner, and the rich region of our Galactic Center in constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius in the middle of the image. The 3 cacti in the foreground are Echinopsis Atacamensis. They are usually between 6 to 8 meters in height for a diameter of about 70 cm. They live at altitudes between 2600 and 3800 m in the San Pedro de Atacama region, north of Chile. It is protected species that was used for too long as construction wood and still for handicraft.