Galactic Emu

At a dark site by the shores of Lake Taupo on New Zealand’s North Island, the Milky Way arch extends in the southern sky. Aboriginal people in Australia believed that the dark patches in the Milky Way represent a giant Emu in the Sky (Emu is the largest bird native to Australia). The dark nebula just next to the Southern Cross (right) is the Emu’s head. The neck goes through Alpha and Beta Centauri and the wider part of the Milky Way in Scorpius becomes the Emu’s body (top left). Emu looks like diving in to the Lake Taupo!

As noted by the photographer: “Lake Taupo looks very similar to Lake Iznik near my hometown Bursa in daytime; with poplars, pines, willows, olives. The night looks much different, of course!”