images

Milky Way and Echinopsis Atacamensis

by

S.Guisard/Novapix

Reference

a-vlc01-00033

Date

2008-06-14

The 3 cacti on the image are Echinopsis Atacamensis. They are between 6m and 8m in height for a diameter of around 70cm and live at an altitude between 2600 and 3800m in the San Pedro de Atacama region, north of Chile. It is a protected specie that was used for too long as construction 'wood' and (still !) for handycraft.This image also shows, in the background, the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way, with the Southern Cross and Coal bag in the far top right corner, and the rich region of our Galactic Center, Scorpius and Sagittarius constellations just in the middle. It is a 2 minute one-shot image taken with a digital camera.