A Stellar Storm

At first glance, it looks as though storm clouds are gathering over the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope. Situated at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, the Blanco experiences few stormy nights at its location near the arid Chilean Atacama Desert. The dark cloud-like structures pictured here are in fact dusty areas of the Milky Way that absorb visible light. The bright glittering fringes are not lightning, but thousands of stars — just some of the billions within our galaxy.