Central Milky Way. Optical image of the central region of the Milky Way. North is at top. The brightest part of the Milky Way lies in the zodiacal constellations Sagittarius (lower left) and Scorpius (lower right). The Milky Way is the band of light crossing the sky comprised of the millions of stars in the plane of our galaxy. This view is looking towards the centre of the galaxy. Dark dust lanes are seen obscuring the light from stars behind them. The bright white object at lower left is the planet Jupiter. The red giant star Antares (Alpha Scorpii) is seen at lower right.