Atlas Obscura’s Wondersky columnist Rebecca Boyle is an award-winning science journalist and author of the upcoming Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (January 2024, Random House). She regularly shares the stories and secrets of our wondrous night sky. For people in the Northern Hemisphere, time is running short to see the lavender haze of our home galaxy’s heart. We have just a few weeks of chances left before the Milky Way’s central area disappears from view, owing to Earth’s…
