Since May 2000 I am working as a support astronomer at the Nordic Optical Telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. My main field of research is Star Formation and the origin of the Initial Mass Function. As an observer I mainly work within the optical and infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
North is up and east is left.
Only a handful of stars are optically visible in this region. Even in the near-IR very dense regions are seen as absorption of star light. Note the ridge in the NW-SE direction of apparently very dense material.