The Large Sagittarius Star Cloud is the brightest visible region of the Milky Way galaxy, a portion of the central bulge seen around the thick dust of the Great Rift which lines the northwest edge.

[2] To the naked eye, the Cloud appears bright and smooth, and is said to resemble a puff of "steam" escaping from the spout of the Sagittarius "Teapot" asterism.

[3] The Large Sagittarius Star Cloud is the innermost galactic structure that can be observed in visible wavelengths, and the most distant portion of the Milky Way that can be seen with unaided eyes.

[2] The Galactic Center, which is obscured at visible wavelengths due to interstellar dust, lies about two degrees west of the Cloud.

[6][7] The Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS) was a 2006 astronomical survey project using the Hubble Space Telescope to monitor 180,000 stars for seven days to detect exoplanets.