In a planetary system close to the galactic core, would it be possible to see the supermassive black hole? I understand that radiation on planets near the galaxy’s center make life on these planets nearly impossible, and that one cannot truly “see” a black hole. However, if you could stand on the surface of a planet that orbits a star close to or within the galactic core, could you theoretically look up at the sky and see an absence of light/stars indicating the location of the central supermassive black hole?

Would it be too far away to see, obstructed by debris, or too small to notice?
If the black hole is active, meaning it is still capturing matter from its surrounding, it will have a large accretion disk all around, which is the only way to dissipate angular momentum for the matter falling into it. 

As a result of this dissipation all the matter will warm up and emit radiation. This disc will be fairly large and thus clearly visible as a bright object in the sky.

This page shows an image captured by Hubble of such a disk:


Strictly speaking then, one cannot see directly the black hole, as its view will be covered by the bright emission of the disk.

However, the presence of the disk will allow to observe the black hole thanks to its gravitational effect.