The word galaxy comes from the ancient Greek galaxias kuklos meaning ‘milky band’. Our own galaxy consists of several hundred billion stars in the shape of a spiral-armed disk some 100,000 light-years across. Far from city lights we can see this disk edge-on: thousands of stars sweeping across the dark summer sky.
Milky Way in Cygnus
Taken August 23, 2001, at Moose Pond, Denmark, Maine
Nikon F3, 50mm, f/1.8, 30 sec on Fujicolor Press 800, unguided