A long exposure under dark skies reveals the delicate beauty of our Milky Way galaxy. The tiny smudge at top right is our neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy, a spiral galaxy containing about one trillion stars. This is the furthest object visible with the naked eye—light takes about 2.5 million years to travel from the stars of Andromeda to Earth.

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Two Galaxies Over Bell Marsh
Taken August 30, 2019, in York, Maine
Nikon D500, 10mm, 30 sec at f/3.5, ISO 8000