From Here to Andromeda

Andromeda en het noorderlicht op Texel. (in Nederland is de aurora borealis vaak magenta van kleur). Volg mijn werk op [url=http://facebook.com/laanscapes]Facebook[/url] en blijf op de hoogte van workshops! ~~~ Around 2.5 million light-years from here, the Milky Way's big sister shines dimly in our night sky. There are some places on Earth where she's still visible to the naked eye. The isle of Texel (the Netherlands), is such a place. In good conditions you'd be blown away by how much you can see. And this picture here wasn't even shot in good conditions... Following the lighthouse lit sandy path in between the dunes in center of the composition sits Andromeda, seemingly still. With the combined light of about a trillion stars (that's one million times a million!), Andromeda's image pierces through the darkness of space as it appeared 2.5 million years ago. One other mind-blowing fact is that our Milky Way is on a collision course with Andromeda. In 3.75 billion years, our galaxies are expected to form one gigantic galaxy, spanning hundreds of thousands of light-years across. 'From Here to Andromeda' was captured in "de Slufter" (on the Isle of Texel, Netherlands) with the D600 at 14mm. The sky: f/2.8 | 25s | ISO6400 The foreground: f/7.1 | 903s | ISO800