In the Vastness of Space (NGC 2403)

How big is the universe? Every star in this image is within the Milky Way, our home galaxy. Through this star field we can see NGC2403, a spiral galaxy about 50,000 lightyears in diameter, half the size of Milky Way. The photons from NGC2403 travelled for 10 million years, before falling on the camera sensor to create this image. Yet, Milky Way and NGC2403 are just two of the estimated 2 trillion galaxies in the universe.

This image was captured in RGB and H-alpha with a total exposure time of 8.5 hours, using a SkyWatcher Quattro 8-inch f/4 Newtonian telescope on an equatorial mount.