Behold the Universe

What if you climbed up on a rock and discovered the Universe? You can. Although others have noted much of it before, you can locate for yourself stars , planets , and even the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy . All you need is a dark clear sky -- the rock is optional. If you have a camera, you can further image faint nebulas , galaxies , and long filaments of interstellar dust . If you can process digital image s , you can bring out faint features, highlight specific colors , and merge foreground and background images. In fact, an industrious astrophotographer has done all of these to create the presented picture . All of the component images were taken early last month on the same night within a few meters of each other. The picturesque setting was Sand Beach in Stonington , Maine , USA with the camera pointed south over Penobscot Bay . News: APOD is now available through Facebook translated into Catalan .