An Island of stars

Hi all! Wow there are so many great photos on this forum and I am glad to be a part of it. This is a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) which is our closest big neighbor floating in space at a distance of approx 2.8 milloin light-years from us. If you think about it this way "It takes the light from M31 2.8 milloins years to get to Earth. So in reality we are seeing this Galaxy as it looked 2.8 milloin years ago, not how it looks now". Space really is a time machine. I hope you like it.

-Todd

Photo data:
Nikon D3
200mm f/2.8 lens at f/3.5
ISO 1600
5 minute guided exposure

Here is a much larger 50% resolution image

http://www.pbase.com/todd991/image/108521129/loriginal
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http://www.pbase.com/todd991