Andromeda galaxy

Did you know you can see a galaxy with the naked eye? It’s true, though you do need a dark, clear sky free of moonlight. You can make it out with the naked eye if you know where to look. As someone who’s been at this a long time, I use a trusty star atlas, but nowadays there are apps you can download for stargazing. Viewed through a small pair of binoculars, it is a spectacular sight. The Andromeda Galaxy—as it is known—lies about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. These galaxies may eventually collide, as Andromeda is moving toward us, though that is a long way off; the predicted collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way is expected to occur in roughly 2–5 billion years, resulting in the formation of an elliptical "blob" galaxy dubbed "Milkomeda" or "Andromeway." This so-called "collision" is expected to be more of a gentle merging than a violent smash-up—it must be an amazing sight in the sky!

The image is a single 15-second exposure.