Stars, planets and moons

A small square of sky at the border between the constellations Perseus and Camelopardalis seemingly devoid of stars when viewed with the naked eye, but when imaged with a DSLR it becomes festooned with starlight.

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” ― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

" Each one of the coloured dots in this image is a star, a large ball of gas similar to our Sun at the centre of which, nuclear fusion is taking place. These stars are of differing sizes and at different distances from our Solar System. All are light years  distant and light years are measurements of distance that are 'mind bogglingly large'. Some of these stars are close together and are bound by gravity whilst some only appear to be close, being in the same area of sky but at vastly different distances. I cannot imagine how many planets and moons these stars may support. Do any of them host life of some kind or another and will we ever get to find out? It is all rather mind boggling and simultaneously wonderful. 

Tonight we have been testing the 'dew zappers' made by Jolene and whilst doing so I could not get out of my mind the vastness of the Universe"

- Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory.