The Stars in Cygnus
February 02, 2022
Photographer: Greg Parker
Summary Author: Greg Parker
Without looking at the title you might imagine that what’s being shown here are embedded specks of quartz on the surface of a sandstone rock, rather than a view of a particularly dense portion of the Milky Way. The camera is pointing toward the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. In this small part of the sky, there’s likely more than 150,000 stars, according to the Registar program. Amazingly, all the grains of sand on the world’s beaches pales in comparison to the number of stars estimated to exist in the entire universe. Compare this image with the Earth Science Picture of the Day for February 26, 2014. Photo taken on November 20, 2021.
Photo details: Taken with a Canon 200 mm prime lens and a Starlight Xpress M26C, one shot color CCD.