"This is the type of image we astronomers discard"

© Paul Anthony Wilson

"I came across this image whilst doing some work and it made me halt my work for a bit as I was taken by it’s beauty.

What is seen is an extremely tiny part of the sky, which like any other part of the sky, is just filled with galaxies which each one of them host on the order of a hundred billion stars. In fact, if you look closely you can see the galaxies as oval shaped objects.

This is not a fancy PR image with added colours which has been edited. Nor is it many images stacked together. Instead it is a raw image straight out of a 8.2 m telescope. No makeup.

It is what we astronomers call an acquisition image, which we use to figure out exactly where to point the telescope next. Once the object of interest is located, images like this are cast into the data archive for permanent storage and is rarely seen again by anyone, especially the public. I hope you like it."

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