Window on the World

Spectacular picture on APOD today. (Click over to see full size and a description.) This is an actual, single exposure photograph. Astronomical images can be a little misleading in that light over a long period of time can be "integrated" or "summed up;" our eyes could never actually "see" this. I remember being very disappointed when I found that the image one sees through a telescope isn't at all what one sees in a photo. I got over it. There is still something a little goose-bump inducing about realizing that the light being registered by my eyes has been traveling for thousands of years or longer, without being interfered with by anything. When it does finally hit something, it's the perception apparatus of a being capable of comprehending what he's seeing.

And photographs like this are just plain awesome, even if I can't witness them directly.