An Island in the Sky

What is the furthest thing you have seen in your daily life? Perhaps a large mountain at the horizon in a clear day, some tens of kilometers away? Our large neighboring cosmic island, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the furthest object you can easily see in a dark night with unaided eyes, some 2.5 million light years away, or 24 billion billion Kilometers! Here it is photographed with a telephoto lens on a single exposure.