Cosmic Explorer

The Milky Way above the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the top of La Palma, 2400 meters above see level. Several red emission nebulae appear in this deep image (such as the Cat’s Paw nebula at top-left), made by an astronomy-enhanced camera and a small tracking mount. The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), operated by Spain, appears in the foreground. During the exposure a light inside the dome is turned on for a technical check. GTC is one of the world’s largest telescopes with the aperture of 10.4 m. Click on the second photo to see a closer view of this scene.