Two Eyes on the Milky Way Core

A Notable Photo of the 2016 International Earth & Sky Photo Contest
From the photographer: “This photo illustrates the intimate connection between humans and the universe. On earth humans have built impressive machines with which to explore the heavens, one of which is the adaptive optics lasers visible in this photo. The two lasers connect our terrestrial nature with the heavens.”

Technical details: D700 + 17-35 lens, 17mm, 30 sec., f/2.8, ISO 6400