Ultimate Darkness

Constellation Andromeda above a lake. The bright elongated halo at top is the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), larger than the Milky Way and visible to naked eye in dark skies. But even more impressive is the little round halo below M31 and right above the mountain. It is another Milky Way’s cosmic neighbor known as the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) and at distance of about 2.8 million light years away is the furthest object at the limit of human vision. Find both galaxies reflecting on the water.

From the photographer: “During a trip to Ladakh, Himalayas, close to the Tibet border, I was at Merak, site for the India’s National Large Solar Telescope, on the banks of Pangong Lake, 4,350 meters high.”