A distant galaxy appears as a sliver in the night sky in this photo by an astrophotographer.
The galaxy (named NGC 5529) is rotated 135 degrees clockwise in this image. The galaxy is located in the Northern Hemisphere constellation Boötes (the Herdsman) and is located about 140 million light-years from Earth. It stretches around 250,000 light-years across — making it roughly two times the size of the Milky Way. [Stunning Photos of Our Milky Way Galaxy (Gallery )]
Bob Franke captured this photo from the Focal Pointe Observatory in Chino Valley, Ariz., from April 3 to May 17 of this year. He used a 12.5" RCOS telescope at ~f/9 (2880 mm fl), 0.64 arcsec/pixel, a Paramount ME mount, SBIG STL-11000 with FWB filter wheel, and AstroDon Gen II Filters to capture the image. You can see more of Bob Franke's astrophotography here.
To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by SPACE.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
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