Stairway to Heaven

Picture taken in April 2024 in Madeira Island. This is a mosaic consisting of 14 panels (7 panels for the sky and 7 panels for the foreground). The photo shows the arc of our galaxy, the Milky Way✨✨✨, over a rocky hill that looks like suspended in the air. The wide viewing angle allows us to observe a huge area of our galaxy with beautifully visible hydrogen nebulas in red color. From right to left we may admire here: the constellations of Sagittarius, Ophiuchus and Scorpius, colorful Rho Ophiuchi, the red-glowing Lagoon, Omega and Eagle Nebulas. Than in the constellation of Cygnus and Cepheus we may see North America and Elephant's Trunk nebula. So far, taking this photo probably cost me the most effort, and I don't mean only the processing process, but especially physical effort 😀. The place where the photo was taken is Pedra Rija at an altitude approximately 1800m. One of the most beautiful viewpoints on the island , located on the difficult PR1 mountain trail between the two highest peaks on the island, Pico do Areerio (1818m) and Pico Ruivo (1862m). Just getting to this place is about 1.5 km. It doesn't seem like much, but with an almost 10kg backpack the perspective changes drastically and after a sleepless night, returning to the parking lot near the Pico do Areeiro, where you only have to go uphill, was a really big challenge 😀😀😀. An additional attraction in the photo is the sea of clouds visible on the left bottom side, which in some places is illuminated from below by city lights. Just above the clouds you can admire the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), which is the closest galaxy to our Milky Way at 2.5 million light-years from Earth. In May 29th picture was published by NASA as Astronomy Picture of the Day. APOD: 2024 May 29 – Stairway to the Milky Way (nasa.gov)