Astro Magic

Many of the deep space objects that I photograph are many light years away. And we're not talking billions or trillions of kilometres, we're talking much farther.

Astronomers measure astronomical distances in Light Years.

A light year is simply the distance that light can travel in one year.

So, light travels at just under 300 thousand kilometres per second! Have a think about
those numbers before you read on.

So imagine the distance light could travel in one year?

The answer would be

One Light Year

or

9,460,800,000,000 km's.

Objects such as the Orion Nebula are many light years away.

In fact, the Orion Nebula is 1500 light years away. This is where things get interesting.

If it has taken the light from the Orion Nebula 1500 years to reach us,
then we are seeing The Orion Nebula as it was, 1500 years ago.

We are looking back in time.

Telescopes are the closest thing to time machines we have.

The Orion Nebula could look vastly different by now, but we won't know for another
1500 years.

The photons (particles of light) that I capture on my film,
started their journey many hundreds or thousands of
years ago.
The science of astronomy had not been invented, the Vikings had not lived
and is some cases humans had not evolved.

Also keep in mind that the dimensions of most Deep Space Objects
are trillions of kilometres in width and height.

So capturing something from so far away, from so long ago, that is so large,
simply adds to the magic of Deep Space Photography.

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