Because sometimes you need to contemplate the Gigapixals of Andromeda...

[Skidmore]

http://deadstate.org/nasa-just-released-the-largest-picture-ever-taken-and-it-will-stop-you-in-your-tracks/

[Octafish]

1. Starfields!

The spiral seems packed with stars. Then, as the camera pans across, stars seem to pile on, thicker and thicker.

How many, I wonder, harbor life?

Thank you for the heads-up, Skidmore. Amazing photographers, that NASA.

[Half-Century Man]

2. Everytime I am privilaged enough to get to see beyond our atmosphere.

I am heart broken by our inability to reach those distant twinkling lights.

Support Science.

[KingCharlemagne]

5. I reach for my Dickens:

Joe made the fire and swept the hearth, and then we went to the door to listen for the chaise-cart. It was a dry cold night, and the wind blew keenly, and the frost was white and hard. A man would die to-night of lying out on the marshes, I thought. And then I looked at the stars, and considered how awful if would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (Chapter 7)

And then I rue that I did not pursue Astrophysics or any of the hard sciences. A road not taken.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Incredible

I love it

[KingCharlemagne]

4. Awesomeness. Thanks for posting! - nt

[WillyT]

6. Huge K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[NightWatcher]

7. I wonder on how many of those rocks the people have their shit figured out.

[greyl]

17. People on THIS rock had their shit figured out 10s of thousands of years ago.

Then along came Salvationist Religion.

(extremely simplistic version of my opinion)

[zappaman]

8. Big rec and kick!

[cantbeserious]

9. Incomprehensible

eom

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Billions and billions of stars....

Wow.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Amount of sky taken up by the moon and by Andromeda....

It's surprising how much of the sky it takes up. (BTW: The moon and Andromeda are ever as close as this composite.)

Andromeda is only visible in perfect conditions or with a time exposure.

[Tom_Foolery]

12. I wonder what they call our galaxy...

How can anyone look at that and still think that we are the only intelligent life around?

[Unknown Beatle]

13. Whenever I see the

vastness of the cosmos, I am awestruck.

If only...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. If aliens landed the first thing Republicans would want is tax cuts for the rich.

[Unknown Beatle]

15. That the first thing they want anyway.

With or without aliens landing.

[Petrushka]

16. Breathtaking! Thank you for the link, Skidmore.

K & R