© César Vega ToledanoThe 'Galaxy Tree'
Staying up until the small hours of the morning gave photographer César Vega
Toledano the shot he was waiting for – a stunning snap of our galaxy the Milky
Way rising above a distinctive grove of pruned oak trees in Salamanca, Spain. From
this perspective, you should be able to see that the dust lanes appear to be natural
continuations to branches of the tree.
From locations untouched by light pollution, the naked eye can see between
5,000 to 8,000 stars. Due to the position of the Solar System, much of the Milky
Way is invisible to us since we have to look through the galactic plane, which is
packed with dust and stars that obscure our view of the remaining 200 to 400
billion members of our home galaxy.