Stairway to the Milky Way

Stairway to the Milky Way

Image Credit & Copyright:
Marcin Rosadziński

Explanation:
What happens if you ascend this
stairway to the Milky Way?

Before answering that, let’s understand the beautiful sky you will see.

Most eye-catching is the grand arch of the
Milky Way Galaxy, the
band that is the
central disk of our galaxy which is
straight
but distorted by the wide-angle nature of
this composite image.

Many stars well in front of the Milk Way will be visible,
with the bright white star just below the
stellar arch being
Altair,
and the bright blue star above it being
Vega.

The air glows green on the left,
just above the yellow cloud deck.

The featured image was taken last month on
Portugal‘s
Madeira Island in the North
Atlantic Ocean.

Oh, and what happens after you reach the
top of these stairs and
admire the amazing sky is,
quite probably, that you then
descend down the stairs
on the other side.