[RyanJones]

Hi Robyn.

I think Sil summed up the astrophotography side of things really well. I guess the best way I can describe it is that we don't take photos, we collect data. We then process the data to bring out the image of the object. If you're expecting to " see " things, you probably need a grater understanding of what you are looking at. Google the visual spectrum and see how little out eyes are physiologically able to " see " verses the wavelengths of light that travel though out our vast universe. Add to that the sheer magnitude of distance we are talking about. When we photograph space, we take long exposures and stack them because the reality is that one photon my hit our sensors and the one next to it may not arrive for minutes or hours after. Small objects in our local group can have depth meaning that the light from the back of the object and the light from the front of the object may have left their sources separated by longer time than humans have been walking this earth. Furthermore, when your eyes are light adjusted, you only use the rods in the receptors of your eyes which perceive only black or white, in this case any colour you see is actuslly " fakery " by your brain trying to construct a colour it thinks it is seeing.
This universe of ours is beyond comprehension. The best bet is to forget what you think you know now and open up to the incredible reality that we capture a very small but equally incredible amount of !