SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Daniel Stern
Location of Photo:
Rio Hurtado, Chile
Date/Time of photo:
April 2026
Equipment:
CDK-17 / Moravian C5A-100M
Description:
Abell 1736 is a massive cluster of galaxies about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. In this very deep exposure, more than a thousand faint galaxies are visible across the field — some belonging to Abell 1736 itself, and many others lying far beyond it in the distant background universe. Each tiny smudge is likely an entire galaxy containing billions of stars. Some of the faintest background galaxies may be so distant that their light began its journey before life existed on Earth. Hidden between the galaxies are enormous clouds of superheated gas and vast amounts of dark matter, all bound together by gravity on a scale almost impossible to imagine.
