— The most elaborate and expensive camera ever designed captured 800 exposures for a combined 11.3 days of exposure time between September 24, 2003 and January 16, 2004 . . .
The “photographers” in charge had no idea what to expect.
What they got proved to be arguably the most important photograph in the history of the world.
Consider this a moment . . .
Take a single grain of rice and hold it at arm’s length against the sky. Squint one eye and try to appreciate just how little of the sky a tiny grain of rice takes up.
That is how much of the sky the Hubble Telescope photographed 800 times on 400 orbits around the Earth in order to collect enough light to reveal what is now known as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image.
In this image you will find over 10,000 galaxies, each consisting of hundreds of billions of stars.
And just to drive the point home here by repeating it: That photo contains over 10,000 galaxies represented in the minuscule amount of sky you can cover with a grain of rice held at arm’s length.
That is one extraordinary photo.
And it revealed for the first time just how VAST the universe really is.
Which is rather humbling. Though I think in a good way — because it shows us just how trivial most of our silly complaints and petty frustrations are in the grand scheme of things.
It also shows us just how amazing a photograph can be. No Photoshop required.
Sometimes a photo says all it needs to say. As is.
And this one is very much worth contemplating.
Talk about pushing photography further . . .
Yowza.
– Sebastian