> look behind it, and there are whole edge-on spiral galaxies in the distance. Not stars. Galaxies.
just to add to the awe of that, pretty much every "dot" in one of these images is going to be another galaxy. individual stars from within the Milky Way will have diffraction spikes and very obvious as a single item.
It's dizzying even on the galactic scale to internalize that discrete, visible stars are "right there" compared to the general murkiness of the Milky Way. A sphere of very near stars right next to us relatively speaking
just to add to the awe of that, pretty much every "dot" in one of these images is going to be another galaxy. individual stars from within the Milky Way will have diffraction spikes and very obvious as a single item.