This is the Orion Nebula, 1344 Light-years from Earth.

Observation of the Orion Nebula, taken with Telescope.Live Dec 14, 2020 and post-processed by Author.

I took this photo two days ago from a $150,000 telescope, did my own post-processing, and have this beautiful look into the depths of space to show for it.

In actuality, it was more of a commission. I do not own the telescope, I was not there in Spain when it was captured, and I do not have the astrophotography skills to set everything up for the multiple long exposures, color filters, and image stitching that were done by experts who took it for me. I did get to pick the object I was interested in, the time and date of observation, and run the raw data through image editing software to get the final result.

Thanks to Telescope.Live, a distributed network of telescopes run by astrophotographers building out a democratized version of the industry, this was all done for free. After my free month is complete, I imagine I’ll be paying the $19.99/month for access to these tools.

Large Magellanic Cloud — Observed Dec 16, 2020 via Telescope.Live and post-processed by Author

2020 has brought with it many worries about our own independence, ways of life, and personal freedoms, but has also brought to light how systems of interdependence are truly the pathways to freedom. There is more than enough to go around if we focus on systems of interdependence and pursue novel ways to share our resources and expertise.

Thank you to the founders of Telescope.Live for creating such a rich example of the abundant era we are capable of creating. Who said saving the world can’t also be fun?

*Originally posted as a FB/Instagram Post Dec. 14th, 2020. My post was well received so I’ve rewritten it here as a blog post with an additional piece of astrophotography.