[wastedyears]

I simply don’t have a clue how we get these kinds of pictures.

[kbennkc]

I simply don’t have a clue how we get these kinds of pictures.

Don't ask anyone around here , you will get a technical answer that will take the enjoyment away .

[Calvin Locke]

Oh, a digital camera, a telescope, a clear night or ten, and Registax...

Check out the stacked images of Mars in retrograde. Yesterday's APOD, iirc.

[AntiKev]

This is what the night sky actually looks like...if you can magnify it enough. Amazingly humbling isn't it?

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena." - Carl Sagan

[RightWhale]

These M objects were catalogued so they wouldn’t be confused with comets which is what they were actually looking for. Even 100 years ago it was not realized that these objects were outside the Milky Way and are galaxies in their own right. Binoculars are good enough to see most of the M objects if the night sky is any good.

[seowulf]

I simply don’t have a clue how we get these kinds of pictures.

It's all faked up in some Hollywood studio, just like the moon landings.

[devane617]

It’s not ‘faked’, but these pic are filtered, and filtered, and filtered, etc., etc., etc., then enhanced, and enhanced, and enhanced, etc., etc., etc.,...then colorized, and colorized, and colorized, etc., etc., etc...See it’s easy...Sometime what you see is NOT what you see.

[sig226]

I simply don’t have a clue how we get these kinds of pictures.

Mountains of technology.

They usually superimpose several images so they can filter them for different aspects, then add color based on the source of the light. If you follow the link to the NASA page, there is usually a link to somewhere that explains how they made the picture. You won't see any of this stuff if you look through a telescope, but it's beautiful and the science behind it is sound.