‘A fleeting vacation from terrestrial concerns’: readers’ best stargazing photos

Many people have spent more time at home due to the pandemic, creating opportunity for some, to do more stargazing. Readers share their astrophotography

This photo of the Whirlpool galaxy was taken from my backyard in Commack, New York, over the course of two nights in mid January, 2021. Stargazing has helped me throughout the pandemic because it gave me something to do during the many months I was out of school and home during the summer. I used my Orion 150mm telescope and a dedicated astrophotography camera to take many long exposure images which are stacked together and edited to get the image that you see here. My sighting made me even more curious about the universe and everything that's in it. It made me realise how small we are when you consider just how large these objects are. Brandon Berkoff, 15, Commack, New York