[masraum]

And, here's my version of just a tiny part of this image, obviously with much less equipment and experience



This was just a camera with a telephoto lens. To get the good stuff, you have to have a German Equatorial Mount (a specific type of telescope mount) with motors to track the stars over a period of time (and you should probably have a second simpler camera to guide your mount and adjust for mechanical inaccuracies). If I only had a few thousand worth of equipment, I'd be good to go. Well, then there's the learning curve, and having a good, really dark place to take the photos and ....