Starry nights

You have to leave the cities behind to find the night again. Away from street lights, the sky fills with stars and the Milky Way appears as a long milky band: our own galaxy, seen edge-on from inside one of its arms.

This series brings together nights photographed over the years. The Milky Way rises above a line of trees, then over the Galician countryside near Lugo, where the Andromeda Galaxy can also be made out, one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye, 2.5 million light-years away. Elsewhere, stars break through the clouds above the roofs of a village, the full moon rises behind chimneys, and moonlit mist outlines the silhouette of a pine tree.

The most viewed of these images is not quite nocturnal: a thin crescent moon in the gradient of dusk, between the blue of the night and the orange of the set sun. Photographing the stars takes patience: a night without moon or clouds, a tripod and exposures of several seconds.

These royalty-free photos suit wallpapers, astronomy, science or meditation, and can be downloaded for free on Pexels.