This stunning image shows the clouds of the Milky Way over a lifeguard's cabin in New Jersey.
Astrophotographer Chris Bakley took the image from Cape May, New Jersey on Aug. 27, 2014. "What an amazing night! Was able to get out there and photograph the stars for a few hours and just relax. Met up with a few little seal pups that came right up to me," Bakley wrote on his Facebook page.
Our host galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy seen as a band of light in the night sky. It stretches between 100, 000 and 120,000 light-years in diameter. It is estimated that the galaxy has approximately 400 billion stars. At the center of our galaxy lies a gigantic black hole billions of times the size of the sun. [See More Stunning Photos of the Milky Way ]
To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by Space.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on Aug. 15, 2014. If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
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