Here is an image that has taken almost a decade to achieve. It’s a map of all the galaxies near to us (we’re at the centre of the image, naturally).

The image was collated with data from the Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) carried out with the 1.2-m UK Schmidt Telescope in eastern Australia, operated by the Anglo-Australian Observatory and involving scientists from the US, UK and Australia. (published here)

It shows not only the positions of the galaxies, but also their movements.

But hang on, there’s a bit missing. Those two blank triangles are there because the Milky Way and all its dust gets in the way. “Sadly we can’t see the whole of the sky,” says John Lucey, a team member from Durham University, UK.