Terry Hancock, 60, from the comfort of his back garden .

Stunning: Terry Hancock's incredible images, including the Rosette Nebula seen here, were captured in his back garden in Michigan, US

Galaxies like Messier 81, also known as Bode's Galaxy, are revealed in stunning detail by Hancock's photos

'My astronomy photographs all show deep sky objects, many of them thousands or millions of light years away from Earth,' says Terry, originally from Burnley, Lancashire.

'The wonders of our universe are infinite.

Hancock used his own camera, telescope, mount and laptop to capture cosmic marvels such as the Pleiades cluster 460 light-years away

'The idea of gazing up into the night sky and being able to capture these beautiful clusters, nebulae and galaxies thousands to many millions of light years away really fascinates me.



'The nightsky is a virtual time machine that existed way before mankind existed, which I just find amazing.'



Capturing scenes from 5,000 to 20 million light years away, Terry only needs a digital camera, a telescope, a German equatorial mount (an object used to follow the rotation of the sky) and a laptop.

It took Hancock up to an hour to process each image, including the Orion and Horsehead nebulas, approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth, seen here

Hancock's image of the Bubble Nebula, up to 11,000 light-years away, shows the fascinating 'bubble' emission originating from a young central star in the nebula

Despite being 2.5 million light-years away, Hancock's photograph brings the Andromeda Galaxy to life

The Whirlpool Galaxy (left) and The Eagle Nebula (right) are both revealed in stunning detail in Hancock's images



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