Even the faintest stars Huck and Jim could see as their raft drifted down the Mississippi were in our own Galaxy . The faintest objects astronomers can see today are the distant galaxies -- entire systems of stars comparable to our own Milky Way, which fill the Universe. Despite the advances, the sense of wonder so simply expressed in Huck's musing is still the same.
28 July 1996
Huck Finn's New Sky View

