A long night flight, cockpit lights dimmed, a fresh brew of coffee and the most spectacular view imaginable. While the dark Sahara desert of southern Egypt glides by below, with a few isolated settlements sprinkled across the landscape, the true depth of our universe unfolds above.

Not just a beautiful night with a handful of stars to gaze at, not a view towards a distant galaxy, but into the very core of our own Milky Way. Hundreds of billions of stars, some of them ancient beyond comprehension. Light that travelled unimaginable distances and through vast stretches of time before finally falling into my eyes or into the lens of my camera.

Inevitably, conversations in the cockpit take a slightly more philosophical turn once our eyes adjust to the relative darkness and the true scale of our view sets in. Contemplations and discussions about life, the universe and everything suddenly flow as naturally as our 747 glides through the midnight sky.

And somewhere between the coffee, the quiet hum of four engines and the unimaginable scale above us, I realise I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.