From spacetelescope.org : "The observed region of sky in Ursa Major was carefully selected to be as empty as possible so that Hubble would look far beyond the stars of our own Milky Way and out past nearby galaxies."

They picked a spot in the sky known for being dark and having as close to nothing in it as you can get. And that's where they see only a few hundred thousand galaxies.

The Hubble Deep Field is a wonderful thing. Another comparison that I've heard is that it covers an area of night sky similar to the average thumbnail at arm's length. So basically any spot in the sky that you can cover with your thumbnail, there's more than likely 100,000s of galaxies.. each containing billions to trillions of stars.. and the majority of stars have a planet system with 1 or more, sometimes many more. It's never not mind blowing to think about. Right under your thumb, there's galaxies being born, there's galaxies colliding, planets being birthed, planets getting annihilated, life appearing through abiogenesis, life being extinguished, new species evolving, species going extinct. Pretty much anything you can imagine, within the known natural laws of the universe of course.. is most likely happening out there at any given moment.

Anton always has cool informatoion. Helps me gear down evert morning after work, and who doesn't like being adressed as wonderful person everyday.