The Nationalities of the Soviet Union Salute the Heroic Cosmonauts

Part of the enormous mural on the roof of the State History Museum (formerly Lenin Museum), Bishkek (formerly Frunze), Kyrgyzstan (formerly Kyrgyz SSR)

There was also a really very striking mural of Mother Russia (wielding a sword with the gold star on the pommel) defeating a Nazi warrior in an iron-horned helmet riding a huge bull with a garland of skulls and wielding a sword with the swastika on the pommel, but it took up so much of the ceiling that I couldn't get a photo that wasn't horribly foreshortened.

25,000 light years

Milky Way - the centre of the galaxy is roughly behind the dust-cloud just over the hills 3/4 of the way across the image. Taken from Tash Rabat, from which the Milky Way was visible across the sky after 30 seconds of dark adaption.