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Aug 11, 2018
Moon, Mars, and Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Taha Ghouchkanlu (TWAN)
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Moon, Mars, and Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Taha Ghouchkanlu (TWAN)
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Just two weeks ago,
dark skies over the desert in northern Iran
held this alluring celestial vista.
The dramatic digital mosaic finds the Moon and Mars
alongside the Milky Way's dusty rifts, stars, and nebulae.
Captured through a series of exposures to cover a range in brightness,
that night's otherwise Full Moon is immersed in Earth's shadow.
It actually appears fainter
and redder than the Red Planet itself
during the widely watched total lunar eclipse.
For cosmic tourists,
the skyscape also includes the
Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M20)
nebulae and planet Saturn shining against the Milky Way's
pale starlight.
The Moon isn't quite done with
its
shadow play, though.
Today, the New Moon
partially eclipses the Sun for much of northern planet Earth.
