BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Look up - there are beautiful sights in the sky!

Love it. It will be my next wallpaper.

Almost all of us could look up into the night sky for decades and we wouldn't see anything as marvelous as the Milky Way and Zodiacal Light over Australian Pinnacles. That's because most of us don't live in Australia - and those that do don't hang around in this part of Western Australia. But - WOW! - what a picture.

This photo was taken in Nambung National Park. The spires are made of limestone (rock formed from ancient sea shells). Arching across the sky is our own Milky Way Galaxy, seen edge on. Rising from the horizon near the center of the picture is zodiacal light. That's sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust grains. You can also see Jupiter and Saturn and a few bright stars.

Here is an annotated version of Milky Way and Zodiacal Light over Australian Pinnacles if you want to identify the stars and planets.

Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang

Incredible. and a dark sky and no light pollution.

I am looking forward to my upcoming trip to Patagonia for a number of reasons, but the dark sky is certainly one of them!

Korie, wow! Patagonia. Sounds wonderful. Did you know that there are Welsh settlements there (primarily Y Wladfa)? Though the younger folk have moved away from the language, there are still a few thousand people people who can speak it. And of course many people have names like Rodrigo Jones or Alicia Edwards.

And sigh . . . the dark skies. Be sure to tell us about the trip when you go!

You might see the Milky Way in a fabulous night sky from many dark sky sites.

But the blue glow of the sea in this picture is rare - it's bioluminescence in the waters. Photographer Jeffrey Berkes wrote to Space.com

The photo was taken from Cannon Beach in Oregon around the Haystack Rock Bird Sanctuary.

Credit: Jeffrey Berkes

If you had been in Sweden's Vemdalen Ski Resort with a Sun halo in the sky, you would certainly have looked up to see it.

In the video, water has frozen into flat six-sided ice crystals. In certain circumstances an observer might see them when they're aligned with the falling crystals near sunlight or sunset. The crystals are miniature lenses and refract sunlight to create sundogs either side of the Sun. You can also see a Sun halo in the center.

Video Credit & Copyright: HÃ¥kan Hammar (Vemdalen Ski Resort, SkiStar)

This picture of Jupiter and Mars cozying up was taken from an aircraft. However on Sunday January 7 you might see them from the ground before dawn in the southeastern sky. They're closest together in the sky on Sunday, but will still be close for several days after that.

This shot was taken in the early morning January 5, Jupiter (left) and Mars (middle) are also lined-up with the the star Zubenelgenubi (right). Below are lights from central Europe near Prague, Czech Republic.

Image Credit & Copyright: Dong Han

I was going to share with you one of Michael Shainblum's fantastic sky pictures from California. But when I found that it was part of a series, I couldn't choose. Have a look at California Milky Way Photography and choose your favorite. If you can!

Dear Mona,

Now I see why it was hard to decide!! Those are probably some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen! They're almost unreal!
Thanks for sharing this.

Mary Caliendo
Tea Editor