Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 10
A person in silhouette looks out over a desert punctuated by
unusual rock formations. High above is a colourful sky including the
band of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Rho Ophiuchi star clouds.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way over Egyptian Desert
Image Credit & Copyright: Amr Abdulwahab

Explanation: For ten years the stargazer dreamed of taking a picture like this. The dreamer knew that the White Desert National Park in Egypt's Western Desert is a picturesque place hosting numerous chalk formations sculpted into surreal structures by a sandy wind. The dreamer knew that the sky above could be impressively dark on a clear moonless night, showing highlights such as the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy in impressive colour and detail. So the dreamer invited an even more experienced astrophotographer to spend three weeks together in the desert and plan the composite images that needed to be taken and processed to create the dream image. Over three days in mid-March, the base images were taken, all with the same camera and from the same location. The impressive result is featured here, with the dreamer -- proudly wearing a traditional Bedouin galabyia -- pictured in the foreground.

Tomorrow's picture: Rocannon's sun


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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