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Credit & Copyright: Ruslan Merzlyakov
(astrorms)
Explanation:
This moon made quite an entrance.
Typically, a
moonrise is quiet and serene.
Taking a few minutes to fully peek above the horizon,
Earth's largest orbital companion can remain
relatively obscure
until it rises high in the nighttime sky.
About a week ago, however, and despite being only half lit by
the Sun, this rising moon put on a show --
at least from this location.
The reason was that, as seen from
Limfjord in
Nyköbing Mors,
Denmark,
the moon rose below scattered clouds near the horizon.
The result, captured here in a single exposure, was that
moonlight poured through gaps in the clouds
to created what are called
crepuscular rays.
These rays can fan out
dramatically across the sky when starting near the horizon, and
can even appear to
converge on the other side of the sky.
Well behind
our Moon, stars from our
Milky Way galaxy dot the background,
and our galaxy's largest orbital companion
-- the
Andromeda galaxy --
can be found on the upper left.
Almost Hyperspace:
Random APOD Generator
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: crepuscular rays
Publications with words: crepuscular rays
See also: