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Birthday · November 3, 2015

Seeking Venus under the Spitzkoppe Arch

November 3, 2015

Somewhere above you, light is arriving from places so distant their names feel like poetry.

Seeking Venus under the Spitzkoppe Arch

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APOD published November 3, 2015. Credit: Petr Hor�lek; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

Behind the image

Seeking Venus under the Spitzkoppe Arch

Original APOD · November 3, 2015

What's that in the sky? Although there was much to see in this spectacular panorama taken during the early morning hours of a day in late September, the brightest object in the sky was clearly the planet Venus. In the featured image, Venus was captured actually through a natural rock bridge, itself picturesque, in Spitzkoppe, Namibia. The planet, on the left of the opening, was complemented by a silhouette of the astrophotographer on the right. Above and beyond the rock bridge were many famous icons of a dark night sky, including, from left to right, the Pleiades star cluster, the Orion Nebula, the bright star Sirius, and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. This week, Venus remains visible to the east in the pre-dawn sky, being complemented by Mars, which is angularly quite close.

Image credit: Petr Hor�lek; Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt

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