Image Credit & Copyright: Patrick Lécureuil
Explanation:
A surreal night skyscape, this panorama stitched from 12 photos
looks to the west at an evening winter sky over
Pic du Midi
Observatory, Pyrenees Mountains, Planet Earth.
Telescope domes and a tall communications tower
inhabit the rugged foreground.
On the right,
lights from Tarbes, France about 35 kilometers away impinge on
the designated dark sky site though, but more distant
terrestrial lights
seen toward the left are from cities in Spain.
Stars and nebulae of the
northern winter's Milky Way
arc through the sky above.
Known to the planet's night skygazers,
the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters still hang over the western
horizon near center.
Captured in mid February the familiar stars of the
constellation Orion are to the left and include the
no longer
fainting star Betelgeuse.
