Geometer's Playground Over Wyoming

Astronomy Picture of the Day · 2011-06-06 · NASA (public domain)

Advertisement
Geometer's Playground Over Wyoming — APOD for 2011-06-06

If you travel several kilometers off a main highway through Wyoming, you may see an unusual sight. In particular, near Buford , Wyoming , USA, you could run across the geometric Ames Monument , visible on the right, built to commemorate the financiers of a historic transcontinental railroad across North America . The above spectacular wide field mosaic, however, has also captured other geometric designs, many of them far in the distance. On the far left, for example, is a lunar halo surrounding by a lunar corona surrounding the setting Moon. On the right, however, is the arch of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy surrounding the pyramidal structure . Illuminating the horizon to the right of the monument are the city lights of Cheyenne . The menagerie of images used to create this 360-degree composite were all taken during a single night last month. Still, the digital stitching of images taken over such a long period of time has led to a few unnatural land and sky justapositions. Can you identify any ?

Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2011-06-06 — image & explanation courtesy of NASA (public domain), mirrored at Tukuk-OS for reading and search convenience.

Advertisement
Advertisement