Above the Clouds
From the windswept peak of
Mauna Kea, on the
Big Island of
Hawaii, your view of
the world at
night could look like this.
At an altitude of about 13,500 feet, the mountain top
is silhouetted in
the stunning skyscape
recorded near dusk in early December of 2005.
The volcanic
peak
rises just above a sea of storm clouds illuminated
by a bright Moon.
Planet Venus
is setting near the Moon as the brilliant evening star.
The scene also includes the faint,
milky band of our own galaxy's
disk of stars and cosmic dust clouds stretching from the horizon
into the sky along the right edge of the frame.