The Milky Way over the Temple of Poseidon
Image Credit & Copyright:
Alexandros Maragos;
Rollover Annotation: Judy Schmidt
What's that glowing in the distance?
Although it may look like a
lighthouse, the rays of light near the horizon actually emanate from the
Temple of Poseidon at
Cape Sounion,
Greece.
Some temple
lights are even reflected in the
Aegean Sea in the foreground.
Although meant to be a monument to the sea, in this image,
the temple's lights seem to be pointing out locations on the sky.
For example, the wide ray toward the right fortuitously points toward the
Lagoon Nebula in the central band of our
Milky Way, which runs diagonally down the image from the upper left.
Also, the nearly vertical beam seems to point toward the star clouds near the direction of the
Wild Duck open cluster of stars.
The featured image was taken less than three weeks ago.