              APOD: 2018 May 17 - Milky Way vs Airglow Australis

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                  2018 May 17
                                      [2]
                        Milky Way vs Airglow Australis
  Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Yuri Beletsky [4] (Carnegie [5] Las Campanas
                         Observatory [6] , TWAN [7] )

Explanation: Captured last week [8] after sunset on a Chilean autumn night, an
exceptional airglow floods this allsky view from Las Campanas Observatory. The
airglow was so intense it diminished parts of the Milky Way as it arced
horizon to horizon above the high Atacama desert. Originating at an altitude
similar to aurorae, the luminous airglow is due to chemiluminescence [9] , the
production of light through chemical excitation. Commonly recorded in color by
sensitive digital cameras, the airglow emission here is fiery in appearance.
It is predominately from atmospheric [10] oxygen atoms at extremely low
densities and has often been present during southern hemisphere nights over
the last few years. Like the Milky Way [11] , on that dark night the strong
airglow was very visible to the eye, but seen without color. Jupiter is
brightest celestial beacon though, standing opposite the Sun and near the
central bulge of the Milky Way rising above the eastern (top) horizon. The
Large and Small Magellanic clouds [12]  both shine through the airglow to the
lower left of the galactic plane, toward the southern horizon.

                  Tomorrow's picture: lasers and drones [13]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1805/airglow_allsky_beletsky.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://www.instagram.com/yuribeletsky/
  [5] http://carnegiescience.edu/
  [6] http://www.lco.cl/
  [7] http://www.twanight.org/
  [8] https://www.instagram.com/p/ Bio4FVigxfj/?taken-by=yuribeletsky
  [9] http://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/airglow2.htm
  [10] https://www.nasa.gov/icon/
  [11] ap160707.html
  [12] ap180428.html
  [13] ap180518.html
  [14] ap180516.html
  [15] archivepix.html
  [16] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [17] lib/aptree.html
  [18] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [19] calendar/allyears.html
  [20] /apod.rss
  [21] lib/edlinks.html
  [22] lib/about_apod.html
  [23] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180517
  [24] ap180518.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [27] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [28] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [29] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
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  [31] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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  [34] http://www.mtu.edu/
