                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                                2022 July 27

                     Crepuscular Moon Rays over Denmark
           Image Credit & Copyright: Ruslan Merzlyakov (astrorms)

   Explanation: This moon made quite an entrance. Typically, a moonrise is
   quiet and serene. Taking a few minutes to fully peek above the horizon,
   Earth's largest orbital companion can remain relatively obscure until
   it rises high in the nighttime sky. About a week ago, however, and
   despite being only half lit by the Sun, this rising moon put on a show
   -- at least from this location. The reason was that, as seen from
   Limfjord in Nykøbing Mors, Denmark, the moon rose below scattered
   clouds near the horizon. The result, captured here in a single
   exposure, was that moonlight poured through gaps in the clouds to
   created what are called crepuscular rays. These rays can fan out
   dramatically across the sky when starting near the horizon, and can
   even appear to converge on the other side of the sky. Well behind our
   Moon, stars from our Milky Way galaxy dot the background, and our
   galaxy's largest orbital companion -- the Andromeda galaxy -- can be
   found on the upper left.

                  Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
                       Tomorrow's picture: tree north
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