Astronomy Picture of the Day: 10/02/13 - Guiding Light to the Stars

Just before dawn, at Cape Palliser on the North Island of New Zealand, Mark Gee was in the perfect position to photograph this incredible image. It took 20 images for Mark to capture this panoramic shot of the New Zealand shore, crowned with a majestic night sky overhead.

To the right of the picture, a lighthouse can be seen standing guard over the shoreline. The Milky Way stretches low across the Southern sky as their winter comes to an end. On the left side of the image, high in the sky, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud (bottom) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (top) - both Galaxies are about 163,000 and 200,000 light-years away respectively. Both galaxies are small satellites of the Milky Way and they are some of the closest galaxies to the one we call home. I think (and let me stress *think*) the bright star on near the horizon to the left is actually Jupiter. Don't quote me on that, unless it's right, then quote away.

References, sources, and further reading can be found here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-100213-guiding-light-to-the-stars/

Image Credit and Copyright: Mark Gee. Used with permission.