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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Eye on the Milky Way
NASA ^ | 19 Apr, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

Posted on 04/19/2026 12:43:06 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Have you ever had stars in your eyes? It appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars. The featured 27-frame mosaic was taken in 2019 from Ojas de Salar in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The eye is actually a small lagoon captured reflecting the dark night sky as the Milky Way Galaxy arched overhead. The seemingly smooth band of the Milky Way is really composed of billions of stars, but decorated with filaments of light-absorbing dust and red-glowing nebulas. Additionally, both Jupiter (slightly left the galactic arch) and Saturn (slightly to the right) are visible. The lights of small towns dot the unusual vertical horizon. The rocky terrain around the lagoon appears to some more like the surface of Mars than our Earth.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 04/19/2026 12:43:06 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 04/19/2026 12:43:26 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 04/19/2026 12:44:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Interesting that they posted the picture rotated 90 degrees.


4 posted on 04/19/2026 12:44:55 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQv2h1jEN2s&t=66s


5 posted on 04/19/2026 12:53:58 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
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To: MtnClimber

Lame that the pic is rotated 90 deg....

Now I have to go to GIMP to straighten things out.


6 posted on 04/19/2026 12:56:46 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
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To: MtnClimber

What an amazing photo, with that perspective! It works for me!


7 posted on 04/19/2026 1:11:18 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: MtnClimber

The Atacama desert is south of the equator so it should be rotated 180 degrees.


8 posted on 04/19/2026 1:23:05 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


9 posted on 04/19/2026 5:04:01 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


10 posted on 04/19/2026 5:04:01 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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