Small mushrooms and the nightsky

While searching the darkness for lovely little subjects, I stumbled upon these small mushrooms on a tree branch—beautiful! In the sky, one can see the section of the Milky Way containing the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. To the left of the star Deneb in Cygnus, a large and beautiful nebula—the North America Nebula (NGC 7000)—is visible. I photographed it using just a single 20-second exposure through the tree branches.

Moon with Earthshine

Early this morning, the moon could be seen with earthshine. Earthshine occurs when sunlight strikes the Earth and the reflected light bounces onto the moon.

This makes it possible to see the entire lunar disk at times—even the dark portion not illuminated by direct sunlight. The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "ashen light."

It is best observed during a new moon or when the moon appears as a thin crescent.

Andromeda galaxy

Did you know you can see a galaxy with the naked eye? It’s true, though you do need a dark, clear sky free of moonlight. You can make it out with the naked eye if you know where to look. As someone who’s been at this a long time, I use a trusty star atlas, but nowadays there are apps you can download for stargazing. Viewed through a small pair of binoculars, it is a spectacular sight. The Andromeda Galaxy—as it is known—lies about 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It is a spiral galaxy containing billions of stars, much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. These galaxies may eventually collide, as Andromeda is moving toward us, though that is a long way off; the predicted collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way is expected to occur in roughly 2–5 billion years, resulting in the formation of an elliptical "blob" galaxy dubbed "Milkomeda" or "Andromeway." This so-called "collision" is expected to be more of a gentle merging than a violent smash-up—it must be an amazing sight in the sky!

The image is a single 15-second exposure.