Green Moss & Faint Aurora

I had hoped to see the northern lights, but only caught a faint glimpse on the horizon before it clouded over. However, this beautiful, fluorescent-looking moss on a small rock in the forest—with the landscape illuminated by moonlight and a faint aurora in the north—made up for it a little. The bright star in the image is Capella, in the constellation Auriga. The distance to the star Capella (Alpha Aurigae) is approximately 42.9 light-years (or about 13.1 parsecs) from Earth. Capella is actually a quadruple star system. The two largest stars (yellow giants) orbit each other at a distance of just 0.74 astronomical units (AU)—less than the distance between the Earth and the Sun—which is incredibly cool!