Explanation:
A moonlit chapel stands in the foreground of this
night-scape from the historic Greek
island of Rhodes.
The tantalizing sky above features a colorful
lunar corona,
where bright moonlight is diffracted by water droplets in the thin clouds
drifting in front of the lunar disk.
Captured in the early
evening on May 17, the image is a composite
of 9 exposures in sequence, each 20 seconds long.
It shows star trails too, including
the very bright trail of planet Venus setting, below the Moon, near the right
edge of the frame.
Arcing from the horizon
on the right to the picture's left edge is
a surprisingly colorful trail produced by space shuttle
orbiter Atlantis
docked with the
International Space Station.
Some 350 kilometers above Earth's surface, the
orbiter and station
pair are still bathed in sunlight.
Though it might seem more appropriate when seen in skies over Rhodes,
the shuttle orbiter Atlantis
wasn't directly named for the legendary
island of Atlantis.
Instead, it was named for 1930s vintage sailing ship
RV Atlantis,
the first research vessel operated by the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute.
APOD Discussion Board:
Check out
astronomy news headlines and the
latest astrophotography submissions.
