Explanation:
Bright
planets Venus and Jupiter
are framed by the
National Solar Observatory's
McMath-Pierce
Solar Telescope
in this very astronomical scene.
The photo was taken at
Kitt Peak
National Observatory on March 9.
A heliostat sits atop the 100 foot high
solar telescope tower
to focus the Sun's rays down a long
diagonal
shaft that reaches underground to the telescope's primary mirror.
Of course, after sunset shadows were cast and the
structure illuminated by light from the nearly full
rising Moon.
Opened to begin the night's work,
the dome housing Kitt Peak's 2.1 meter reflector
is included in the frame, while
the Pleiades star cluster shines above the heliostat tower.
The angular McMath-Pierce was commissioned 50 years ago to
study the Sun,
but has also
made many observations of these two bright planets.
On this night it was conducting observations of
sodium
atoms in the tenuous
lunar atmosphere.
