2021 May 8

What are those bright lights in the sky ahead?

At the end of last year's northern summer, after its dazzling opposition, Mars still shone brightly in the night.

Now posing against our galaxy's rich starfields and nebulae, brilliant planet Jupiter shines in the night sky.

You can pack a lot of sky watching into 30 seconds on this tiny planet. Of course, the full spherical image timelapse video was recorded on planet Earth, from Grande Pines Observatory outside Pinehurst, North Carolina.

From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust.

These people are not in danger. What is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance.

On the International Space Station (ISS), you can only admire an aurora until the sun rises.