                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2023 May 10
    A person in silhouette looks out over a desert punctuated by unusual
   rock formations. High above is a colorful sky including the band of our
      Milky Way Galaxy and the Rho Ophiuchi star clouds. Please see the
                 explanation for more detailed information.

                       Milky Way over Egyptian Desert
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Amr Abdelwahab

   Explanation: For ten years the stargazer dreamed of taking a picture
   like this. The dreamer knew that the White Desert National Park in
   Egypt's Western Desert is a picturesque place hosting numerous chalk
   formations sculpted into surreal structures by a sandy wind. The
   dreamer knew that the sky above could be impressively dark on a clear
   moonless night, showing highlights such as the central band of our
   Milky Way Galaxy in impressive color and detail. So the dreamer invited
   an even more experienced astrophotographer to spend three weeks
   together in the desert and plan the composite images that needed to be
   taken and processed to create the dream image. Over three days in
   mid-March, the base images were taken, all with the same camera and
   from the same location. The impressive result is featured here, with
   the dreamer -- proudly wearing a traditional Bedouin galabyia --
   pictured in the foreground.

                     Tomorrow's picture: Rocannon's sun
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

