Yes, but how many dark clouds have a multicolored lining?

Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a
pileus
iridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a uniformly similar size and
so together
diffract
different colors of sunlight by different amounts.

The
above image was taken just after the
picturesque sight
was noticed by chance by a photographer in
Ethiopia.

A more detailed picture of the same cloud shows not only
many colors, but unusual dark and wavy bands whose origins are thought
related to
wave disturbances
in the cloud.

Read the full story:
A Pileus Iridescent Cloud Over Ethiopia

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It was a sky for the imagination.

In the early evening last week, the sky illuminating the
unaided eye was perhaps
even more illuminating to the mind's eye.

The unaided eye saw clouds framing the
Moon setting over a calm and reflective bay,
spruce trees lining the nearby shores, the Pleiades open star cluster (M45) glowing prominently in the center of the sky, the
Andromeda galaxy hovering just over the horizon on the right, and the
belt stars of Orion lined up on the left,
just below the bright orange star
Betelgeuse.

The bright star Sirius
peeked out of the trees on the far left.

The mind's eye
might further imagine, however, some of the
constellations coming to life, with Orion the Hunter taking up his sword and shield,
followed into battle by his
Big Dog
(Canis Major,
whose right eye is Sirius), and watched from across the sky by
Cassiopeia, the Queen of
Ethiopia, sitting on her Throne.

The above image was taken over
Pleasant Bay,
Maine,
USA,
and digitally merged with constellations from
Uranographicarum, drawn in the 17th century by J. Hevelius.

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The two galaxies on the far left were unknown until 1968.

Although they would have appeared as two of the brighter galaxies on the night sky, the opaque dust of the
central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy had
obscured them from being seen in visible light.

The above image in
infrared light taken by the recently launched
Wide-Field
Infrared Survey Explorer
(WISE),
however, finds these galaxies in
great detail
far behind -- but seemingly next to -- the
photogenic Heart nebula (IC 1805).

The spiral galaxy
near the top is the easiest to spot and is known as
Maffei 2.

Just below and to its right is fuzzy-looking
Maffei 1,
the closest giant
elliptical galaxy to Earth.

The above
false-colored image spans three
full moons from top to bottom.

The Maffei galaxies each span about 15,000 light years across and lie about 10 million
light years away toward the
constellation of the Queen of
Ethiopia (Cassiopeia).

On the image right, stars, gaseous filaments, and warm
dust highlight a detailed
infrared view
of the Heart nebula.

heart galaxy pictures, milky way galaxy on the night sky

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Andromeda

Abbreviation: And

Genitive: Andromedae

Translation: Princess of Ethiopia or the Chained Lady

Position in the Sky

Right Ascension: 1 hour
Declination: 40 degrees
Visible between latitudes 90 and -40 degrees
Best seen in November (at 9:00 PM)

Named Stars

ALPHERATZ (Alpha And)
MIRACH (Beta And)
ALMAAK (Gamma 1 And)
Adhil (Xi And)

Messier Objects

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy (spiral galaxy)
M32 Satellite galaxy of Andromeda (elliptical galaxy)
M110 Satellite galaxy of Andromeda (elliptical galaxy)

alpheratz, adhil the star, 88 constellations stars andromeda, right ascension of stars, genitive andromede, astronomy the princess sky, andromedas position in the sky

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