The glow of the Milky Way in the night sky reflects off a deep pool along a New Zealand beach in this stunning photo captured by an astrophotographer.
This image is one of two spectacular views sent in to Space.com by night sky photographer Amit Ashok Kamble. The stargazer captured the Milky Way photos from Pakiri Beach, which he says is one of the best dark sky sites around the Auckland region of New Zealand.
"When I was out at Pakiri Beach shooting the Milky Way, I came across this pool which was unusually quite and calm," Kamble wrote in an email on May 5. "The sky at Pakiri is so dark that the Milky Way was reflected so brilliantly in the pool." [Amazing Night Sky Photos of May 2014]
This Milky Way reflection image is a 60Sec Untracked exposure that creates small star trails.
Kamble also took a stunning 10-image panorama of the Milky Way from Pakiri Beach.
"I was stocked to see the details in the image ... The greenish yellow glow on the sides is a beautiful display of airglow," he wrote. Kamble used an 18-55 lens on a Nikon D5100 (20Sec, ISO 3200, f3.5 at 18mm).
Airglow is a weak emission of light by a planet’s atmosphere, which often glows green due to oxygen molecules in our atmosphere. Our host galaxy, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy comprising roughly 400 billion stars.
To see more amazing night sky photos submitted by Space.com readers, visit our astrophotography archive.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
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