Miguel Claro is a Lisbon, Portugal-based professional photographer, author and science communicator who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory photo ambassador, a member of the international astrophotography project The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "skyscapes" that connect Earth and the night sky. Join him here as he takes us through his photograph "Lonely Shadow in a Desert of Stars."
In a remote place like a desert, where pristine skies can be found (at least until now), far away from light-polluted cities, the stars of the Milky Way galaxy can glow brightly enough to project subtle shadows onto the ground.
In this single-exposure photo taken above Zabriskie Point in California's Death Valley National Park, starlight casts a faint shadow of a stargazer as he looks up at the majestic, cloudy and starry core of the Milky Way galaxy glistening overhead. [Gallery: Our Milky Way Galaxy's Core Revealed]
Notable for its panoramic views, Zabriskie Point is part of an erosional landscape formed by sediments in an ancient lake bed that dried up several million years ago. Its location in Death Valley National Park — the largest dark-sky park in the world — makes it an ideal spot for stargazing and astrophotography.
Editor's note: If you captured an amazing astronomy photo and would like to share it with Space.com for a story or gallery, send images and comments to spacephotos@space.com.
To see more of Claro's amazing astrophotography, visit his website: miguelclaro.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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