A Wizard's Hat and the Milky Way

The Wizard's hat is a rock formation in the Atacama Desert not far from the European Southern Observatory where astrophotographer Petr Horálek works and where his keen eye captured the beautiful image of the tip of the Wizard's hat pointing magically toward our Milky Way Galaxy.

Zoomable Image

The foreground of the "magical" image, published by ESO on Nov. 27, shows strange geological formations poking out of the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), an ethereal ecosystem in the Atacama Desert full of time-carved stone structures and white-capped salt lakes.

The "wizard's hat" rock formation in this skillfully composed image leads the eye to the Milky Way, which takes on a pinkish tinge. That color reveals hydrogen atoms distributed throughout our galaxy. These hydrogen atoms show up in night-sky images only if the photographer uses hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) filters, which transmit one specific wavelength of light.
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What a great place to roll one and just contemplate the majesty of the Universe ..... and wizard's.

What a great photography, the desolate landscape of Earth with a Wizard's Hat with the immense mystery and infinite (?) populated universe beckoning.

a reply to: gortex

F'ing beautifully amazing, thanks Gortex you always bring some badass space pics to ATS.


Peace.

a reply to: gortex

Stunning! Reminds me of some nights out at sea, without any light pollution. And looking up in winter always reminds me how small we are and how cold the universe is. Even though the vacuum itself has no temperature but I mean sun energy needed. We don't even have fur.

Nature is brutal.