A composite image – made of photos acquired over 500 days – showing the waxing and waning of Venus, and the changing size of the planet’s visible disk, as it orbits the sun one step inward from Earth.

See the layers of dust set against this South Carolina sunset? That dust came from Africa’s Sahara Desert. It traveled across the Atlantic Ocean this month to cause dusty skies across the U.S. South and into Texas.

Spectacular mammatus clouds – and a rainbow – provide a backdrop for this beautiful and unusual graduation photo. Congratulations, Cheyann!

Imanda viewed the annular eclipse of June 21, 2020, as it developed over Syokimau, Kenya.

Here are 2 beautiful images of the very old moon – a waning crescent seen in the east shortly before sunrise – near the brightest planet, Venus.

Masses of dusty air form over the Sahara Desert and move westward across the tropical North Atlantic frequently from spring to fall. A particularly large swath of dust is headed our way now. Watch for hazy skies in the Caribbean by this weekend, and possibly into the U.S. by next week.

A bright meteor is called a fireball. This one creates a backdrop to clouds of smoke from an actual fire that – as of Saturday – had burned some 9,000 acres and was only 10% contained, according to Inciweb.

This faint comet – Comet C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) – is headed toward its perihelion, or closest point to the sun, on June 18. It’s currently visible from the Southern Hemisphere, via strong binoculars, with a dark sky.

The young moon returned to the evening sky this weekend, to sweep past the bright planets Venus and Mercury.

Markarian’s Chain forms part of the Virgo galaxy cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. Armenian astronomer Benjamin Markarian discovered these galaxies’ common motion in the early 1960s. American astronomer Fred Espenak captured this image.

Wow! Thanks, everybody, for the wonderful Venus and Mercury photos! These 2 worlds have been nearest each other this week for all of 2020. A selection of photos from our community here, and many more at EarthSky Community Photos.

Three crescents – Venus, the moon, the eclipsed sun – all at about the same phase.

Tropical Cyclone Amphan on May 19, 2020, on approach to eastern India and Bangladesh.

This was the last sunset – prior to several months of winter darkness – at Concordia Research Station in Antarctica. Scientists at the station are studying how living in extreme conditions affects the human body and mind.