Today's Image

EarthSky’s top photos from 2022

City lights in valley, with reddish volcano behind and reddish lunar eclipse high above.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Here’s one of 2022’s best liked photos at EarthSky. David Rojas captured the image from Pacaya volcano in San Vicente Pacaya, Guatemala, during the total lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022. David wrote: “In the image you can see the moon in its total phase with its characteristic red color of a lunar eclipse, above the moon is the star cluster of Las Pleyades [the Pleiades, or 7 Sisters] and below the Fuego volcano (with lava) and Acatenango.” Thank you, David! See more of EarthSky’s top photos from 2022 below.

EarthSky’s top photos from 2022

We have an amazing and supportive community at EarthSky. And, one of the best ways to see it in action is to visit EarthSky Community Photos, where people share their recent astrophotos, as well as nature shots from all parts of the globe … all while cheering on everyone else’s contributions. You all are awesome, and we love you! Here, we’ve gathered together the most-viewed and clicked-upon photos at EarthSky in 2022, according to Google Analytics. Want to share your images in 2023? Submit recent photos here. And scroll down to see EarthSky’s top photos from 2022.

Available now! 2023 EarthSky lunar calendar. A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar showing phases of the moon every night of the year. Makes a great gift!

The elusive zodiacal light

EarthSky's top photos from 2022: Cone of light extending from horizon to cluster of stars in night sky.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Christoph Stopka in Westcliffe, Colorado, captured the elusive zodiacal light on March 1, 2022, over the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, part of the Colorado Rockies. Around the spring equinox is the one of the best times to see this light, which is caused by sunlight reflecting on dust grains that move in the plane of our solar system. Thank you, Christoph!

June’s planetary parade

Wide angle image of dark twilight with planets and moon across the sky.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mike Shaw in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, captured this wonderful planetary parade image on June 17, 2022. Mike wrote: “This rare alignment of the visible planets in their order from the sun has been in the news lately, including several articles by EarthSky … Once I knew Mercury was a few degrees above the horizon, I started shooting images for the panorama … I then assembled the corresponding images into the panorama that you see here.” Thank you, Mike!

Nesting bald eagles

2 bald eagles in a nest behind foreground branches.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Lorraine Boyd in Green Island, New York, took this image on March 8, 2022. Lorraine wrote: “In the northeastern states, it’s bald eagle breeding and nesting season. It’s always a great experience to see the “changing of the guard”. Both parents take turns sitting on the eggs. One eagle has been sitting on the eggs, the second just flew in, and they are doing a little adjusting before the one that has been sitting flies out. There have been eggs in this nest approximately 3 weeks. The eggs hatch at about 35 days.” Thank you, Lorraine!

Kaleidocosmo

What looks like multicolored cheerios of different sizes on black background.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Paolo Palma in Naples, Italy, created this composite of star colors with images of individual stars taken over the course of 2 years, which he calls Kaleidocosmo. He captured all the stars he could see from Naples – up to +5 magnitude and brighter – some 1,250 stars! Then, he imaged each star out of focus to capture its color. Then he created this composite, with the size of each star based on how bright it is. He wrote: “Kaleidocosmo can reveal how much the starry sky is more colorful than we imagine …” In addition, he also set his kaleidocosmo to music, which you can download here. Thank you, Paolo!

Planet party

Dark sky with 5 planets lined up in the sky with dark mountains in the foreground.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Elke Schulz in Río Hurtado, Región de Coquimbo, Chile, captured this great image of the 5 bright planets on June 15, 2022. Elke wrote: “This morning I was lucky and could observe the planet party … The Andes Mountains can be seen in the background (below Mercury). It features peaks more than 4,100 meters high. When I took the picture, Mercury had already reached 11 degrees.” Thank you, Elke!

Mars slipping behind the moon

Section of heavily cratered gray moon with tiny, slightly marked Mars touching it.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Chris Kotsiopoulos – the Space Tinkerer – in Reading, UK, captured this glorious image of Mars and the moon in the early morning hours of December 8, 2022. Chris wrote: “It was quite an experience seeing the planet Mars disappear behind the moon and emerge after an hour. Freezing cold, at 5 in the morning and frost was all over my equipment, but it was worth every second!” Thank you, Chris! For more about this photo, visit Spacetinkerer.com.

Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)

Star field with slightly oval faintly fuzzy object and inset with closeup.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hoskin in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, took this image on June 25, 2022. David wrote: “Last night I captured this image of comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) during the short period of time between darkness and the comet passing behind trees in my backyard.” Thank you, David! Notably, this comet just reached its closest point to the sun on December 19 and is visible from southern skies.

Summer sunflower

Yellow sunflower nestled within green leaves and white name with copyright.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Samantha Anderson in Bulgaria shared this image from July 2, 2022. Samantha wrote: “A beautiful sunflower I saw and shot at Bulgaria’s green fields in the beginning of July.” Thank you, Samantha!

May’s lunar eclipse and the San Jacinto Monument, in Texas

Line of 26 transitioning moons on a black background over a tall white obelisk monument.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Sergio Garcia Rill captured these lunar eclipse images on May 15-16, 2022, over the San Jacinto Monument in La Porte, Texas. He wrote: “I took individual images at 850mm of the phases of the moon. And later I resized them (downsized), and re-arranged and overlaid with an HDR processed image of the monument, using Photoshop.” Thank you, Sergio!

Opposition effect streak

Shadow on a dry field with beam of light on top of dark curve.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Sheryl R. Garrison in Southern Alberta, Canada, took this image on January 1, 2022. Sheryl wrote: “One of the brightest opposition effect streaks that I’ve photographed. I learned about these from optics expert Les Cowley. It’s the bright streak above the shadow cast by our vehicle.” Thank you, Sheryl!

Bottom line: Enjoy EarthSky’s top photos from 2022. All these photos were taken by members of the EarthSky community from all around the globe.

Posted 
December 22, 2022
 in 
Today's Image

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