Into the thin air

Photographer Jeff Dai captured this self-portrait atop a glacier - 17,000 feet (5,300 m) above sea level - in the Himalayas of Tibet.

Wow! Photos of moon, Venus and Saturn

Venus and Saturn were extra close on the sky's dome this past weekend. Now the waxing moon has come back after sunset and is sweeping near them each evening.

Airglow over Sweden

Airglow is the light of excited atoms, high in Earth's atmosphere.

October’s end, Virginia

"Nothing like some fall colors and the Milky Way to start off the weekend!"

Catching the elusive gegenschein

The gegenschein, or counterglow, is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region opposite the sun. It's sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust.

Orionid meteor in moonlight

Eliot Herman had 2 things working against him when he caught this photo. The moon was bright, and it was the night after the shower's peak. But the result is beautiful.

Have you seen Venus?

Venus is the brightest planet, 3rd-brightest object in our sky after the sun and moon. You can't miss it in the west after sunset.

If we could see Mars in ultraviolet …

We'd see how winds circulate at high altitudes, and how ozone amounts change over the seasons, and how afternoon clouds form over giant Martian volcanoes. Images here.

Setting supermoon

Every full moon sets around dawn. Watch how much how much the sky brightened in the 3 minutes it took for the moon to disappear.

The ghost of Loulouda

Manolis Thravalos caught this Brocken Spectre recently while mountain-climbing in Greece, near a medieval castle. A chilling experience, he said. Here's why.