Rainbow over Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

We usually see photos from photographer Josh Blash from the Atlantic coast, up around New Hampshire. This photo of Juárez - in the Chihuahuan Desert - was a delightful surprise.

Morning tranquility

Yuri Beletsky captured this scene from the Australian east coast, with Venus, the constellation Orion, and the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters shining in all their glory.

Anticrepuscular rays with rainbow

These 2 sky phenomena - anticrepuscular rays and rainbows - can appear separately. In this case, they appear together, both originating from the same source, the sun, on the opposite side of the sky.

Storm moving in

Niccole Kowalski said she witnessed this rainbow on Saturday, forming over the Superstition Mountains in Arizona, while a storm was moving in.

Sun halo with 2 contrail shadows

The sun is casting shadows of an aircraft contrail downwards onto thin cirrus haze layers below. Higher above, ice crystals in cirrus clouds have created a 22-degree halo around the sun.

This is not a mystical tree …

It’s an aerial view of glacial river patterns in Iceland. Manish Mamtani used a drone to capture this image.

Venus and the Pleiades before dawn

Venus - the brightest planet - is in the east before dawn now. Chirag Upreti caught Venus on July 22 over Acadia National Park in Maine. The dipper-shaped cluster above it is the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters.

Moon and Mercury over Rome last night

The moon and Mercury - innermost planet of our solar system - had a great meeting these past hours. Here, Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project presents some shots capturing this exclusive show, hanging over the skyline of Rome.

ISS photobombs a lightning storm

See it scooting along the top of this image, taken last week by Susan Gies Jensen? She also made a video from her still images. See it here, and learn to spot the station.

Hubble sees Phobos orbiting Mars

This image and video aren't artists' illustrations. They're from a real time-lapse sequence of images - acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope - of the tiny moon Phobos orbiting Mars. Cool!

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