Yes, I like it!
What I like best about it is that you could almost imagine that this image is not a composite image at all (it is, of course), because the faint light of the Milky Way could almost have illuminated the mountainscape on its own.
But you can actually tell from the color of the image that the foreground has not been photographed by the light of the Milky Way:
APOD 8 July 2024 detail.png
As you can see, the dominant light of the Milky Way is yellowish, but the (probably neutral-colored) slopes behind the Three Merlons are seen to be a mostly non-yellow shade of gray.
Anyway. The idea of the Milky Way as a light source on the Earth reminds me of the scarab beetles which roll their dung balls in straight lines at night by navigating by the stars. But because these little critters can't tell one star or constellation from another, they navigate by the light of the Milky Way.
Smithsonian Magazine wrote:
Science has shown us that a number of organisms use the stars for navigation: songbirds, harbor seals and, of course, humans. But a new study by a team of Swedish and South African researchers published today in the journal Current Biology indicates that a rather unexpected creature can be added to this list—the lowly dung beetle.
So I suppose that the
Arctic Tern, the wold's longest-flying migrating bird, does the same during its incredible journey from pole to pole every year. Navigate by the light of the Milky Way, I mean.
Bird over Milky Way.png
This bird over the Milky Way is not an Arctic Tern, but I was the best I could do.
Unless they are born knowing how to find Polaris in the sky, of course!
Ann
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