Lightning over Braunfels, Germany
The photo above showing a cloud-to-ground lightning strike during an eerie electrical storm was taken from the balcony of my home overlooking the city of Braunfels, Germany. Image credit: Oliver Stiehler Used with permission.
Sunspot Castle
Each day can have a beautiful ending as the Sun sets below the western horizon. This week, the setting Sun added naked-eye sunspots to its finale, as enormous active regions rotated across the dimmed, reddened solar disc. Photographer Jens Hackmann
Cinderella Castle
The Cinderella Castle (189-foot-tall) appears to be covered in giant candy canes at the Magic Kingdom park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Castle and Meteor by Moonlight
Each August, as planet Earth swings through dust trailing along the orbit of periodic comet Swift-Tuttle, skygazers enjoy the Perseid Meteor Shower. As Earth moves through the denser part of the comet’s wide dust trail this year’s shower peaks around 6:00 UT August 13, when light from a nearly full Moon masks all but the brighter meteor streaks. Photographer Tamas Ladanyi
