Starry Horizon from Kitt Peak

This fisheye image captures the night sky as viewed from the desert scrubland of southern Arizona. The domes of Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, can be seen protruding from the rim of this image alongside the silhouettes of desert greenery. The fisheye lens creates the illusion that the night sky is a small circle, hemmed in by the horizon. The Milky Way arcs across the sky, its bright central band of stars threaded with dark lanes of dust. In addition to the subtle gloaming of the naturally occurring airglow, the image is lit up by the lights from neighboring towns, which can be seen on the horizon. 

Kitt Peak is home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world, with instruments from universities, the US Department of Energy, NASA, and NOIRLab.