Dazzling Night Sky Over Historic Windmill (Photo)

Crescent Moon Tes Skywatching
The crescent moon appears near Venus, Jupiter and the constellation Taurus. Astrphotographer Tamas Ladanyi took this image July 16, 2012 from Tés, a village in Veszprém county of Hungary famous for its beautiful windmills. (Image credit: Ladanyi Tamas / TWAN)

The crescent moon can be seen at dawn sitting between bright Venus, Jupiter and the constellation Taurus in this stunning photo.

Taurus looks like a stylized bull's head in the sky. The V-shaped portion of the constellation is the Hyades star cluster, which makes the face of the bull. This cluster is more than 600 million years old and consists of hundreds of bright stars. The nearby Pleiades star cluster, or M45, makes this region one of the most-studied by astronomers.

The image was taken by astrophotographer Tamas Ladanyi on July 16, 2012 from Tés — a village in the Veszprém county of Hungary famous for its beautiful windmills.

In the foreground of the image is one such windmill. The small, hilly town has six historic windmills, all of which were built before World War II.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Contributing Writer and Producer

Nina Sen is a freelance writer and producer who covered night sky photography and astronomy for Space.com. She began writing and producing content for Space.com in 2011 with a focus on story and image production, as well as amazing space photos captured by NASA telescopes and other missions. Her work also includes coverage of amazing images by astrophotographers that showcase the night sky's beauty.