Photos: Stunning Night Sky Stargazing Images of July 2013

Milky Way and Star Trails Over Rural Maine

© Mike Taylor | Taylor Photography

Mike Taylor sent SPACE.com this photo, which is a composite of 81 frames from a static time lapse of the Milky Way moving across the sky over rural Maine. Taylor stacked the frames of this sequence to make a standard star trails image and then blended/masked in a single frame of the Milky Way. He used a Nikon D7000 camera and a Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO 1600 on June 10, 2013 to capture the image. Posted July 9, 2013. [Read the Full Story]

Milky Way Over Rural Maine

© Mike Taylor | Taylor Photography

Mike Taylor sent SPACE.com this image of the Milky Way over rural Maine. He used a Nikon D7000 camera and a Tokina 11-16mm at 11mm, f/2.8, 25 sec, ISO 1600 on June 10, 2013 to capture the image.Posted July 9, 2013. [Read the Full Story]

Andromeda Galaxy by Lorenzo Comolli

Lorenzo Comolli

Lorenzo Comolli took this photo of the Andromeda Galaxy on Nov. 16, 2012 from the Apennine mountain village of Bogli, Italy. He used a TEC 140 telescope and Canon EOS 5D with Baader filter, Gemini G-41 mount to capture the image. The image was released to SPACE.com June 26, 2013 and posted on July 5. [Read the Full Story]

Ring Nebula June 2013 Collaboration

André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel

The Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57 or NGC 6720, appears to look like a massive circle due to our perspective on Earth. André van der Hoeven, Terry Hancock, Fred Herrmann, Mike van den Berg and Mathijn Ippel logged in a combined 104 hours of exposure time to take this photo. The image was released to SPACE.com on June 28, 2013 and posed on July 5. [Read the Full Story]

Fireworks and the Moon

Giuseppe Petricca

Astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca captured this dazzling photo of the quarter moon and fireworks over Pisa, Italy on June 16, 2013. Petricca snapped the photos during a fireworks display launched from the Arno River during Pisa's Patron Saint's Day celebrations. Photo posted on July 4. [Read the Full Story]

Blue Sun Alan Friedman

Alan Friedman | Averted Imagination

Alan Friedman took this image of the sun from his backyard in Buffalo, New York on May 14, 2013 with a 90mm Coronado CaK telescope and a PGR Grasshopper Express 6 megapixel camera. He applied a specific color of extreme violet light called CaK in this image that makes the sun appear to look intensely blue. Friedman then false color-inverts the image. The process highlights the sun’s surface including texture, bright sunspots, and hot active regions appearing dark. Image posted on July 3. [Read the Full Story]

Noctilucent Clouds Seen From the International Space Station

Luca Parmitano (via Twitter as @astro_luca)

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano tweeted this photo of clouds seen from the International Space Station on June 17, 2013. He wrote: "And this is why they’re called noctilucent #Volare pic.twitter.com/qejtxc7Z6o"

Supermoon Over Grand Canyon

Jason Hines | The Art of the Chase

Jason Hines took this photo of the supermoon over the Grand Canyon North Rim on June 23, 2013. He used a Nikon D800e, Nikon 800mm lens, and a 1.7x teleconverter to capture the image. Image posted on July 2. [Read the Full Story]

Supermoon in a Camera Viewscreen

Ryan Lorey/Fulton County & Beyond

Astrophotographer Ryan Lorey sent in a picture of a picture of the supermoon in a camera viewscreen taken from the city of Gloversville in eastern Upstate New York, June 23, 2013. Image posted on July 1. [See more amazing Supermoon 2013 photos]

Moon and Propeller Plane Over France

© VegaStarCarpentier P H O T O G R A P H Y

A propeller plane soars toward the moon over Reims, France in this image taken by VegaStar Carpentier on June 30, 2013. Carpentier used a Canon EOS 1000D to capture the photo.

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.

Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.