Photographer Captures Gorgeous View of New Year's Eve Night Sky

Astrophotographer Miguel Claro captured a 360-degree night sky image in Almada, Portugal, at midnight on Jan. 1, 2015. (Image credit: Miguel Claro)

Streaks of artificial red light paint the New Year's Eve sky in a gorgeous image taken in the hour leading up to midnight on Jan. 1, 2015.

Astrophotographer Miguel Claro captured this 360-degree view from the top of a building in Almada, Portugal. According to Claro, the city lights from Lisbon and Seixal, Portugal can also be seen around the rim of the circular image. Rising up from the ground are a few red streaks of light — these are "very lights" fired from flare guns in celebration of the new year.

The man-made pyrotechnics mix together with the natural lights in this night sky image. The moon is a particularly bright ribbon of light in the top left half of the image. Above the moon is the celestial equator and the constellation Orion, according to Claro. To the right of the moon, following the curved path of the stars, is the planet Jupiter, crossing paths with the TV antennas. [101 Best Night Sky Photos by Stargazers in 2014]

Claro is an astrophotographer based in Portugal. His work has been featured in various magazines and websites worldwide. Many of Claro's amazing images have been featured on Space.com.

You can see more amazing night sky photos by Space.com readers in our astrophotography archive.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky image you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

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Calla Cofield joined Space.com's crew in October 2014. She enjoys writing about black holes, exploding stars, ripples in space-time, science in comic books, and all the mysteries of the cosmos. Prior to joining Space.com Calla worked as a freelance writer, with her work appearing in APS News, Symmetry magazine, Scientific American, Nature News, Physics World, and others. From 2010 to 2014 she was a producer for The Physics Central Podcast. Previously, Calla worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (hands down the best office building ever) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Calla studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is originally from Sandy, Utah. In 2018, Calla left Space.com to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory media team where she oversees astronomy, physics, exoplanets and the Cold Atom Lab mission. She has been underground at three of the largest particle accelerators in the world and would really like to know what the heck dark matter is. Contact Calla via: E-Mail – Twitter