Astrophoto: Milky Way Over Afghanistan

Here’s a lovely image of the Milky Way as seen from Afghanistan — Istalef Valley to be precise, about 20 kilometers from Kabul. This was taken by Yunos Bakhshi, one of the founders and leaders of the Afghanistan Astronomy Association. We wrote about Bakhshi and his work to share the wonders of astronomy with the Afghan people, and how dangerous it can actually be at times.

Bakhshi sent us this image, telling us he is still leading groups of people out to look at the night sky, and he pointed out the light pollution in this image coming from the Bagram US military base, which has huge flood lights on at all times. “I would like to ask you once again to pay attention to this light pollution, which disturbed the beauty of night sky,” Bakhshi said. “Kabul and suburb still have good and dark sky.”

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Image caption: The Milky Way over Istalef Valley. Credit: Yunos Bakhshi