Astrophoto: Milky Way Over Afghanistan

By Nancy Atkinson - July 5, 2012 at 4:42 PM UTC | Milky Way
Milky-way-over-Istalef-valley..jpg

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

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com