Moonlight Skating: Scenes from Winter in Sweden

By Nancy Atkinson - December 11, 2014 at 10:21 AM UTC | Site News

"Nights like these are almost to good to be true," says astrophotographer Göran Strand.

Glide along with Strand and two friends who went ice skating recently on a frozen lake near Östersund, Sweden. "This night was really magic, no wind, lots of ice crystals in the air and an almost full Moon that shined upon us during our two hours out on the ice," Stand said. "To the right of the Moon you can see the constellation of Orion and down left of the Moon you can see planet Jupiter shining brightly."

Hot chocolate anyone?

See more of Göran's astrophotography from Sweden on his

Facebook page

or in his

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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