Crepuscular Moon Rays over Denmark

The moon made a big entrance. A moonrise is usually tranquil. Until it rises high in the nighttime sky, taking a few minutes to fully peek above the horizon is all you can see. The rising moon put on a show about a week ago, even though it was only half lit by the Sun. The reason was that the moon was low in the sky. The result was that moonlight poured through gaps in the clouds to create what are called crepuscular rays. The rays can appear to converge on the other side of the sky when they start near the horizon. There are stars in the background and our largest companion in the universe, the Andromeda galaxy, can be seen on the upper left.

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Explanation: An ancient tree seems to reach out and touch Earth's North Celestial Pole in this well-planned night skyscape. Consecutive exposures for the timelapse composition were recorded with a camera fixed to a tripod in the Yiwu Desert Poplar Forests in northwest Xinjiang, China. The graceful star trail arcs reflect Earth's daily rotation around its axis. By extension, the axis of rotation leads to the center of the concentric arcs in the night sky. Known as the North Star, bright star Polaris is a friend to northern hemisphere night sky photographers and celestial navigators alike. That's because Polaris lies very close to the North Celestial Pole on the sky. Of course it can be found at the tip of an outstretched barren branch in a postcard from a rotating planet.