Photographer Francisco Sojuel has captured this amazing image of the moon disguised as Saturn and it is truly breath-taking. The picture taken in the Guatemalan highlands captures the moon over the great silhouette of the Pacaya volcano. The illusion of the moon looking like Saturn is the result of an unusual cloud formation that by sheer chance landed across the bright moon to make it look just like the planet Saturn with its majestic rings.
To capture shots of the moon, Sojuel trekked for 6 hours across rugged terrain from the Acatenango base to the top of the Acatenango volcano from where the shot was taken. It is thought that the cirrostratus cloud is made up of ice crystals, though it may be a cirrostratus fibratus or a cirrus spissatus cloud, both usually formed by strong winds.
Sojuel is a renowned photographer of landscapes and he has travelled across the world for years snapping amazing scenes. These include erupting volcanoes, majestic clear night-skies, and luscious valleys.
Posting the moon-Saturn image on his Facebook he said:
"From afar you may wonder, "Is that an asteroid ring around the moon?". Well, the disguise of this waning moon is actually a thin cirrostratus cloud. The way the cloud interacts with the moon creates a unique display of beauty that steals protagonism from the surrounding stars. Below the moon? The dimly lit silhouette of volcano Pacaya and the Guatemalan highlands can be appreciated."
The night the moon dressed like Saturn From afar you may wonder, “Is that an asteroid ring around the moon?”. Well,...
Posted by Francisco Sojuel on Wednesday, 11 March 2020
Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar-system, surpassed in magnitude only by Jupiter, and is around 1.6 billion kilometres from Earth. It is a gas planet meaning that it is made up mostly of thick gases, but it is speculated that there does exist a solid core below the surface. The large rings for which Saturn is famous are actually made up of water ice, extending as far as 120,000 kilometres from the planet they are only around 66 feet wide.
Late last year, Saturn and Jupiter crossed paths at a point closer to Earth than had been observed for many hundreds of years, appearing as one bright entity in the night-sky. Many in history have speculated as to whether this could explain the 'Star of Bethlehem' seen by the wise men at the time of the birth of Jesus over 2,000 years ago.
h/t: Earth Wonders
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