One of my favorite places in the US (Yosemite). When in the valley you can almost get a 360 view of the entire park. Believe it or not this shot was taken from the heart of the valley. Spectacular views without much effort.

"Half Dome was originally called "Tis-sa-ack", meaning Cleft Rock in the language of the local Ahwahnechee people." - Wikipedia

Adobe Lightroom.

Nikon D750, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED.

Photo Settings: 56mm, f/8, 1/1000 second, ISO 200.

This was my first trip to Mt Rainier National Park. These are all the clouds I got for 3 days, but it was still an amazing visit.

Sony a7rii, Canon 24-70mm f2.8L ii, Metabones v.

Taken an early morning in Denmark.

The Auckland's Aquarium hosts plenty of colorful creatures. But these dozens of clown fishes diving into the deep blue light offer the most beautiful show for the eyes.

Darktable.

Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM.

What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.

NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. Several prominent features in this image are described below.

• The “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.
• Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.
• Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.
• Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars.
• A “blow-out” erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium.
• An unusual “arch” appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder.

This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years – but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.

Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.

NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Second planetscape of my fictional planet Merphlyn. Painted in Photoshop CS6.

First one here:

http://starkiteckt.deviantart.com/art/Stormy-Atmosphere-of-Merphlyn-HQ-TIF-517587705

Part of a dual monitor set I'll be uploading later. This is the first half. The original resolution is 30,400 x 9,500. Yep, you didn't misread that :).

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.

This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.

The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.

Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.

As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool's pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm's inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool's arms like city streetlights.

The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes.

Object Names: Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, NGC 5194/5

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

After a day with cloudy and rainy weather, we were lucky to get a great sunset on top of the Empire State Building. The colors of the sky and of the fading city were just great!

Canon EOS 5DS R, Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM

Map: 40.7483, -73.9855

National park Sächsische Schweiz, Germany.

Adobe Lightroom CC.

Nikon D750.

Photo Settings: 24mm, f/8, 1/30 second, ISO 800.