Alborz Mountains in Moonlight

As seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day, light from a first quarter Moon illuminates this dreamy landscape looking across to the rugged, snow-covered peaks of the Alborz Mountain Range in northern Iran. The stunning sky is filled with stars, including the yellow-tinged Betelgeuse at the shoulder of Orion. Sirius, the alpha star of Canis Major and the brightest star in Earth’s sky, stands above and to the left of picture center. The eerie glow in the Haraz valley in the foreground is the light of cars traveling the highway that leads from Tehran to the Caspian Sea.