Aizanoi Night Sky

From the photographer: “On this summer evening I was in Çavdarhisar, Turkey, the site of Aizanoi; a Roman city. With a special permit to stay at the archaeological grounds at night, specially Zeus Temple. For some reason the permit did not include turning off the floodlights of the grounds, and I had to use my jacket to cover the security lights during the exposure!

As darkness ascended over the site, I positioned myself to the east of Zeus Temple to record this view of Venus and a 2-day-old crescent Moon with earthsine, about an hour after sunset. I had blocked one of the floodlights directed on the temple, as another was still shining to show some details on the structure.

As the sky got fully dark, I had both floodlights trained on the temple blocked off. But the normal street lights around the archaeological grounds were still shining from longer distances. But I was able to photograph the temple with skies dark enough for the Milky Way to show up (Click on the second photo). This view of the temple has Saturn shining to the upper right of the structure, while Jupiter shines through the columns and walls of Zeus Temple; reclaiming ownership of its namesake’s grounds. In front of the temple (bottom right) Acroterion of Kybele can be seen, too.”