Sky Beauty and Increasing Lights

Starry sky of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park; a World Heritage Site in Northern Territory of Australia. Even in this remote and preserved location small settlements and night illuminations made mainly for visitors begins to form light pollution and threatens the natural beauty of night sky. The area is best known for Uluru or Ayers Rock, a single massive rock formation visible in the center of this image like a long domed rock. Uluru is one of Australia’s best known natural features which is a so-called monolith, extending about 5 km beneath the desert plain and measuring 3.6 by 2.4 km at the surface. It rises 348 meters above the plain. Notable in the background sky on the left are two bright stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri, and then the central bulge and brightest region of the Milky Way in the constellation Scorpius and Sagittarius with bright star Antares (alpha star in Scorpius) below the bulge. The Milky Way continues in the right side through the constellations Aquila and Cygnus. © Kwon, O Chul