This week’s picture of the week is a bit poetic (or at least I think it is), but you’ll have to allow me to explain.

Every year, the core of the Milky Way and the Dark Horse Nebula disappear from our skies here in the Northern Hemisphere in late October / November (depending on the moon cycles) and don’t reappear until the following late February, as the Earth makes its journey on the opposite side of the sun from the Milky Way.  So the Milky Way essentially passes “behind” the sun, from our vantage point here on Earth.  Now the poetic part.  The giant monolith you see in the foreground is called the “Temple of the Sun”, and is located WAY out in the middle of nowhere, inside Capital Reef National Park (you have to drive almost 30 miles – one way – down a dirt / gravel road to get there).  So, pictured here is one of the last viewings of the Milky Way for 2019, as it passes behind the Temple of the Sun.  Get it?  🙂

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Capital Reef National Park, and I hope you got a sense for it here through my pictures.  It’s an absolutely gorgeous park, and truly an adventure to visit.  Hopefully I’ll get to go back one day!

Have a great week!

–Dan Thompson

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