Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Colorful stars trail through this late summer, night skyscape from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Composed by stacking 12 consecutive 1 minute long digital camera exposures, the image also records faint clouds of the Milky Way in the clear sky, stretching above a local drive-in movie theater. In fact, watching movies from cars at the drive-in was once a more common night time activity. But while the stars still shine, drive-in theaters have faded from the American landscape over the decades since the 1950s. Still, this recent scene includes a short exposure as the projector beamed a space age image to the movie screen, and drive-in skygazers watched a view of the Earth below the International Space Station, under the stars above.