The Milky Way arches over the spectacular rock formation of East and West Mittens Buttes and Merrick Butte in Monument Valley, Navajo Nation AZ. This image was featured on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day 7/26/2017! https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170726.html Monument Valley is one of the most strikingly beautiful places I've ever visited. The fine red sand colors the landscape and the buttes that are found all over this area rise up in unique and awe-inspiring formations. This particular view is a short hike east of the View Campground where we stayed the night. The sky was probably the darkest I've ever been under, and the clarity and steadiness of the atmosphere was extremely lucky as the days before we visited it was windy and hazy with dust in the air. There was also a quite strong presence of Airglow which shows up as the green and red colored area under the Milky Way. Airglow occurs high up in planetary atmospheres causing the night sky to never be completely dark even at a location with no light pollution. An hour or so after this panorama was taken the Moon rose right over Merrick Butte (the one center right), it was quite the sight to see! Monument Valley Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley Airglow Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow Technical Info: Date: 6/14/2017 ~66 frame panorama 13 sec @6400 ISO Camera: Canon 6D Hutech UV/IR Mod Lens: Zeiss f1.4 Distagon 35mm at f2.5 Reveal Focus Filter by David Lane Processing: Photoshop CC, PTGui