2026-08-01
Buck Moon and Belt of Venus
The universe showed off again today: Buck Moon and Belt of Venus. Here is what NASA captured:
Why this matters
This scene highlights the Moon, solar activity, the night sky. The same physics that lets us photograph it also lets us predict where objects will be tomorrow — which is exactly what real-time tracking is built on.
See it live on ObjectTracer
This connects to what you can track in real time on our 3D globe — explore Moon tracker · Solar System view · Deep Space. Or open the live globe to watch flights, satellites, the ISS and spacecraft move right now.
The science, from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
The Buck Moon is a traditional name for the full moon of July. In this colorful Adriatic sea and skyscape captured on July 28 from Krk Island along the coast of Croatia, a full Buck Moon is just rising over distant mountains. Since a full moon rises as the Sun sets, Earth's shadow also rises in the twilight scene, a diffuse gray band extending above the mountainous southeastern horizon. Above Earth's shadow band is the pinkish antitwilight arch. That subtly tinted band of backscattered sunlight is more widely known as the Belt of Venus. But as it shares the eastern horizon with the atmospheric shadow of Earth and Belt of Venus, this full Buck Moon seems to set the stage for the New Moon to come. The New Moon of August 12 will cast its shadow on planet Earth in a much anticipated total solar eclipse.
Image credit: Branko Nadj · Source: NASA APOD
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