Waxing half moon and Jupiter over Brofjorden, Sweden, Sept 2019 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

5 December 2025

Last night the full Cold Moon was big and bright as Jupiter rose in the clear sky over Pittsburgh. These two jewels were visible even among city lights, though they are much more beautiful in the photo from Sweden at top.

In March 2025 Nate Luebbe (@nateinthewild) was north of the Arctic Circle at Vestvågøy island, Norway when he witnessed snowfall with a rainbow (“snowbow”) and the Northern Lights. So many jewels all at once!

This is perhaps the most outrageous thing I've ever captured. A moonbow (rainbow made from moonlight rather than sunlight), with snow (rather than rain) with the northern lights behind it. A Polar Lunar Snowbow? pic.twitter.com/vRsPHqYf27

Sometimes a satellite photobombs the natural jewels. The satellite here was not too intrusive on the Moon and Venus.

Moon, Venus, and a passing satellite over Morocco, March 2020 (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

But satellites can quickly become space junk when they outlive their useful lives or accidentally fall out of orbit. The falconcam at Cromer Church in Cromer, Norwich, UK captured an amazing blaze of space junk upon reentry in February 2025. Wait for 10 seconds for the space junk to appear!

One of the most extraordinary things seen on the cams, space junk burning up in the atmosphere @itvanglia @EDP24 pic.twitter.com/LBj5aiLWfz

The AMC-21 satellite will become space junk some day. Launched in 2008, it uses the C band to transmit broadcast television. It was expected to last 15 years — until 2023 — but it’s still running. SES-21 was launched in 2022 to take over AMC-21’s job.

Artist’s rendition of the AMC-21 satellite (image from Orbital Sciences Corporation newsroom in 2010)

Both satellites are in geocentric orbits, parked over the equator at different longitudes. AMC-21 at 125° West, SES-21 at 131° West.

AMC-21 is parked at the Equator at 125° West longitude; SES-21 is parked at 131° West (longitude map from Wikimedia Commons)

When no satellite dishes are left pointing to AMC-21 it becomes actual space junk and falls out of the sky.