Call it a view of moonrise kingdom.
The astronomers who run NASA's beautiful Astronomy Photo Of The Day blog posted a haunting image this week of the moon rising through the immense shadow of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano.
To reiterate: That's not a mountain in the background. It's the mountain's shadow, and it's huge.
The sun set behind the camera, thereby casting the long shadow. Thanks to basic geometry, the shadow shows a pointed top, no matter the shape of the mountain's summit.
This geometric phenomenon happens all over the world, and while the sight is best seen IRL on a summit, the beautiful photos below are also incredible:
Mount Hood, Oregon, USA
Mount Fuji, Japan.
Volcán Tajamulco, Guatemala.
Mount Rinjani, Lombok, Indonesia.
Hagios Elias, Taíyetos Mountains, Greece.
Mount Rainier, Washington, USA.
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