How the EarthSky Community Photos section works

EarthSky's Community Photos section is a reader-submission gallery: visitors browse published astronomy photos under View Community Photos, and submit their own through the Submit a Photo link. Both entry points sit in the site's main navigation, alongside sections like Tonight, Space, Sun, Earth, Human, and Best Places to Stargaze. If you want to see what other observers are capturing — or add your own image to the pool — this is the section to use.

What the section contains

Community Photos is a gallery of images contributed by EarthSky readers rather than by staff writers. It sits in the same navigation group as the site's observation-oriented content, so it functions as the reader-facing counterpart to EarthSky's editorial coverage of the night sky.

The surrounding sections give a sense of how it fits in:

Because Community Photos is grouped with Best Places to Stargaze and the Tonight guides, it's positioned as practical, observer-driven content — the kind of material you'd look at when planning or reviewing your own skywatching.

Browsing published photos

To view the gallery, use the View Community Photos link in the site navigation. This takes you to the collection of images that have already been published, so you can see what other readers have photographed before deciding whether to contribute.

This is the lower-commitment path: no account details or upload steps are involved in simply looking. It's also the sensible first stop if you're unsure what kind of image the section tends to feature.

Submitting your own photo

The submission path runs through the Submit a Photo link, which appears in the same navigation area as View Community Photos. The site presents these as two distinct actions — one to browse, one to contribute — rather than a single combined page.

EarthSky's newsletter signup on the same site notes that an email address "will only be used for EarthSky content," which reflects the site's general approach to reader data. The available page material does not describe the photo submission form's specific fields, image requirements, or review process, so treat those as things to check on the Submit a Photo page itself rather than assumptions.

What to expect as a contributor

A few practical points follow from how the section is structured:

• It's a gallery, not a feed. Published photos appear in a browsable collection, so your image joins a body of work rather than a live stream.
• Editorial content and community content are separate. Staff-written pieces (for example, the night-sky guides or spaceflight stories) are distinct from reader submissions, even though they share the same navigation.
• The section pairs with observing content. If you're using EarthSky to plan a session — checking the visible-planets guide, then looking for dark-sky locations — Community Photos is the natural place to compare results afterward.

If your goal is to see real reader images, start with View Community Photos. If your goal is to contribute, go to Submit a Photo and review the form's requirements there, since the site's navigation alone doesn't specify them.