Astronomy Picture of the Day . A Sun Pillar in Red and Violet . ... In 2000 February near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, two amateur photographers noticed an unusual red column of light rise mysteriously from a setting sun. ... What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83? ... M83, visible in the inset image on the upper left, is one of the closest spiral galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy and from a distance of 15 million light-years, appears to be relatively normal. ... Bright Stars, Dim Galaxy . ...