The bright white patch is rocket fuel that has been dumped into the atmosphere by an Atlas V rocket, launched earlier in the day from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photographed within a couple of hours of sunset, the sunlight from below the horizon is illuminating the fuel in space. The bright object at top left is Venus next to the Beehive star cluster (M44). Photographed on June 15, 2007 from the Alborz Mountains in Iran.