Cluster and Pillars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day peeks through nebula NGC 281 at open cluster IC 1590. From the gasses and dust of creation to the young stars "recently" born.

Dust and Gas

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows supernova remnant Puppis A. Imagine if this were spread visibly across our night sky!

Mapping Waves

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows ripples in spacetime, courtesy of combined LIGO observations. When black holes collide, the universe rings.

Layers

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day combines ground and space-based images to bring new depths to the recent solar eclipse.

Full Image

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us a parting gift. As it fell towards the end of its mission, the Cassini Orbiter snapped one final whole-ring image of Saturn.

I will miss that orbiter.

Expansive Mood

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day depicts G79.29+0.46, brought to us courtesy of both ground and space-based telescopes. As the star throws off gas, it is painting a very pretty cosmic image.

What's That?

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a handy diagram to help you identify (in the broadest sense) what you're looking at in the sky!

When Comets "Collide"

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us multiple comets seemingly on a rendezvous. What a sight for the sky! "Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide.

Charting the Eclipse

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the path of the Sun (using a pinhole solargraph) on the day of the Great American Eclipse.

Lineup at Dawn

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us a dawn sky near Castle Vesprem in Hungary. As the sky brightens, several celestial objects (including the Moon) remain visible. "Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide.

Corona and Prominences

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day combines forty separate images to produce this view of our home star and our own moon during the recent eclipse, plus the corona and looping prominences of our quiet sun.

Veil

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a classic image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the Veil Nebula. If this nebula were bright enough to be seen with your "naked" eye it would cover the sky larger than five full Moons. Imagine living under that sight!

Orion Over

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day gives Orion a new stance for me: He soars over one of the enigmatic heads of Easter Island, on his "head". "Mouseover" the image in the link for a constellation guide.

Messier's Gems

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a "stacked image" (ground and space-based telescopes contributing) of Messier 81, a striking spiral galaxy in Ursa Major.

Grand Finale

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the last image transmitted by the Cassini Orbiter as it was deorbited into Saturn. The science continued during Cassini's final trajectory, lasting nearly sixty seconds after it was estimated the spacecraft would be unable to maintain communications with Earth.

Goodbye, Cassini. You were, possibly, the grandest of our grand explorations.

100 Steps

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the winner of the 2017 The World at Night's International Earth & Sky Photo Contest.

Goodbye, Cassini

Right now, as I write this, the venerable hard-working Cassini Orbiter is plunging into the atmosphere of Saturn. This is being done to protect the moons of Saturn, or rather the potential life on the moons of Saturn (wouldn't want anything from Earth contaminating!).

The mission ran for 20 years, 13 of them in the Saturn system. Data from the mission will bring us discoveries for years to come.

It's strange to feel sad at the loss of a robot, but Cassini was more than a robot. It was a working representation of our desire to explore and learn.

Goodbye, Cassini. May we follow in your robotic footsteps soon.

Flareup

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows another quiet day on the quiet Sun.

Prints

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 6334, the "Cat's Paw" Nebula.

Eclipse

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing the recent North American Eclipse.

Saturn and Beyond the Infinite

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video courtesy of the Cassini orbiter. Less than a week left.

Irma

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing Hurricane Irma.

Ripples

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day depicts calm waters and stormy space.

Eclipsed

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day calls back to one of my favorite albums.

This Stretch of 27: Gasoline Prices: The World Turned Upside Down

This Stretch of 27: Gasoline Prices: The World Turned Upside Down: Wait! What's going on? The Raceway and Valero north of Finnegans Lane always have the cheapest price around here, right? And Exxon is al...

Rainbow Totality

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the solar spectrum during totality in the recent eclipse.

Rock and Shadow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day took months of planning for a "lucky" shot.

Moons and Shadow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a Voyager 1 image of Europa and Io's shadow. Oh, and Jupiter.

Looking Out

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing Cassini crossing the ring plane of Saturn.

Travels with Blackthrone (on the Cusp of the Storm)

The Three Hoarsemen return! Stina Leicht returns! The podcast returns!

Spouting Off

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a waterspout in the waters of Florida.

This Stretch of 27: Friday Photos

This Stretch of 27: Friday Photos: Potting Shed truck for sale It's Friday. It's been a long week. So here are some photos.  The tour starts at Bennington Pa...

This Stretch of 27: Probing the Voids of This Retail Microcosm

This Stretch of 27: Probing the Voids of This Retail Microcosm: People like to talk about "macroeconomics" a lot. Those are the "big picture" people. My mission here is "m...

This Stretch of 27: Inaugural Post

This Stretch of 27: Inaugural Post: Wawa Construction site at Beekman Road When I moved to Franklin Park 28 years ago, it didn't take long to notice that new strip...

Far Voyager

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day celebrates forty years of the Voyager missions.

Wingtip Eclipse

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the solar eclipse from a high vantage point.