Thursday, October 31, 2019

Spooky

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the ghostly wisps of The Veil Nebula (or Cygnus Loop), in the constellation of Cygnus.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The Jewel of Orion

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 42 in the Constellation of Orion. Always a place that I explore, whenever I go out under skies when Orion is striding and on the hunt.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Digging for Gold

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows MSL Curiosity poking around in the basin of Gale Crater on Mars as it trundles towards Mount Sharp. Here it is exploring a find of clay, signs that water may have once covered the floor of the crater.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Friday, October 25, 2019

Haunted Skies

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia, IC 59 (on the left) and IC 63 (on the right). Look fast, they won't be around forever (thanks to cosmic erosion). 

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Celestial Seahorse

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Barnard 150, a dark, dusty cloud in the constellation of Cepheus one of 182 (so far) dark nebula in our catalogs. 

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Starry, Starry Night

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, depicting the night sky (presumably) of southern France in 1889.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

In the Mirror

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the night sky reflected in the world's largest mirror: a 130 kilometer wide salt lake covered temporarily by a reflective layer of water.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Friday, October 18, 2019

The Outsider


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet 2I/Borisov, the second body to be recognized as an interstellar interloper coming in for a visit to our neighborhood.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

System in a System


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a Cassini Orbiter image which managed to capture five of the moons of Saturn (plus a bit of the rings) in one shot.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Dark Sky


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows us what our dark and empty night sky would show us if we could "see" as well as our digital eyes.

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Busy Sky


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. 300 images, each taken over 30 seconds were stacked. As a result, the quiet sky is streaked with meteors, satellites, airplane lights and more. "Mouseover" the image in the link to switch between the two versions: cleaned up and "natural" or see the second image below.


Sunday, October 13, 2019

Jewell Cluster


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 290, an open cluster in the constellation of Tucana and is part of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the "satellite" galaxies that accompany The Milky Way.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Two Perspectives


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows our blue dot from two vastly different perspectives: Earth as seen from Saturn (900 million miles), Earth as seen from Mercury (61 million miles).

Friday, October 11, 2019

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Five Moons


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the waxing Moon and four more. Four? Look carefully and you'll spot Jupiter and four of the Galilean moons.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Safety First!

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short (humorous) video about being safe around black holes. Safety first when traveling interstellar danger zones!