Standard Candle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 4526, a galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. The appearance of a Type 1a supernova allowed astronomers to help refine Hubble's Constant, the overall shape of the universe and more.

Stereo Astronomers

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day requires you to dig out your red/blue anaglyphic glasses to take a look at a three-dimensional image of craters Messier and Messier A (named for Charles Messier, the "ferret of comets" ).

Ringed Wonder

Saturn is at opposition (closest to us)! Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Saturn in all its glory.

Edges

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 4945, a edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation of far Centaurus. What beats at the center of this galaxy?

Pluto Approach

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video from the New Horizons spacecraft, now approaching Pluto and Charon! Flyby on July 14!

Energetic Core

What's going on in the center of spiral galaxy Messier 94? Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day hazards a few theories.

Arms of the Galaxy

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Milky Way supported by the arms of a earthbound tree. "Mouseover" the image for a constellation guide.

Lungfish

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Space Shuttle Endeavour breaking through a cloud bank on it's final flight in 2011.

Birthing Chambers

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows pillars of gas and dust in NGC 7822 in the constellation of Cepheus.

Dust Lanes

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows dust clouds and dark nebula in the constellation of Taurus.

Slow Mix

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the merger between two galaxies, a process only slightly slower than the union between two tortoises.

Bring Him Back!

Quite possibly the one comic artist that I have appreciated the longest is Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius. I first encountered his work in the pages of Heavy Metal (the Americanized version of the French Metal Hurlant). He worked on Alien and other films such as The Fifth Element. Occasionally you could find a collection of his, but vast amounts of work (Lieutenant Blueberry) remained impossible to find (or could only be had at "collectible" prices). Since his death, it appears that other than some digital collections, he's "faded" from the scene.


Let's correct this, please?

Meat in a Tube

Possibly the most important chart you'll ever find on the internet.

Tortured Terrain

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a view from the ESA's Rosetta orbiter, busily exploring Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Is that a cliff looming in the distance? Where is the sleeping lander Philae?

Gravity

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a detailed look into the globular cluster 47 Tuc (NGC 104) in the constellation of the Toucan (yes, the Toucan). Richard Feynman once said of globular clusters:

"He who cannot see gravity at work here has no soul."

Astounding

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a time-lapse image of the skies of Iceland.

In the Afterglow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a recently "born" white dwarf surrounded by expanding clouds of it's planetary nebula.

Fiction and Reality

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the landing site of Ares 3, setting for Andy Weir's The Martian.

Jupiter Space

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a wonderful shot (courtesy of the hard-working Damien Peach) of Jupiter, Ganeymede and the Great Red Spot.

Flashes

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the mysterious bright spots on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres. Views from the Dawn vehicle will only get better and better. What is causing the reflection?

No Easy Target

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Barnard 33, better known as The Horsehead Nebula (think a chess piece it that helps) in the constellation of Orion. Not an easy target under my increasingly poor suburban skies; I've only spotted it a few times, even with various filters.

Skies

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a sunset on two worlds: Mars and Earth.

Night Skies of the Sacred Peak

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the night skies (and creeping city skyglow) from Mauna Kea. "Mouseover" the image to help identify some of the constellations and several planets.

Celestial Sauron

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a Hubble Space Telescope image of MyCn18 (how's that for a designation?). An hourglass-shaped planetary nebula in the constellation of Musca (one of the many somewhat obscure constellations of the southern hemisphere), it is sometimes better named as the Engraved Hourglass Nebula. I think it has a somewhat piratical or sorcerous look. The other eye of Sauron?

Triple Lion

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Leo Triplet: NGC 3628, Messier 66 and Messier 65. It's always been a mystery to me why Charles Messier catalogued two but not the third.

Wheel of Stars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day flips the sky around and puts Vega in the northern polar climes. Will we be around to see it? Or that castle?

At the Eyepiece

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the professional astronomer doing something that rarely happens: viewing an object directly through the eyepiece of a large (6.5 meter) telescope.

Mars Needs Guitars

Did SF author Andy Weir save NASA's Mars program?

Triangle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Summer Triangle framed behind a blossoming cherry tree in Gunma, Japan. "Mouseover" the image to get a constellation guide.

Lumpy

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows gravitational anomalies (do we still use the term "MASCONS"?) discovered on Mercury.

Serendipity

A delay due to a lost lens cap led to today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: spectacular auroral activity in the skies of Norway. (I do wonder, however, if they ever found that lens cap!)

The Nuclear Option (My 2015 Hugo Vote)

I spent a lot of working on my list of nominations of works worthy of a Hugo Award that appeared in 2014. However, unless you've been sleeping under a rock, you'll know that most of what I nominated did not make it.

There has been a lot of talk about how to vote. Well, long story short: You (Puppies, Either Stripe) have your opinion and some of you (Puppies, mostly Rabid) have made your threats. You dug your grave. Go lie in it. I may have voted for some of your nominees in the various categories such as Best Professional Editor (Long Form) if you hadn't gone the route you went. I have nominated some of your names in the past; I did so again this year [specifically, again, Best Professional Editor (Long Form)].

But...you stand for something I do not. Those nominees who have not dropped from your slate have, in my opinion, embraced your philosophy. So, no vote, no matter how I may have felt previous to this.

My votes:

BEST NOVEL

Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu, Tor Books)
The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison, Tor Books)
Ancillary Sword (Ann Leckie, Orbit)

BEST NOVELLA

No Award

BEST NOVELETTE

The Day the World Turned Upside Down (Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Lightspeed)
No Award

BEST SHORT STORY

No Award

BEST RELATED WORK

No Award

BEST GRAPHIC STORY*

Ms. Marvel Volume 1
Saga Volume 3
Rat Queens Volume 1
Sex Criminals Volume 1
The Zombie Nation Book 2

*This entry previously showed Zombie Nation. This did not reflect how I actually voted. The entry has been changed.

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM)**

Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Interstellar
The Lego Movie
Edge of Tomorrow

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM)**

Listen (Doctor Who)
By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried (Orphan Black)
The Mountain and the Viper (Game of Thrones)
Once We Were Gods (Grimm)
Pilot (The Flash)

**Since I was asked about this: Yes, some of these titles are on the Puppy slates. But they are not Puppy created. Goes to show you even a stopped clock can be correct at least once a year.

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR (SHORT FORM)

No Award

BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR (LONG FORM)

Anne Sowards
No Award

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

Julie Dillon
No Award

BEST SEMIPROZINE

Lightspeed
Strange Horizons
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
No Award

BEST FANZINE

Journey Planet
No Award

BEST FANCAST

Galactic Suburbia
Tea and Jeopardy

BEST FAN WRITER

Laura J. Mixon
No Award

BEST FAN ARTIST

Ninni Aalto
Elizabeth Leggett
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles
Brad Foster

THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD (NOT A HUGO)

Wesley Chu
No Award

And that's all she wrote.

Shadow World

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Moon rising...in front of...a mountain. Or is it?

Whirlpool

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major.

MESSENGER

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a section of Mercury, constructed from image and laser altimeter data, from the Mercury MESSENGER orbiter. That probe, alas, is no more. Having gotten every possible gram of thrust out of the onboard fuel (including using some gas that was not intended as fuel), the vehicle impacted on the surface of Mercury yesterday at around 1526 hours Eastern. A job well done and a fantastic mission!