Cove Cycle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the winter solstice Sun at Lulworth Cove in England.

Celestial Fox

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the so-called Fox Fur Nebula in the region of Monoceros.

Dusty Lanes

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day reveals the dusty interior of Messier 42 and 43, The Great Nebula of Orion.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Boulders and a martian landslide. Think of it as erosion in action.

Landing Pad

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video of the first successful landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 stage. The beginning of a new era?

Keep It Dark

How do you like your coffee? Vader-esque? Dark as the soul of night?

Origin Story

William Gibson on creating Neuromancer. Amazing what the sound of an impending deadline will create.

Precusor

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Eta Carinae. Where's the star? What's going on? A long slow match leading to an eventual explosion: maybe we'll be lucky to catch the flash.

At Either End

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day stretches from the far ends of the galaxy to the ground beneath our feet.

Scaling Up

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing the scale of the solar system.

Distant Decorations

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a pine tree decorated by the distant stars.

Falling Skies

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day continues the series of images combining meteor showers and observatories. Here we have the Geminids (above) and the Xinglong Observatory (below).

Lapse

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing the sky for a year. Can you find the solstices?

Flash

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a pretty amazing story. A supernova is spotted. Then a chance alignment is spotted and thanks to gravitational lensing, we can see the supernova take place.

Sprites

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the solar panels of the International Space Station above the night skies of Earth. Can you find the red sprite?

Godwhale

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows NGC 4631 in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Cosmic whales (do we have cosmic whaling ships?)!

Clouds in the Dark

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) in the constellation of Orion. It's amazing how much is in that constellation!

More Radiants

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a view of the Geminids over the skies of Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. "Mouseover" the image (in the link) in order to get a constellation guide.

Full-On Horse

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a really wonderful shot of the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion. Not only do we get a sharp image in "natural" light, but we get context: how this nebula fits in with other wonders of the constellation.

Atmospheric Enhancements

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows colorful arcs in the skies above Buenos Aires.

Rollout

The launch vehicle and capsule used by Expedition 46 to the International Space Station rolls along its track towards the launch site.

Chaos in the Outer Darkness

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows mountains and plains on "dwarf" planet Pluto, as imaged by New Horizons 2015 on its whirlwind tour of the edge of our system.

Radiance

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows us Geminid meteors over the skies of the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert.

Rendezvous

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the dance between the morning planets and the Moon, with a new partner: Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) joins the party.

Dwarf Planet

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is one of the best views of the mysterious bright spots on "dwarf planet" Ceres (in the Asteroid Belt). A number of theories have been floated since the bright patches were spotted; consensus seems to be...believe it or not...epsom salts.

Conjunction

There's been a cosmic dance in the morning skies the last few months between Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon. The three planets have been drawing closer together and further apart as the Earth traces its orbit and the Moon has cycled through the gathering each month as it traces its own orbit.

In today's Astronomy Picture of the Day we see the latest installment of this dance as Venus passes behind the waning Moon.

Galactic Internactions

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is combination of several Hubble Space Telescope images showing interacting galaxies (NGC 3808 A and B) with a "bridge" of material between them. NGC 3808 A and B are also listed as Number 87 in the Arp Catalogue.

Cosmic Curtains

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows auroral activity over Iceland. "Mouseover" the image (in the link) to get a constellation guide.

Catalina Rising

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) after rounding the Sun and on its closest approach to Earth.

Full Earth

Hey, kids! Remember when we flew to the Moon and saw things like this? Maybe someday we'll do that again!

Launch!

Orbital ATK is back in business (using a new vehicle, at least for now) with resupply missions to the International Space Station! This launch was from Florida, so, for me, not visible like the Virginia launches were.

Energy

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a tiny representation of a possible future source of energy. The Casimir Effect, dark energy and tiny sticky parts, oh my!

1705+

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video demonstrating how much our knowledge of the structure of our galaxy has changed in my life. From zero known exoplanets to 1,705 and counting.

MOL

A look at a dusty and forgotten part of the American space program: the USAF's Manned Orbiting Laboratory.

Addendum: PDF book on the MOL program.

The Cosmic Bubbles

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us deep red cosmic bubbles in Cygnus.

Roots and Branches

Long time readers of the blog (and previous iterations of the blog) know that I am a big fan of the works of Poul Anderson. Imagine my surprise when Open Road Media (Anderson's latest publisher) posted (over at SF Signal) Poul Anderson's first (known) story!

Lord of the Rings

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us to Saturn Space (and Beyond the Infinite). Water moon Enceladus seems to hover above the Rings. Enjoy the sights, folks: Cassini is on a countdown and there's no follow up mission for quite a while.

Flashing

I was told once by a ship's captain that the only way I'd ever see a green flash was to look at the setting sun through the bottom of a Heineken bottle. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video that shows otherwise.

Autumnal Reds

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the subtle reds of nebular clouds in a number of regions in the constellation of Aurigae.