Mars AS BIG AS the Moon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Angry Red Planet, still bright and (relatively) close to us in the night skies. For once we seem to have escaped the (false) internet meme that Mars would be "as big as the Moon!" during opposition.

Surface features are starting to peak through as the global dust storm subsides. Still no word (knock on wood) from Opportunity!

Deep Reds and Subtle Blues

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us NGC 6914 in the constellation of Cygnus. What a mix of reds and blues, stars, gas and dust!

Variable Link

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us variable star RS Pup, embedded deep in a reflection nebula. RS Pup is a Cepheid Variable, a standard marker used to help to determine galactic distances.

Glow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us the glow of car lights scattered through dense fog and the biological glow of small organisms in the water along the coast of Oregon. Above, the glow of the Milky Way.

Shadow From Space

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the shadow of The Great Eclipse of 2017...from spaaaaacceeee!!!

Fire This Time

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day a forest fire in Montana in 2000. Not only the stars can burn.

Hurtling Stars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows ESO 137-001, a spiral galaxy passing through galaxy cluster Abell 3627. ESO 137-001 is moving so fast that it appears as a galactic comet and dust and gas forms a tail.

Double Messier

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 20 and Messier 21 in the constellation of Sagittarius. Let's peer towards the center of our home galaxy, shall we?

Interloper Between Heart and Soul

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Heart and Soul Nebula with an interloper: Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner passes through the field of view. ISEE-3, known then as ICE, visited the comet in 1985.

Approach to Rubble

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows an increasingly detailed view of asteroid 162173 Ryugu, as JAXA's Hayabusa 2 vehicle moves every closer.

Deep Soul

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows rich star-forming regions in the Soul Nebula, IC 1898.

Quiet Sun

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows some activity on our Sun. Currently in the Solar Minimum, even fewer sunspots than expected are visible.

Very Scary

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Asperitas clouds in the skies of New Zealand. Very scary looking, but not scary in actuality.

Peeking In

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us the results of the hyper-extended Cassini Orbiter mission at Saturn. The large moon Titan, shrouded in clouds, has been a mystery. Now peek underneath!

Infalling

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a Perseid meteor and it's aftermath. Was somebody blowing smoke rings in space?

Going Up, Going Down

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the early morning launch of the Parker Solar Probe on a Delta IV Heavy while the skies are lit by the occasional Perseid meteor.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the (early!) Sunday morning launch of a Delta IV Heavy carrying the Parker Solar Probe. There's just something spectacular about a night launch!

No space frog caught photobombing the launch this time!

Bridge Over Stellar Waters

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a cluster of galaxies, Messier 86 (also known as The Eyes Galaxies and Arp 120), in a larger cluster of galaxies, the Virgo Cluster, and part of Markarian's Chain of galaxies. What is in the image, ghostlike? Is it a bridge between two of the galaxies?

"Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide to the objects in the picture. This is also an area worth exploring, from binoculars to larger low power/rich field telescopes. Just wander around and look what you can find!

Shock!

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us NGC 2736, in the constellation of Vela. Popularly known as The Pencil Nebula (look at the images in that second link), this nebula is the result of a supernova which occurred some 11,000 years ago.

Ruining the Shot

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a ruined astronomical shot. Or is it? A Perseid meteor passes through the frame dominated by Messier 31, The Andromeda Galaxy. Why do you think the meteor was green?

Three M's

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a composite of the (eclipsed) Moon, Mars and the Milky Way.

Spirals on the Stream

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a pretty spectacular spiral galaxy, NGC 6744, in the constellation of Pavo.

Red and Blue

The title of today's Astronomy Picture of the Day says it plain: red planet, red Moon, red Mars. But also blue water and blue sky.

Perseids

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing the Perseid meteor shower's path through our solar system.

Lunar Alps

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Moon at moonrise, rising in a state of eclipse, over the Alps in France. Did you know there are also Alps on the Moon? (There are, however, no goats known to be on the Moon—enlarge the image to see what I mean!)

Cosmic Bombardment

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a live (really!) view of what's going on above us. The skies are alive with incoming gamma rays!

Heart

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a (reprocessed and enhanced) view of the heart of the Orion Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Along the Bulge

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day takes us along the plane of the Milky Way, but now usually along the section we see (e.g., Sagittarius), but out towards the Northern Cross, or Cygnus.

Full Bloodmoon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows three moments in the recent lunar eclipse, from near totality, to totality, and the moment after.

Timelapse Bloodmoon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a timed sequence of last week's "Bloodmoon" lunar eclipse over the Gulf of Poets in Italy.

A Canticle for Leibowitz

The classic cover art by Dean Ellis.

Dusty Iris

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day peers into the constellation of Cepheus and looks at the dusty environs of the Iris Nebula.