Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Deep Time

A good guide to finding good history. There's a lot of dodgy stuff out there: poorly researched, mainly a thin covering for a warped sense of politics. Take a step back with this article and seek out books that will inform you!

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Sisters

 


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 45, popularly known as the Seven Sisters, or, more classically, as the Pleiades. This open cluster is visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere late Fall through early Spring and yields even more wonders in a pair of binoculars or a low-power and wide-field telescope.

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Great Spirals


 Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear, part of which is the Big Dipper). The image above is a composite, combining light from various frequencies, to tease out the structures embedded in this galaxy.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

The Galactic Dark


 Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day depicts a astronomical mystery. Each of these galaxies spins (as they all do). These galaxies spin so fast that they should fly apart. Why don't they? Possibly due to dark matter. How to solve the mystery? Maybe the James Webb Space Telescope will shine a light on the matter.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Shepherd Moon


 

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows one of Saturn's "shepherd moons", Daphnis. Surfing around the rings of Saturn, you can see the "waves" it makes in those rings.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Bright Candle


 Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion. The image above combines data from multiple wavelengths; click on the link to toggle between the images.

Friday, November 1, 2019

The Coming of the Martians


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows an overexposed Mars and a overexposed 51 Ophiuchi. Look carefully around the "halo" of Mars, at about 1:00 PM on the "clock dial" and you'll spot Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) making a close approach to the Red Planet. 


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!

Monday, September 30, 2019

Hunter in Repose


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Orion the Hunter from the perspective of Brazil, where he seems to be somewhere between horizontal repose and starting to stand on his head (vs. my usual northern hemisphere perspective).

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Thursday, September 26, 2019

da Vinci Glow


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the New Moon embraced in the arms of the Old Moon. The "dark side" of the moon (the night side) is lit by earthshine. Leonardo da Vinci was probably not the first to observe this, but was the first that we know of to write of it.


Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Making the Star Stuff


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows IC 5070, The Pelican Nebula, in the constellation of Cygnus. We are all star stuff, especially stars, which are being created in regions such as this.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Martian Frosting


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the northern hemisphere of Mars, where frozen carbon dioxide and water are sublimating off dune fields. Poke around and find other images from the polar regions of Mars during this kind of event. There are some amazing images to be seen around this (let along the rest of the planet!).

Monday, September 23, 2019

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Warped Planet


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows...a landscape warped by a close-passing singularity? Cosmic strings bending local space? A breakdown between dimensions? Stitched photos creating so-called Little Planet projections can get really mind-bending!

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Night Flowers


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Tulip Nebula, found in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan). The night sky is full of flowers.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Traveling the Veil


Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows one portion of the Veil Nebula, an expanding supernova remnant in the constellation of Cygnus.