Eat Them Up, Yum

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us an image of IC 1795 in the constellation of Cassiopeia, resembling a fish head to some.

No Night Without Stars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a nebular region seemingly without stars. They are there...they just haven't been born yet.

Sparks

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows active weather in the skies of Guatemala.

Shifting

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us "visible" and infrared views of the North American Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus. "Mouseover" the image in the link to switch between the views.

Fire To The Moon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkIII lofting India's Chandrayaan 2 mission (orbiter, lander and rover) to the Moon.

Tracery

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows delicate cloud tracery across the sky as noctilucent clouds move over Sweden.

Cygnus Starscape

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows rich starfields and nebular shapes in the region of Cygnus the Swan.

Erosion of the System

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day captures zodiacal light, dust in our solar system, possibly created by eroding comets (so to speak).

The Wind Between the Stars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us Messier 82, the Cigar Galaxy, enhanced and processed to show filments of gas and dust being driven by a galactic superwind.

Shadow Crossing

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the shadow of the Earth crossing the face of the Moon during last week's lunar eclipse.

Active Moon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is from the Sea of Tranquility during the mission of Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin stands near the deployed Passive Seismic Experiment. It seems that our "dead" moon is surprisingly active. What causes this activity? Meteor hits? Collapsing faults? Giant moon beasts?

View from the Eagle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a panoramic view from Apollo 11's Lunar Module, Eagle in the Sea of Tranquility.

Why haven't we been back?

Tranquility Base

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a panoramic view from Tranquility Base, landing site of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.

Why haven't we been back? Or gone further?

Shadows

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Moon, cast in a reddish light due to the shadow of the Earth, obscured by a shadowy mountain.

First Landing

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video of the descent of Eagle (Apollo 11) to the Sea of Tranquility. (Artwork above by Robert McCall, depicting the descent, including inset views of what would have been seen from the windows of the Lunar Module. Artwork below by Pierre Mion showing the unexpected obstacle in the final part of the descent, when the Lunar Module came dangerously close to landing in a rock field)

Go For Launch

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing the launch of Apollo 11, bringing humans to another sphere for the last time. Why haven't we been back?

Across the Bright Face

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the International Space Station moving across the quiet Sun, devoid of sun spots and mottling.

Northern Eagle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us an image of auroral activity over the skies of Norway. If might be worth the long winters just for such a sight!

Dimensional Eagle

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an anaglyph (three-dimensional image) of the ascent stage of the Eagle, the Lunar Module that first brought humans to the surface of another sphere. Fifty. Years. Ago.

Irregulars

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image of a class of galaxy known as "irregular", meaning it does not have the familiar spiral shape. What causes this shift in galaxies such as NGC 55 or our satellite galaxies of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Passages or collisions with other galaxies? Galaxy-wide singularities? The Great Old Ones?

Halo Effect

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day focuses on NGC 3242, popularly known as The Ghost of Jupiter. This "planetary" nebula is actually the remnant of a nova. Not as easily seen by the "backyard observer" are the extended waves of nebular matter outside the central nebula: sucessive shockwaves of gas traveling out from the central star.

Beyond the Home System

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video depicting the locations of the over 4,000 (yes, four thousand) planets (exoplanets) found outside of our solar system. These have been discovered using procedures such as microlensing, using both ground-based and space-based systems (such as Kepler and TESS).

Shadows Against the Sun

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is from the August 2017 total solar eclipse. Were these birds as confused as some people were?

MeerKATs Online

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us an image built from data at the radio range (hence, not "visible" to the ordinary person). The MeerKAT array peers at the center of our galaxy to see what is lurking there. "Mouseover" the image in the link for details.

The MeerKAT is only the precursor for the Square Kilometer Array. Can't wait to find out what that learns when it comes online!

Saturn's Shadow

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a partial (crescent) Saturn plus the long shadow cast by the planet upon the ring system. Views like these can only come courtesy of visitors that fly past (e.g., Pioneer or Voyager) or orbit (Cassini). Here's hoping somebody funds another orbiter like Cassini!

Chasing Shadows

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the point of totality during the solar eclipse of July 2, 2019. The image was taken from a rather unique vantage point: a chase plane which was following the shadow of the Moon during the eclipse.

Eclipse Sequence

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the July 2, 2019 solar eclipse from first contact to last from the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows a lineup of eager photographers and observers catching the July 2, 2019 solar eclipse.

Dragonfly

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a short video showing one of the proposed missions for the next generation of solar system exploration. The Dragonfly mission would deploy a small helicopter to Saturn's moon Titan, home to an atmosphere with a rich and interesting chemistry, weather, lakes (just not of water) and possibly...life (?).

Rich Fields

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a processed image from the Hubble Space Telescope (there seems to be quite an industry of "amateur" astronomers working with data from professional instruments!) of NGC 1566, a face-on spiral in the constellation of Dorado (the "Dolphinfish"). Another beautiful spiral with dust lanes, blue clusters and red star-forming regions! I could look at these for hours and hours.

Coronal Activity

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows coronal activity, solar prominences and even the faint face of the Moon in this image from the August 2017 solar eclipse.