Month: May 2020

Aurora over Sweden

It was bright and green and stretched across the sky. This striking aurora display was captured in 2016 just outside of Östersund, Sweden. Six photographic fields were merged to create the featured panorama spanning almost 180 degrees. Particularly striking aspects...

/ May 31, 2020

Green Flashes: Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury

Follow a sunset on a clear day against a distant horizon and you might glimpse green just as the Sun disappears from view. The green flash is caused by refraction of light rays traveling to the eye over a long...

/ May 30, 2020

Mercury Meets Crescent Venus

That’s not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It’s Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two inner planets closely shared this telescopic field of view...

/ May 29, 2020

Reflecting the International Space Station

Still bathed in sunlight, the International Space Station arced through the evening sky over lake Wulfsahl-Gusborn in northern Germany, just after sunset on March 25. The familiar constellation of Orion can be seen left of the trail of the orbital...

/ May 28, 2020

Earth and Moon through Saturns Rings

What are those dots between Saturn’s rings? Our Earth and Moon. Just over three years ago, because the Sun was temporarily blocked by the body of Saturn, the robotic Cassini spacecraft was able to look toward the inner Solar System....

/ May 27, 2020

The Milky Way over Snow Capped Himalayas

What’s higher than the Himalayas? Although the Himalayan Mountains are the tallest on planet Earth, they don’t measure up to the Milky Way. Visible above the snow-capped mountains in the featured image is the arcing central band of our home...

/ May 26, 2020

Mystic Mountain Monster being Destroyed

Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. The huge monster, actually an inanimate series of pillars of gas and dust, measures light years in length. The in-head star is not itself visible...

/ May 25, 2020

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars

The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8...

/ May 24, 2020

Ghost Fungus to Magellanic Cloud

Stars shine and satellites glint in this clear, dark, night sky over Wannon Falls Reserve, South West Victoria, Australia. In fact the fuzzy, faint apparition above the tree tops is the only cloud visible, also known as the Large Magellanic...

/ May 23, 2020

South of Carina

With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the largest star forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Great Carina Nebula. The telescopic close-up frames a field of...

/ May 22, 2020