When the lake calmed down, many wonders of the land and sky appeared twice. Perhaps the most dramatic from the dark sky was the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, visible as a diagonal band. Toward the right were both the Small (SMC) and Large (LMC) Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. […]
What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot — a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni Cassini’s likely notation of it 355 years ago. It is not yet known why this Great Spot is red. The spot toward the […]
The dark shadow of the New Moon reached out and touched planet Earth on June 21. A high definition camera outside the International Space Station captured its passing in this snapshot from low Earth orbit near the border of Kazakhstan and China. Of course those along the Moon’s central shadow track below could watch the […]
We don’t see the beautiful spiral arms of galaxy NGC 5907 in this Hubble image because we are viewing it edge-on, like looking at the rim of a plate. It is for this reason that NGC 5907 is also known as the Knife Edge galaxy. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-6Vy
Want to watch a solar eclipse safely? Try looking down instead of up, though you might discover you have a plethora of images to choose from. For example, during the June 21st solar eclipse this confusing display appeared under a shady bamboo grove in Pune, India. Small gaps between close knit leaves on the tall […]
This composite image, made from six frames, shows the International Space Station, with a crew of five onboard, in silhouette as it transits the Sun. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-6UW
On June 21 an annular solar eclipse came soon after the solstice and our fair planet’s northernmost sunset for 2020. At maximum eclipse, the New Moon in silhouette created a ring of fire visible along a narrow path at most 85 kilometers wide. The annular eclipse path began in central Africa, crossed south Asia and […]
On June 21, 2020, as the International Space Station orbited over Kazakhstan and into China, an external high-definition camera captures this picture of the solar eclipse shadowing a portion of the Asian continent. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-6U7
How could that city be upside-down? The city, Chicago, was actually perfectly right-side up. The long shadows it projected onto nearby Lake Michigan near sunset, however, when seen in reflection, made the buildings appear inverted. This fascinating, puzzling, yet beautiful image was captured by a photographer in 2014 on an airplane on approach to Chicago’s […]
In this image NGC 7027 resembles a jewel bug, an insect with a brilliantly colorful metallic shell. via wordpress https://wp.me/p4wJUi-6TX