Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

[Tarkus]

How many people here know of APOD? Astronomy Picture of the Day is one of my favorite sights. I visit it pretty much every day, just like Icmag.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The archive is very impressive, since June 16, 1995 they have posted a bad ass astronomy picture every day. It is often something very interesting and previously unknown to me, as they have an explanation of every picture. Many of my favorite pictures are from this website.
The South Pole of Saturn has clouds that form a giant vortex,


While the North Pole has very unique hexagonal clouds.


And one of my all time favorite Nebula's, the soon to be supernova Eta Carinae.

And of course, Saturnian Auroras. They can last for days on end, the three images were taken in ultraviolet light, and two days apart.

 

[daisy jane]

Hell yea! Here are a few that are saved on my computer..

The Fire Nebula



The Pillars of Creation



The Eagle Nebula




Good thread

 

[nycdfan042]

^^ wow...as beautiful as the ocean

 

[Guest]

I always wonder what these pics would look like to the human eye.

It seems as though many are computer edited so that certain types of wavelengths come up as certain colors.

So you could just assign a different color to represent a different waveform or whatever, and the picture would look entirely different.

And then, you could just subtract all of the computer-aided visibility, and limit the picture to things that only the human eye could see, and it may be very different looking.

In any case, this stuff is cool

 

[Guest]

Thats some beautiful stuff,but where's the ships?NUFORC MUFON and sometimes CUFOS are daily for me.I'ma waitin..

 

[fr33th3w33d]

i like that site.

there were pics of two galaxies that collided and created a crazy shaped single galaxy.. same things gonna happen to the milky way and andromeda galaxies eventually.

 

[Guest]

Gadzooks!Are the pillars of creation a nebula too or what?

 

[pieceofmyheart]

Very cool site, thanks Tarkus. I emailed it to my daughters.

 

[Tarkus]

The pillars or creation lie near the center of the Eagle Nebula, and are pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The ends are lit up because intense radiation from evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) causes low density material to boil away and the rest of the gas will gravitationally collapse to form a new star. Light from the hottest and brightest of these new stars heats the end of the pillar and causes further evaporation of gas, revealing more EGGs and young stars.
Some of the photos are taken in Infared so you can see through all the dust. There are many pictures taken as the naked eye would see it, only through a powerful telescope.

I suggest this website if you are into astronomy at all, or just enjoy BREATHTAKING pictures!!

 

[Nikijad4210]

Beautiful pictures, everyone!
Brightened my day a bit with that site, Tark, thanks

 

[Guest]

Yea that site is a breath of fresh air after what happened in virgina today.

 

[Verite]

.. I always wonder what these pics would look like to the human eye.

The eye just sees these as black and white if anything at all [ deep space stuff.] Most of them are unseen even with a good telescope. Most of the good stuff is very long exposures and a color wheel.

Im waiting for the next gen of telescopes to be shot out into space. Heres some of my amature stuff.


Mars the last time it was close from my back yard. [ I live in a dense metro area with lots of light pollution.]


The moon during the last good eclipse.


The sun with a prominence flare.