Halloween’s origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs tomorrow, the real cross-quarter … Continue reading Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Very faint but also very large on planet Earth’s sky, a giant Squid Nebula cataloged as Ou4, and Sh2-129 also known as the Flying Bat Nebula, are both caught in this cosmic scene toward the royal constellation Cepheus. Composed with almost 17 hours of narrowband image data, the telescopic field of view is 4 degrees … Continue reading A Giant Squid in the Flying Bat
What created these unusually long shadows on Saturn’s rings? The dark shadows — visible near the middle of the image — extend opposite the Sun and, given their length, stem from objects having heights up to a few kilometers. The long shadows were unexpected given that the usual thickness of Saturn’s A and B rings … Continue reading Propeller Shadows on Saturn’s Rings
What created these unusually long shadows on Saturn’s rings? The dark shadows — visible near the middle of the image — extend opposite the Sun and, given their length, stem from objects having heights up to a few kilometers. The long shadows were unexpected given that the usual thickness of Saturn’s A and B rings … Continue reading Propeller Shadows on Saturn’s Rings
What’s happening near the south pole of Jupiter? Recent images sent back by NASA‘s robotic Juno spacecraft are showing an interesting conglomeration of swirling clouds and what appear to be white ovals. Juno arrived at Jupiter in July and is being placed into a wide, looping orbit that will bring it near the gas giant … Continue reading Clouds Near Jupiters South Pole from Juno
What’s that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days before this 2012 image was taken, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth. Although most of this cloud passed above the Earth, some of it impacted our Earth’s magnetosphere and resulted … Continue reading Eagle Aurora over Norway
Early one moonlit evening car lights left a wandering trail along the road to the Chilean Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Setting stars left the wandering trails in the sky. The serene view toward the mountainous horizon was captured in a telephoto timelapse image and video taken from nearby Cerro Pachon, home to Gemini South. Afforded … Continue reading Cerro Tololo Trails
