Moon River

2005-09-09 Jay Ouellet

Shortly after sunset on September 6th, sky gazers around the world were treated to a lovely crescent Moon in western skies -- joined by bright planets Venus and Jupiter. In this colorful telephoto view from near Quebec City, Canada the Moon is ...

IC 1396 in Cepheus

2005-09-08

Stunning emission nebula IC 1396 mixes glowing cosmic gas and dark dust clouds in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Energized by the bright, bluish central star seen here, this star forming region sprawls across hundreds of ...

The View from Husband Hill on Mars

2005-09-07

Scroll right to see a breathtaking panorama of Mars from the top of Husband Hill. The image was taken by the robotic rover Spirit now exploring the red planet. Spirit, situated in expansive Gusev Crater, has been exploring the Columbia Hills ...

Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's...

2005-09-06

The tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus might be active. Even today, they may be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring. ...

Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae from SALT

2005-09-05

Stars come in bunches. Of the over 200 globular star clusters that orbit the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, 47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster, behind Omega Centauri. Known to some affectionately as 47 Tuc or NGC 104, it is ...

Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

2005-09-04 Col Druscie Obs.

Comet Hale-Bopp became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Out away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the ...

Venus Unveiled

2005-09-03

The surface of Venus is perpetually covered by a veil of thick clouds and remains hidden from even the powerful telescopic eyes of earth-bound astronomers. But in the early 1990s, using imaging radar, the Venus orbiting Magellan spacecraft was ...

X-Ray Portrait of Trumpler 14

2005-09-02

A wonder of planet Earth's southern sky, star cluster Trumpler 14 lies about nine thousand light-years away in the Carina complex -- a rich star forming region at the edge of a giant molecular cloud. This false-color x-ray portrait of Trumpler 14 ...

One-Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725

2005-09-01

While most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have two or more spiral arms, peculiar galaxy NGC 4725 has only one. In this false-color Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image, the galaxy's solo spira mirabilis is seen in red, ...

Crepuscular Rays Over Utah

2005-08-31 Jean Nesheim

What could cause such rays of dark? Dark sky rays were caught in spectacular fashion earlier this month above Utah, USA. The cause is something surprisingly familiar: shadows. Clouds near the horizon can block sunlight from reflecting off air, ...