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2009 November 30
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...nel_sts129.jpg Bright Sun and Crescent Earth from the Space Station
Credit: STS-129 Crew, NASA Explanation: This was just one more breathtaking view from the International Space Station. The Sun, a crescent Earth, and the long arm of a solar panel were all visible outside a window when the Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the orbiting outpost last week. Reflections from the window and hexagonal lens flares from the camera are superposed. The space shuttle landed Friday after a successful 10 day mission to expand and resupply the ISS. Numbered STS-129, the space shuttle mission returned astronaut Nicole Stott to Earth from her stay on the ISS as a Flight Engineer in the Expedition 20 and 21 crews.

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http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...e_ebersole.jpg

Dust Sculptures in the Rosette Nebula

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This is stunning.

I wish I were there. :cup:

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2009 December 7
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...iss_sts129.jpg The International Space Station Over the Horizon

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I'm all confused!

Is it upside down?

It's kinda making me feel queasy - like being on the top floor of a skyscraper looking down, or something like that. :sad:

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hmmm, actually it's hard to tell. I guess we'll never know at what angle the picture was taken.

Here's a better one!


2009 December 6
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...t_mcnaught.jpg The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught

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:original:

Yeah, much better!

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Oh how small we are!!!



2009 December 9
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...hudfir_hst.jpg HUDF Infrared: Dawn of the Galaxies
Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick & UCSC), R. Bouwens (UCO/Lick & Leiden U.), & the HUDF09 Team Explanation: When did galaxies form? To help find out, the deepest near-infrared image of the sky ever has been taken of the same field as the optical-light Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) in 2004. The new image was taken this summer by the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3 on the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope. Faint red smudges identified on the above image likely surpass redshift 8 in distance. These galaxies therefore likely existed when the universe was only a few percent of its present age, and may well be members of the first class of galaxies. Some large modern galaxies make a colorful foreground to the distant galaxies. Analyses by the HUDF09 team indicate that at least some of these early galaxies had very little interstellar dust. This early class of low luminosity galaxies likely contained energetic stars emitting light that transformed much of the remaining normal matter in the universe from a cold gas to a hot ionized plasma.

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And this is just our universe, right? One of many? One of infinite universes?

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Yep, our universe. One of many? probably. One of infinite? maybe.
It boggles the mind to think how vast it is!

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2009 December 20
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...emma_tezel.jpg Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma
Credit & Copyright: Cenk E. Tezel and Tunç Tezel (TWAN) Explanation: If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun appear to move? With great planning and effort, such a series of images can be taken. The figure-8 path the Sun follows over the course of a year is called an analemma. This coming Tuesday, the Winter Solstice day in Earth's northern hemisphere, the Sun will be at the bottom of the analemma. Analemmas created from different latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. With even greater planning and effort, the series can include a total eclipse of the Sun as one of the images. Pictured is such a total solar eclipse analemma or Tutulemma - a term coined by the photographers based on the Turkish word for eclipse. The composite image sequence was recorded from Turkey starting in 2005. The base image for the sequence is from the total phase of a solar eclipse as viewed from Side, Turkey on 2006 March 29. Venus was also visible during totality, toward the lower right.

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2009 December 19
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...ra_Hansen1.jpg Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash
Credit & Copyright: Bjørnar G. Hansen, Explanation: Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on December 13. This 30 second long exposure records their shimmering glow gently lighting the wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, it also captures the sudden flash of a fireball meteor from December's excellent Geminid meteor shower. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini, off the top of the view. Both aurora and meteors occur in Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so, but aurora are caused by energetic charged particles from the magnetosphere, while meteors are trails of cosmic dust.

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http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...holka850wp.jpg

Mojave Desert Fireball

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2009 December 25
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...as_alt445h.jpg A Graceful Arc
Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas Explanation: The graceful arc of the Milky Way begins and ends at two mountain peaks in this solemn night sky panorama. Created from a 24 frame mosaic, exposures tracking Earth and sky were made separately, with northern California's Mount Lassen at the left and Mount Shasta at the far right, just below the star and dust clouds of the galactic center. Lassen and Shasta are volcanoes in the Cascade Mountain Range of North America, an arc of the volcanic Pacific Ring of Fire. In the dim, snow-capped peaks, planet Earth seems to echo the subtle glow of the Milky Way's own faint, unresolved starlight.

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2010 January 2
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...31_Roux900.jpg Blue Moon Eclipse

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oh so nice~ Dan

blue moon~ Ella Fitzgerald
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4218R...eature=related

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2010 January 22
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...lgaard800c.jpg Millennium Annular Solar Eclipse
Credit & Copyright: Mikael Svalgaard Explanation: The Moon's shadow raced across planet Earth on January 15. Observers within the central shadow track were able to witness an annular solar eclipse as the Moon's apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun. A visually dramatic ring of fire, the annular phase lasted up to 11 minutes and 8 seconds depending on location, the longest annular solar eclipse for the next 1,000 years. This picture of the Moon's silhouette just before mid-eclipse was taken within the eclipse path from the city of Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India. The telescopic image was made through a filter that blocks most visible light, but still transmits light from hydrogen atoms. As a result, detailed mottling, or granulation, caused by heat convection in the Sun's atmosphere can be seen around the dark lunar disk

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2010 January 26
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...lipse_chin.jpg Annular Eclipse Over Myanmar
Credit & Copyright: Wei Loon Chin Explanation: A hole crossed the Sun for a few minutes this month, as seen across a thin swath of planet Earth. The event on January 15 was actually an annular solar eclipse, and the hole was really Earth's Moon, an object whose dark half may appear even darker when compared to the tremendously bright Sun. The Moon was too far from Earth to create a total solar eclipse, but instead left well placed observers with a bright surrounding circle called the ring of fire. Pictured above was a complete solar annular eclipse sequence as seen above the Ananda Temple in Bagan, Myanmar. The image of the ancient temple, built around the year 1100, was taken after sunset on the same day of the eclipse. The next solar eclipse will be a total solar eclipse during 2010 July.

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2010 January 17
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...tis_sts104.jpg Atlantis to Orbit
Credit: NASA Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago. The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe and challenges description. Pictured above, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off to visit the International Space Station during the early morning hours of 2001 July 12. From a standing start, the two million kilogram rocket ship left to circle the Earth where the outside air is too thin to breathe and where there is little noticeable onboard gravity. Rockets bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth about once a week