Friday Flyover.

Hello, North America! note:sorry to the Pacific Northwest, BC and Alaska. You didn't make the cut. Try again next year.

Via NASA 360

Hello, Milky Way! (The Galaxy, Not The Candy Bar) A Wow Image.

From NASAs Astronomy Picture of the Day:
As dawn broke on March 27, the center of the Milky Way Galaxy stood almost directly above the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. In the dry, clear sky of Chile's Atacama desert, our galaxy's dusty central bulge is flanked by Paranal's four 8 meter Very Large Telescope units in this astronomical fisheye view. Along the top, Venus is close to the eastern horizon. The brilliant morning star shines very near a waning crescent Moon just at the edge of one of the telescope structures. Despite the bright pairing in the east, the Milky Way dominates the scene though. Cut by dust lanes and charged with clouds of stars and glowing nebulae, the center of our galaxy sprawls across the darker zenith even as the deep blue sky grows brighter and buildings still glint in moonlight.

A Milky Way Dawn 
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN), ESO Ultra HD Expedition

Moon.

Galileo’s first diagrams of the moon.

Via Neutral Notes.

Science On Sunday. Spectacular Saturn Fly-Through.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/11386048 w=466&h=262]

5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation from stephen v2 on Vimeo.

Stephen van Vuuren - "This is fly-through of this photograph - photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/​catalog/​PIA11141 - only a little brightness and contrast has been made to balance the moons with saturn's body. Do note that several thousand layers of many Cassini photographs were animated to make the fly-through work without any 3D CGI. The saturation is off due to lack of Flash Player ICM support."

Via, one of the most interesting bloggers around, Ole Eichhorn.

Fly Me To The Moon......oops, I Mean A Comet.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=world/2010/11/04/nasa.hartley.2.comet.images.nasa

My geekiness rears it's head into the light. I love this stuff.

Oh, Oh! It Looks The Aliens Are Here.

A strange light appeared in the sky over northern Norway. No one seems to know what caused it to appear. Could it be a beckon from Santa or the Russians playing with a new toy?

"The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.

Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'."

Home, Sweet Home.

Muy grande.
Gobble, gobble!

Via .sNIPEOUT

Look In The Sky, It's A Giant Donut Hole! [Astro Pic]

Actually, its a dark molecular cloud also known as dark absorption nebulae. "What's that Joe?"
It huge mass of dust and molecular gas which when mixed (not stirred) creates a combination that zaps out all the visible light. Hence, you can't see stars hiding in the background. Our friend above is called Barnard 68 and it is located in the Ophiuchus constellation.

Technorati Tags: barnard 68, dark absorption nebulae, bok globule, the universe, astronomy

Dark Side Of The Moon.

Eclipse
(Waters) 2:04

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

Technorati Tags: sun, moon, eclipse, pink floyd, roger waters

Crab Cakes Anyone?

The Crab Nebula, Messier 1 (M1, NGC 1952), is the most famous and conspicuous known supernova remnant, the expanding cloud of gas created in the explosion of a star as supernova which was observed in the year 1054 AD. It shines as a nebula of magnitude 8.4 near the southern "horn" of Taurus, the Bull.

Credit: NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University). Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Technorati Tags: astronomy, the crab nebula, messier 1

Astronomical Objects.

I wonder if Dr. Smith, Will Robinson and the Robot ever made it to
Andromeda? Of course I'm kidding, do you look at the sky at night
and become filled with wonder? (click on the photo to enlarge)

Cause I'm crazy 'bout a Mercury.
One week ago, the MESSENGER spacecraft transmitted to Earth the first
high-resolution image of Mercury by a spacecraft in over 30 years.
(click on the photo to enlarge)

Tags: astronomy, andromeda, mercury, messenger

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The Horse In Space.

No, it's not the Horsehead Nebula, it's IC 4592.
Photo via NASA.

Tags: astronomy, nebula, ic 4592

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Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls Of Fire!! In Stereo.

Here is one of many images sent back from NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (STEREO).
Hot, hot, hot baby!

If you are wondering why I'm showing you an image of the Sun on a goof ball sailing, surfing, paddling blog;
it's because that big ball in the sky is what powers our planet's weather ... think wind ...waves.
The God's honest truth, I love astronomy.

Hat tip to .sNIPEOUT.

Tags: astronomy, NASA, sun, STEREO

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Where Stars Are Born. STELLE NASCENTI

(Corriere della Sera) In quest'immagine ripresa dal telescopio americano di Las Campanas (Cile) vediamo delle stelle appena formate all'interno della galassia NGC 300 situata a 7 milioni di anni luce di distanza dalla terra.

(Horse Translation Services - English Version) In this image from the American telescope located in Las Campanas(Chile) we see the formation of stars inside of the galaxy NGC 300 which is 7 million light years from Earth.

I love the Corriere della Sera. What a great newspaper!

I suspect that somewhere out there is Pavel's homeworld.