Wow, It Really Does Look Like A Hummingbird!

Picture of the Day!

This image is composed of consecutive shots taken near Llers in Spain’s Girona province, showing Comet Pons-Brooks. After passing closest to the Sun, it is now fading as it moves into the southern skies toward the outer Solar System.

Image credit: Juan Carlos Casado

2023 October 10

Hidden Orion from Webb Image Credit & License: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST; Processing: M. McCaughrean & S. Pearson

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion has hidden stars. To the unaided eye in visible light, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. But this image was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in a representative-color composite of red and very near infrared light. It confirms with impressive detail that the Orion Nebula is a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The rollover image shows the same image in representative colors further into the near infrared. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium - a cluster of bright stars near the nebula’s center. The diffuse and filamentary glow surrounding the bright stars is mostly heated interstellar dust. Detailed inspection of these images shows an unexpectedly large number of Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs), pairs of Jupiter-mass objects which might give a clue to how stars are forming. The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next few million years.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231010.html

Webb + Hubble > peanut butter + chocolate? We think so!

In this image of galaxy cluster MACS0416, the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have united to create one of the most colorful views of the universe ever taken. Their combination of visible and infrared light yields vivid colors that give clues to the distances of galaxies (blue = close, red = far).

Looking at the combined data, scientists have spotted a sprinkling of sources that vary over time, including highly magnified supernovas and even individual stars billions of light-years away.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Diego (Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria, Spain), J. D’Silva (U. Western Australia), A. Koekemoer (STScI), J. Summers & R. Windhorst (ASU), and H. Yan (U. Missouri).

ALT TEXT: A field of galaxies on the black background of space. In the middle, stretching from left to right, is a collection of dozens of yellowish spiral and elliptical galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. They form a rough, flat line along the center. Among them are distorted linear features, which mostly appear to follow invisible concentric circles curving around the center of the image. The linear features are created when the light of a background galaxy is bent and magnified through gravitational lensing. At center left, a particularly prominent example stretches vertically about three times the length of a nearby galaxy. A variety of brightly colored, red and blue galaxies of various shapes are scattered across the image, making it feel densely populated. Near the center are two tiny galaxies compared to the galaxy cluster: a very red edge-on spiral and a very blue face-on spiral, which provide a striking color contrast.

Wed. 7/31: We'll be closed tonight due to clouds. Stay tuned for updates about August!

Happy fun fact Friday!

Did you know that the largest canyon system in the solar system is Valles Marineris on Mars? The image shows the Valles Marineris compared to the US coast to coast and the Grand Canyon!

Source: NASA

Is it me or does Jupiter in this also look like calcifer from howls moving castle

2023 September 18

The Red Sprite and the Tree Credit & Copyright: Maxime Villaeys

Explanation: The sprite and tree could hardly be more different. To start, the red sprite is an unusual form of lightning, while the tree is a common plant. The sprite is far away – high in Earth’s atmosphere, while the tree is nearby – only about a football field away. The sprite is fast – electrons streaming up and down at near light’s speed, while the tree is slow – wood anchored to the ground. The sprite is bright – lighting up the sky, while the tree is dim – shining mostly by reflected light. The sprite was fleeting – lasting only a small fraction of a second, while the tree is durable – living now for many years. Both however, when captured together, appear oddly similar in this featured composite image captured early this month in France as a thunderstorm passed over mountains of the Atlantic Pyrenees.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230918.html

Every February 2, we wonder if Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow.

In Saturn’s case, astronomers know some of Saturn’s moons will cast shadows across the planet’s iconic rings every 15 years. This effect only occurs when the planet’s rings are perpendicular to the Sun. The next time this will happen is in May 2025.

Watch as four of Saturn’s moons orbit the planet, based on images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over a 9.5-hour span in 1995. Enceladus is first and Mimas is close behind. Both of these moons cast small shadows on Saturn, but among the two, only Enceladus’ shadow cuts across the rings. Dione follows next and casts a long shadow across the planet’s rings. About 12 seconds in, the moon Tethys moves swiftly behind the planet toward the right.

Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI.

We'll be open tonight, Wed. 4/30, 8:30 - 9:45 pm!

3/26: Public night is cancelled tonight due to clouds. We'll try again next week.