Picture of the Day

A circular all-sky photo framed by a ring of reddish grass and dark trees that curls around the edges like a tunnel. Inside, a deep blue sky full of stars is crossed from left to right by the Milky Way, a hazy band with a glowing pinkish core and dark streaks on the left. Pale yellow-gray light rims the horizon, and a small bright red light glows at the bottom above a dirt track.

A feathery spiral in Sagittarius

A rounded, richly textured cloud of orange and gold gas fills the left side of the frame, its lower edge tapering to a bright point like a torch flame. Blue-tinted dust and haze spread across the right side, with faint dark filaments threading through a dense star field on a black background.

The Hidden Nebula’s glowing edge

The aftermath of a solar flare

A cloud of green and gold gas fills most of the frame, with a bright blue oval structure stretching across the middle. Dark dust lanes thread through the brighter regions, and a small cluster of stars glows at the lower right.

$A large, glowing orange-tan disk — the Sun — fills most of the frame against a black sky. A thin, dark, needle-like silhouette crosses near its left edge, trailing a bright, feathery plume that distorts and refracts the image of the disk, extending below it. A faint dark smudge of clouds sits near the center of the disk, as well as small dark specks of sunspots.s$

Picture of the Day

Gegenschein over Shennongjia

On the Way

A wind-blown crescent

A bubble adrift

McNaught lights up Taurus

Diamond in the sky

A feathery spiral in Sagittarius

The Hidden Nebula’s glowing edge

The aftermath of a solar flare

Clawing through Cassiopeia

A new era dawns for astronomy

The progress of a Blood Moon