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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
Jupiter and the Geminid
28.12.2023
For a brief moment, this brilliant fireball meteor outshone Jupiter in planet Earth's night. The serendipitous image was captured while hunting meteors under cold Canadian skies with a camera in timelapse mode on December 14, near the peak of the Geminid meteor shower.
APOD: 2023 December 27 B Rainbow Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
27.12.2023
Yes, but can your aurora do this? First, yes, auroras can look like rainbows even though they are completely different phenomena. Auroras are caused by Sun-created particles being channeled into Earth's atmosphere by Earth's magnetic field, and create colors by exciting atoms at different heights.
APOD: 2023 December 26 B IC 443: The Jellyfish Nebula
26.12.2023
Why is this jellyfish swimming in a sea of stars? Drifting near bright star Eta Geminorum, seen at the right, the Jellyfish Nebula extends its tentacles from the bright arcing ridge of emission left of center.
APOD: 2023 December 25 B Cathedral, Mountain, Moon
25.12.2023
Single shots like this require planning. The first step is to realize that such an amazing triple-alignment actually takes place. The second step is to find the best location to photograph it. But it was the third step: being there at exactly the right time -- and when the sky was clear -- that was the hardest.
APOD: 2023 December 24 B NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
24.12.2023
What's that in the center? Like a butterfly, a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon of gas that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the ejected shell of gas would become the prettiest cocoon of all.
A December Summer Night
23.12.2023
Colours of a serene evening sky are captured in this 8 minute exposure, made near this December's solstice from New Zealand, southern hemisphere, planet Earth. Looking south, star trails form the short concentric arcs around the rotating planet's south celestial pole positioned just off the top of the frame.
183 Days in the Sun
22.12.2023
A single 183 day exposure with a pinhole camera and photographic paper resulted in this long-duration solargraph. Recorded from solstice to solstice, June 21 to December 21, in 2022, it follows the Sun's daily arcing path through planet Earth's skies from Mertola, Portugal.
APOD: 2023 December 20 B Ice Halos over Bavaria
20.12.2023
What's causing those unusual sky arcs? Ice crystals. While crossing a field of fresh snow near Fcssen, Bavaria, Germany, earlier this month, the photographer noticed that he had entered an ice fog.
APOD: 2023 December 19 B NGC 1499: The California Nebula
19.12.2023
Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years from the California Nebula.
APOD: 2023 December 18 B The Same Color Illusion
18.12.2023
Are squares A and B the same color? They are! To verify this, either run your cursor over the image or click here to see them connected. The featured illusion, an example...
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