2026 March 19

Launch Plume: SpaceX Jellyfish
* Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley
https://www.mseeley.net/
* Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sci/bio/cecilia.bertonimarthahadlerchirenti

Explanation:
Even if you live with your head in the clouds, you won’t find a jellyfish like this one very often. The featured image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 4. The launch happened 52 minutes before sunrise, and the second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the rising sun, while the photographer was still in the dark. This combination of light and shadow, possible at dawn or dusk, makes the exhaust, mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide, appear as a glowing cloud. It only looks like it's going down, as the rocket follows the curvature of the Earth on its way to space. A related effect is the twilight phenomenon, which causes colorful contrails sometimes mistaken for UFOs. But, in case you are wondering: real jellyfish were sent to space by NASA in the 1990s as part of a science experiment.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/fap/ap260319.html

#space #astronomy #astrophotography #photography #nature #NASA #apod #space_related #space_culture_Club #apod

2026 February 24

Planet Parade over Sydney Opera House
* Image Credit & Copyright: Prasun Agrawal
https://www.instagram.com/astrosydney/

Explanation:
Look up this week and see a whole bunch of planets. Just after sunset, looking west (mostly), planets Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter will all be visible to the unaided eye simultaneously. If you have a telescope, planets Uranus and Neptune can also be seen. In order up from the horizon, the lineup this week will be Venus (the brightest), Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter (second brightest). It doesn't matter where on Earth you live because this early evening planet parade will be visible through clear skies all around the globe. The planets will appear to be nearly in a line because they all orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane: the ecliptic. The featured image shows a similar planet parade that occurred in 2022, captured over the Sydney Opera House in southern Australia. Although visible all week, the planets will be most easily seen together this weekend.
https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/
https://science.nasa.gov/venus/
https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/
https://science.nasa.gov/uranus/
https://science.nasa.gov/neptune/
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230315.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160717.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210119.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231114.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?tquery=planet+parade
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/global-maps/cloud-fraction/
https://science.nasa.gov/sun/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcpEDd4JTj-/
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220629.html
https://youtu.be/mGFz4T5W2qY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/whats-up-february-2026-skywatching-tips-from-nasa/
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/mercury-completes-the-planetary-parade-at-dusk

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260224.html

#space #astronomy #astrophotography #photography #nature #NASA #apod #space_related #space_culture_Club

2026 February 21

Twilight with Moon and Planets
* Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)
https://twanight.org/profile/tunc-tezel/

Explanation:
Only two days after the February New Moon's annular eclipse of the Sun, a slender lunar crescent poses above the western horizon after sunset in this wintry twilight skyscape. Its nightside faintly illuminated by earthshine, the young Moon is joined by three bright planets in the mostly clear, early evening skies above the village of Kirazli, Turkiye. Inner planet Venus appears closest to the horizon. Near the begininng of its 2026 performance as planet Earth's evening star, brilliant Venus is seen through the warm sunset glare near picture center. Straight above Venus, innermost planet Mercury is easy to spot as it stands remarkably high above the horizon even as the twilight sky is growing dark. Outer planet Saturn, most distant of the naked-eye planets, is found just left of the Moon's sunlit crescent.
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/annular-solar-eclipse-february-17-2026/
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury/
https://science.nasa.gov/venus/
https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/
https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260221.html

#space #astronomy #astrophotography #photography #nature #NASA #apod #space_related #space_culture_Club

2026 January 9

Ice Halos by Moonlight and Sunlight
* Image Credit & Copyright: Antonella Cicala

Explanation:
Both Moon and Sun create beautiful ice halos in planet Earth's sky. In fact, the two brightest celestial beacons are each surrounded by a complex of ice halos in these photos of the sky above Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in France. The panels were recorded one night (left) and the following day at the end of December 2025. Similar ice halos appear in moonlight and sunlight because they are all formed through the geometry of flat, hexagonal ice crystals. The ice crystals reflect and refract light as they flutter in the cold atmosphere above the mountain resort. In the pictures both Moon and Sun are surrounded by a more commonly seen 22 degree circular halo. Bright and sometimes colorful patches at the intersections of the 22 degree circular halos with the indicated parselenic and parhelic arcs are also known as Moon dogs and Sun dogs.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241225.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(optical_phenomenon)
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022JQSRT.29008313M/abstract
https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/parhelic-circle.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160321.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250215.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260109.html

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2025 December 30

An Artificial Comet
* Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Chao
https://en.tutiempo.net/astronomy/astronomical-view/wang-chao.html

Explanation:
Yes, but can your comet tail do this? No, and what you are seeing is not the tail of a comet. The picture features a cleverly overlayed time-lapse sequence of a group of satellites orbiting Earth together in June. Specifically, these are Starlink communications satellites in low Earth orbit reflecting back sunlight before sunrise to Inner Mongolia, China. Although the satellites appear to the human eye as points, the 20-second-long camera exposures caused them to appear as short streaks. Currently there are over 9000 (!) + Starlinks in orbit, with more being launched nearly every week.
Other satellite constellations are also being planned.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251230.html

#space #astronomy #science #physics #astrophotography #photography #nature #NASA #apod #space_related #space_culture_Club

2021 May 24

Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats
* Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos (GreekSky)
https://greeksky.gr/
https://spacetinkerer.com/publications/

Explanation:
Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular 2011 June 15 total lunar eclipse. Instead, storm clouds parted for 10 minutes during the total eclipse phase and lightning bolts contributed to the dramatic sky. Captured with a 30-second exposure the scene also inspired one of the more memorable titles (thanks to the astrophotographer) in APOD's now 25-year history. Of course, the lightning reference clearly makes sense, and the shadow play of the dark lunar eclipse was widely viewed across planet Earth in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The picture itself, however, was shot from the Greek island of Ikaria at Pezi. That area is known as "the planet of the goats" because of the rough terrain and strange looking rocks. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on Wednesday.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110617.html
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060909.html
https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/
https://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23957
https://greeksky.gr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/eclipses_lunar-eclipse-and-lightning.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=925mOGCf7to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikaria
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5qmrdx1umpY/Ur0Y1tDvxZI/AAAAAAAAu3s/TteYJNMEUAk/s1600/Wall-Climbing+Mountain+Goats.jpg
https://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/937/1/
https://mars.nasa.gov/images/Lunar_eclipse_sideview.jpg
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4903
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#LE2011Jun15T

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210524.html

#space #astronomy #science #physics #astrophotography #photography #nature #lightning #NASA #space_related #space_culture_Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

A keogram
("keo" from "Keoeeit" – Inuit word for "Aurora Borealis") is a way of displaying the intensity of an auroral display, taken from a narrow part of a round screen recorded by a camera, more specifically and ideally in practice a "whole sky camera". These images from the narrow band, which usually face up in the north-south orientation in the Northern Hemisphere and the south-north orientation in the Southern Hemisphere, are collected and form a time-dependent graph of the aurora from that part of the sky. This allows one to easily realize the general activity of the display that night, whether it had been interrupted by weather conditions or not, and allows the determination of the regions in which the aurora was seen in terms of latitude and longitude of the area.

The use of keograms started in the 1970s by Eather et al. to allow a more practical and efficient way of determining the activity of the aurora throughout the recorded night and provide a view of the detailed movements of it, the light of which is also recorded in wavelengths outside of the human visible spectrum. Thus, keograms are also used to analyse the conditions of the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB) in the ionosphere of the Earth, to estimate its zonal drift at lower latitudes.

This animation illustrates the construction of a keogram. Keogram image generated from the center column of pixels of 997 sequential RGB images using author's software. Each image was a 2 second exposure. Captured at Midnight Dome, Dawson City (Lat 64.067, Long -139.396), on the night of September 6/7, 2021 using an AurorEye portable all-sky imaging camera. Compressed vertically from a 4000px to 240px height.

Date: 7 September 2021
Source: Jeremy Kuzub at Wikimedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keogram

FYI: TOPIC> Auroras
https://defcon.social/@grobi/114646611195811889

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2022 March 21

The Sky in 2021
* Image Credit & Copyright: Cees Bassa (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy)
https://www.planetary.org/profiles/cees-bassa
https://www.astron.nl/about/

Explanation:
What if you could see the entire sky -- all at once -- for an entire year? That, very nearly, is what is pictured here. Every 15 minutes during 2021, an all-sky camera took an image of the sky over the Netherlands. Central columns from these images were then aligned and combined to create the featured keogram, with January at the top, December at the bottom, and the middle of the night running vertically just left of center. What do we see? Most obviously, the daytime sky is mostly blue, while the nighttime sky is mostly black. The twelve light bands crossing the night sky are caused by the glow of the Moon. The thinnest part of the black hourglass shape occurs during the summer solstice when days are the longest, while the thickest part occurs at the winter solstice. Yesterday was an equinox -- when night and day were equal -- and the northern-spring equinox from one year ago can actually be located in the keogram -- about three-quarters of the way up.
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/k-12-education/optical-phenomena/what-solstice
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220320.html
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/how-bright-moon-exactly/
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220301.html
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keogram_explainer.gif
https://victoriaweather.ca/keogram.php#:~:text=What%20is%20a%20keogram
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011119.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220321.html

#space #astronomy #science #physics #astrophotography #photography #nature #solistice #NASA #apod #space_related #space_culture_Club

2025 December 21

Solstice on a Spinning Earth
* Image Credit: Meteosat 9, NASA, Earth Observatory, Robert Simmon
https://www.eumetsat.int/our-satellites/meteosat-series
https://www.nasa.gov/
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/people/RSimmon.html

Explanation:
Can you tell that today is a solstice by the tilt of the Earth? Yes. At a solstice, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line between night and day -- is tilted the most. The featured time-lapse video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in twelve seconds. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat 9 satellite recorded infrared images of the Earth every day at the same local time. The video started at the September 2010 equinox with the terminator line being vertical: an equinox. As the Earth revolved around the Sun, the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily sunlight to the northern hemisphere, causing winter in the north. At the most tilt, winter solstice occurred in the north, and summer solstice in the south. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox arrived halfway through the video, followed by the terminator tilting the other way, causing winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer in the north. The captured year ends again with the September equinox, concluding another of the billions of trips the Earth has taken -- and will take
-- around the Sun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(solar)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUW51lvIFjg
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-earth/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_orbit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteosat
https://science.nasa.gov/ems/07_infraredwaves/
https://time.gov/
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/ca1009.https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220321.htmlhtml
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/
https://science.nasa.gov/kids/earth/which-pole-is-colder/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice
https://defcon.social/@grobi/115754395753301984
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/why-are-there-seasons
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220321.html

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251221.html

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19.12.14 at 02.00 PM Peaio’s Bicycle Path (Belluno, Italy).
The Sun was already behind the mountain.
Close to the winter solstice.
They looks like the lines of a car park. They actually are composed of the ice on the road after a short passing of the Sun (less than a hour), leaving the fence’s shadows printed on the ground.
Surprising natural geometries!

On February 2015 we found the opposite situation, white and black: the shadow and the snow.

Music: "Peppino Impastato" composed and performed by Paolo Battaglia.
Maker: Marcella Giulia Pace

https://greenflash.photo/portfolio/tatoo-solar/

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