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Many of the photographs in this entry are from APOD, Astronomy Photo of the Day [recommended] or the NASA Image of the Day [also recommended].

APOD 2012 January 9 – Facing NGC 6946

2012 January 9

Facing NGC 6946
Composite Image Data – Subaru Telescope (NAOJ) and Robert Gendler; Processing – Robert Gendler

APOD 2012 January 7 – Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232

2012 January 7

Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232
Image Credit: FORS, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO

APOD 2011 November 26 – Pelican Nebula Close Up

2011 November 26

Pelican Nebula Close-up
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

APOD 2011 November 13 – The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble

2011 November 13

The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

APOD 2011 October 29 – Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble

2011 October 29

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: A. Reiss et al. (JHU)

APOD 2011 October 25 – IC 1805 The Heart Nebula in HDR

2011 October 25

IC 1805: The Heart Nebula in HDR
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Verloop (Beursacademie)

APOD 2011 September 22 – Arp 272

2011 September 22

Arp 272
Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh

APOD 2011 September 21 – Pleiades Deep Field

2011 September 21

Pleiades Deep Field
Image Credit & Copyright: Stanislav Volskiy

Many of the photographs in this entry and the next few are from APOD, Astronomy Photo of the Day [recommended] or the NASA Image of the Day [also recommended].

Regarding this first image which got a lot of attention: it’s not a photograph, per se. It’s a rendering of data. Mind blowing in more than one way.

Viral Image The Biggest and Bluest Marble – Kara Swisher – Media – AllThingsD

Enjoy:

(Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring)

APOD 2012 January 3 – A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway

2012 January 3

A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway
Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer

APOD 2011 October 28 – October Skylights

2011 October 28

October Skylights
Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Park

Fire in the Sky and on the Ground  Image of the Day

acquired September 17, 2011

Amazing Time-lapse Video of Auroras as Seen From the ISS [Video] – How-To Geek

APOD 2012 January 1 – To Fly Free in Space

2012 January 1

To Fly Free in Space
STS-41B, NASA

Amazing Space Photo From Twitter – Peter Kafka – Social – AllThingsD

Here’s one NASA’s Ron Garan beamed to earth yesterday from his perch in the International Space Station.

His caption: “This is what the Moon looked like 16 times today #FromSpace We had simultaneous sunsets + moonsets”

APOD 2011 November 14 – Waterfall, Moonbow, and Aurora from Iceland

2011 November 14

Waterfall, Moonbow, and Aurora from Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees)

The long shadow of Mt. Rainier  Bad Astronomy  Discover Magazine

Here in Boulder we get magnificent sunsets, especially in the summer when the clouds interplay with the mountains to the west. But I have never seen anything like this: the shadow of Washington state’s Mt. Rainier cast along the clouds at sunrise:

That’s amazing. Mt. Rainier is a volcano, climbing to a height of over 14,000 feet (4300 meters).

Love and Joy for the New Year  Image of the Day

acquired December 21, 2011download large image (341 KB, JPEG, 2128×1416)

In November and December 2011, professional and amateur astronomers reveled in observing a sun-grazing comet that dove close to the Sun and survived for a return flight back to the outer solar system. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) enjoyed their own surreal view of the comet as it appeared on Earth’s horizon on the day of the solstice.

ISS Commander Dan Burbank captured a series of digital photographs of Comet Lovejoy on December 21, 2011, as it rose above Earth’s limb

Nickel Cobalt

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. Thus it absorbs the visible light despite the scattered shortest blue fraction, giving it its distinct deep blue waved appearance. This cavity in the glacier ice formed as a result of a glacial mill, or moulin.