http://www.acme.com/jef/apod/ The Astronomy Picture of the Day is a wonderful web site that puts up a different astronomy-related picture every day. However, the site does not have an RSS feed. This page fixes that deficiency. ]]> en-us Fri, 24 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ACME Labs custom shell script jef@mail.acme.com webmaster@mail.acme.com http://www.acme.com/jef/apod/apod.GIF http://www.acme.com/jef/apod/ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130524.html Fri, 24 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT A close series of consecutive exposures are combined in this intriguing composite of the Full Moon slowly crawling, across the sky. Beginning on the upper right at 19:42 UT and ending at 22:14 UT on April 25, the sequence follows the Moon from Germany as it passes through Earth's shadow in a partial lunar eclipse. Near the top, the Moon just grazes the southern edge of Earth's dark central shadow, or umbra. But the decreased brightness in the darker part of the outer shadow region, the penumbra, is also apparent on the lunar disk. In fact, the relative size and shape of the Earth's shadow regions and the Moon are easier to see along the segments of this lunar caterpillar. Nearly impossible to follow with the eye though, a penumbral lunar eclipse, the Full Moon passing only through the pale outer penumbral shadow, will begin on May 25. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130523.html Thu, 23 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT Beautiful barred spiral galaxy M109, 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters, is found just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In telescopic views, its striking central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. Of course M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth's sky, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy's estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by three spiky foreground stars strung out across this frame. The three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified left to right as UGC 6969, UGC 6940 and UGC 6923, are possibly satellite galaxies of the larger M109. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130522.html Wed, 22 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130521.html Tue, 21 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130520.html Mon, 20 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130519.html Sun, 19 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130518.html Sat, 18 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT Once the famous sunset comet, PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is now visible all night from much of the northern hemisphere, bound for the outer solar system as it climbs high above the ecliptic plane. Dimmer and fading, the comet's broad dust tail is still growing, though. This widefield telescopic image was taken against the starry background of the constellation Cepheus on May 15. It shows the comet has developed an extensive anti-tail, dust trailing along the comet's orbit (to the left of the coma), stretching more than 3 degrees across the frame. Since the comet is just over 1.6 astronomical units from planet Earth, that corresponds to a distance of over 12 million kilometers. In late May Comet PanSTARRS will pass within a few degrees of the north celestial pole. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130517.html Fri, 17 May 2013 13:06:13 GMT Above this boreal landscape, the arc of the Milky Way and shimmering aurorae flow through the night. Like an echo, below them lies Iceland's spectacular Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. Shining just below the Milky Way, bright Jupiter is included in the panoramic nightscape recorded on March 9. Faint and diffuse, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) appears immersed in the auroral glow. The digital stitch of four frames is a first place winner in the 2013 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest on Dark Skies Importance organized by The World at Night. An evocative record of the beauty of planet Earth's night sky, all the contest's winning entries are featured in this video. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130516.html Thu, 16 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT Swinging around the Sun's eastern limb on Monday, a group of sunspots labeled active region AR1748 has produced the first four X-class solar flares of 2013 in less than 48 hours. In time sequence clockwise from the top left, flashes from the four were captured in extreme ultraviolet images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Ranked according to their peak brightness in X-rays, X-class flares are the most powerful class and are frequently accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive clouds of high energy plasma launched into space. But CMEs from the first three flares were not Earth-directed, while one associated with the fourth flare may deliver a glancing blow to the Earth's magnetic field on May 18. Also causing temporary radio blackouts, AR1748 is likely not finished. Still forecast to have a significant chance of producing strong flares, the active region is rotating into more direct view across the Sun's nearside. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130515.html Wed, 15 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130514.html Tue, 14 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130513.html Mon, 13 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130512.html Sun, 12 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130511.html Sat, 11 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT This week the shadow of the New Moon fell on planet Earth, crossing Queensland's Cape York in northern Australia ... for the second time in six months. On the morning of May 10, the Moon's apparent size was too small to completely cover the Sun though, revealing a "ring of fire" along the central path of the annular solar eclipse. Near mid-eclipse from Coen, Australia, a webcast team captured this telescopic snapshot of the annular phase. Taken with a hydrogen-alpha filter, the dramatic image finds the Moon's silhouette just within the solar disk, and the limb of the active Sun spiked with solar prominences. Still, after hosting back-to-back solar eclipses, northern Australia will miss the next and final solar eclipse of 2013. This November, a rare hybrid eclipse will track across the North Atlantic and equatorial Africa. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130510.html Fri, 10 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT Face-on spiral galaxy M77 lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward the aquatic constellation Cetus. At that estimated distance, the gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across. Also known as NGC 1068, its compact and very bright core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of supermassive black holes in active Seyfert galaxies. M77 is also seen at x-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, and radio wavelengths. But this sharp visible light image based on Hubble data follows its winding spiral arms traced by obscuring dust clouds and red-tinted star forming regions close in to the galaxy's luminous core. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130509.html Thu, 09 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT As the New Moon continues this season's celestial shadow play, an annular solar eclipse track begins in western Australia at 22:30 UT on May 9 -- near sunrise on May 10 local time. Because the eclipse occurs within a few days of lunar apogee, the Moon's silhouette does not quite cover the Sun during mid-eclipse, momentarily creating a spectacular ring of fire. While a larger region witnesses a partial eclipse, the annular mid-eclipse phase is visible along a shadow track only about 200 kilometers wide but 13,000 kilometers long, extending across the central Pacific. For given locations along it, the ring of fire lasts from 4 to 6 minutes. Near the horizon, the appearance of the May 9/10 annular eclipse (online viewing) is suggested by this dramatic composite from May of 2012. The timelapse sequence depicts an annular eclipse in progress before sunset over Monument Valley in the southwestern United States. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130508.html Wed, 08 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130507.html Tue, 07 May 2013 13:06:02 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130506.html Mon, 06 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130505.html Sun, 05 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130504.html Sat, 04 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT Last week, as the Sun set a Full Moon rose over the springtime landscape of Tihany, Hungary on the northern shores of Lake Balaton. As it climbed into the clear sky, the Moon just grazed the dark, umbral shadow of planet Earth in the year's first partial lunar eclipse. The partial phase, seen near the top of this frame where the lunar disk is darkened along the upper limb, lasted for less than 27 minutes. Composited from consecutive exposures, the picture presents the scene's range of natural colors and subtle shading apparent to the eye. At next week's New Moon, the season's celestial shadow play will continue with an annular solar eclipse, the path of annularity tracking through northern Australia and the central Pacific. ]]> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130503.html Fri, 03 May 2013 13:06:01 GMT Combined image data from the massive, ground-based VISTA telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope was used to create this wide perspective of the interstellar landscape surrounding the famous Horsehead Nebula. Captured at near-infrared wavelengths, the region's dusty molecular cloud sprawls across the scene that covers an angle about two-thirds the size of the Full Moon on the sky. Left to right the frame spans just over 10 light-years at the Horsehead's estimated distance of 1,600 light-years. Also known as Barnard 33, the still recognizable Horsehead Nebula stands at the upper right, the near-infrared glow of a dusty pillar topped with newborn stars. Below and left, the bright reflection nebula NGC 2023 is itself the illuminated environs of a hot young star. Dense clouds below the base of the Horsehead and on the outskirts of NGC 2023 show the tell-tale far red emission of energetic jets, known as Herbig-Haro objects, also associated with newborn stars. ]]>