科普 神奇的宇宙----图片(每天更新中)

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The Moving Moons of Saturn

Explanation: The moons of Saturn never stop. A space traveler orbiting the ringed giant planet would witness a continuing silent dance where Saturn's multiple moons pass near each other in numerous combinations. Like a miniature Solar System, the innermost moons orbit Saturn the fastest. The above movie was centered on Saturn's moon Rhea, so that the moons Mimas and Enceladus appear to glide by. At 1,500 kilometers across, Rhea is over three times larger than the comparably sized Mimas and Enceladus. The Sun illuminates the scene from the lower right, giving all of the moons the same crescent phase. The above time lapse movie was created by the Saturn-orbiting robotic Cassini spacecraft over a period of about 40 minutes.

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说明：如果没有龙卷风，眼前的景象应该是明朗的。堪萨斯州最近一个6月，暴风雨目击人Eric Nguyen拍摄到不同于以往的萌发态的飓风－－彩虹中飓风。上图，白色的陆地龙卷云从黑暗的暴风云中降下。太阳光从晴朗的左边一片天空照下，照亮了图片前方的一些建筑。阳光被雨滴折射形成彩虹。巧合的是，飓风出现在彩虹右末端。条纹状的东西是被高速旋转飓风卷动的冰雹。每年超过1000起飓风－－最猛烈的暴风－－发生在东部，不少是陆旋风。如果你驾驶时看到飓风，不要试图逃离它－－－安全停车，进入防风地窖或蹲在地下室的台阶下



Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas


Explanation: The scene might have been considered serene if it weren't for the tornado. Last June in Kansas, storm chaser Eric Nguyen photographed this budding twister in a different light -- the light of a rainbow. Pictured above, a white tornado cloud descends from a dark storm cloud. The Sun, peeking through a clear patch of sky to the left, illuminates some buildings in the foreground. Sunlight reflects off raindrops to form a rainbow. By coincidence, the tornado appears to end right over the rainbow. Streaks in the image are hail being swept about by the high swirling winds. Over 1,000 tornadoes, the most violent type of storm known, occur on Earth every year, many in tornado alley. If you see a tornado while driving, do not try to outrun it -- park your car safely, go to a storm cellar, or crouch under steps in a basement.

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The Moving Moons of Saturn


Explanation: The moons of Saturn never stop. A space traveler orbiting the ringed giant planet would witness a continuing silent dance where Saturn's multiple moons pass near each other in numerous combinations. Like a miniature Solar System, the innermost moons orbit Saturn the fastest. The above movie was centered on Saturn's moon Rhea, so that the moons Mimas and Enceladus appear to glide by. At 1,500 kilometers across, Rhea is over three times larger than the comparably sized Mimas and Enceladus. The Sun illuminates the scene from the lower right, giving all of the moons the same crescent phase. The above time lapse movie was created by the Saturn-orbiting robotic Cassini spacecraft over a period of about 40 minutes.


说明: 土星的卫星从不停歇。太空旅者绕行这颗拥有行星环的巨行星，会目睹土星众多卫星以多种组合相互靠近的连续静谧之舞。土星系统就像一微小的太阳系，最内围的卫星绕行土星的速度也最快。上面这幅画面是以土卫五 (Rhea)为中心，所以土卫一 (Mimas)和土卫二 (Enceladus)看起来会飞掠而过。直径1,500公里的土卫五，大小大约是体形相近的土卫一和土卫二之三倍以上。太阳从画面右下方的位置照耀这些天体，所以它们都具有相同的娥眉状位相。上面这幅时序电影是由正在绕行土星的卡西尼号宇宙飞船所拍摄的，摄像实际全长大约有四十分钟。

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Explosions from White Dwarf Star RS Oph


Explanation: Spectacular explosions keep occurring in the binary star system named RS Ophiuchi. Every 20 years or so, the red giant star dumps enough hydrogen gas onto its companion white dwarf star to set off a brilliant thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf's surface. At about 2,000 light years distant, the resulting nova explosions cause the RS Oph system to brighten up by a huge factor and become visible to the unaided eye. The red giant star is depicted on the right of the above drawing, while the white dwarf is at the center of the bright accretion disk on the left. As the stars orbit each other, a stream of gas moves from the giant star to the white dwarf. Astronomers speculate that at some time in the next 100,000 years, enough matter will have accumulated on the white dwarf to push it over the Chandrasekhar Limit, causing a much more powerful and final explosion known as a supernova.



来自白矮星蛇夫座RS的新星爆发

说明: 在名为蛇夫座RS (RS Ophiuchi)的双星系统里，壮观的爆炸不停的重复发生。大约每隔20年，随着红巨星倾泄足够的氢气到它的白矮伴星，就会在白矮星的表面引发闪亮的热融合爆炸。让离我们有二千光年远的蛇夫座RS星，因新星爆炸而大幅增亮，成为肉眼可见的天体。在上面这幅图示中，右方的天体就是这颗红巨星，白矮星则位在左端明亮吸积盘的中心。随着恒星相互绕行，云气不断地由红巨星流向白矮星。天文学家认为在接下来十万年的某个时间点，当足够的质量累积在白矮星上，让它的质量超过钱氏极限 (Chandrasekhar Limit)时，就会造成更强烈的超新星爆炸。

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星座构造体系
说明: 这是一幅在最近一个4月底拍摄的美丽朦胧景像，低悬于西方天际的是一弯新月。它上方逐渐变暗的夜空中群星闪耀，不过，不久也将隐没于西方的地平之下，它们都是北半球冬季星空主要的恒星和星座，在季节的交替中，慢慢让位于夏季的恒星。当鼠标滑过上面这幅影像时，影像中的恒星和星座都会被标示出来，其中有猎户座、双子座、御夫座、英仙座、以及毕宿与昴宿星团




Constellation Construction
Explanation: This lovely twilight scene, recorded last April, finds a young crescent Moon low in the west at sunset. Above it, stars shine in the darkening sky but they too are soon to drop below the western horizon. These stars and constellations are prominent in the northern hemisphere winter sky and as the season changes, slowly give way to the stars of summer. Sliding your mouse over the picture will detail the constellations and stars in view, including Orion, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus, and the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters.

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来自黑洞的风

说明: 双星系统GRO J1655-40的组成包括一颗质量是太阳两倍的正常恒星和一个有七倍太阳质量的黑洞。这张引人注目的图画显示，呈现了物质如何被重力从正常恒星吸引过来，以及它们如何回旋进黑洞。另外，图画也呈现物质风如何从黑洞的吸积盘（有角动量物质被天体吸积时形成的环绕天体的盘状结构）吹出。事实上天文学家认为钱卓拉观测站的X射线数据显示，高速风是在磁力的推送才从吸积盘喷出的。另外，物质回旋掉向黑洞也是内部磁场所造成的。如果你的X射线视觉如果和钱卓拉一样好，你会看见位于天蝎座、离我们约有11,000光年的GRO J1655-40。



Wind from a Black Hole


Explanation: Binary star system GRO J1655-40 consists of a relatively normal star about twice as massive as the Sun co-orbiting with a black hole of about seven solar masses. This striking artist's vision of the exotic binary system helps visualize matter drawn from the normal star by gravity and swirling toward the black hole. But it also includes a wind of material escaping from the black hole's accretion disk. In fact, astronomers now argue that Chandra Observatory x-ray data indicate a high-speed wind is being driven from this system's disk by magnetic forces. Internal magnetic fields also help drive material in the swirling disk into the black hole itself. If you had x-ray eyes as good as Chandra's, you could find GRO J1655-40 about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius.


537楼

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501  感谢磁铁，这么好的得分机会怎么没人参与呢




The Comet and the Galaxy


Explanation: The Moon almost ruined this photograph. During late March and early April 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp passed nearly in front of the Andromeda Galaxy. Here the Great Comet of 1997 and the Great Galaxy in Andromeda were photographed together on 1997 March 24th. The problem was the brightness of the Moon. The Moon was full that night and so bright that long exposures meant to capture the tails of Hale-Bopp and the disk of M31 would capture instead only moonlight reflected off the Earth's atmosphere. By the time the Moon would set, this opportunity would be gone. That's why this picture was taken during a total lunar eclipse.
彗星与星系
说明： 月亮几乎破坏了这张照片的画面。 1997年三月底与四月初， 海尔-波普彗星 (Comet Hale-Bopp)非常临近仙女座星系 (Andromeda Galaxy)。 1997年3月24日时候，是将1997的这颗大彗星与仙女座大星云合拍的好时机。 拍摄困难在于月亮的亮度，当天月亮正值最亮的满月，只有长时间曝光，才能拍到海尔-波普彗星的彗尾以及 M31的盘面，但在月光的影响下，只能拍到被地球大气反射的月光。若等到月亮西沉，则又会失去拍摄这个景象的机会，这就是为何这张照片要在月食的时候拍摄。

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510  

泰坦(土卫六)可能下着甲烷雨

说明: 泰坦卫星是否会下着冰冷的甲烷雨呢？分析2005年1月降落在泰坦的惠更斯探测器的测量数据，显示约8公里高处的大气含有饱和甲烷。再加上观测到的湿润表面和极区湖泊，可以得出结论，泰坦表面的某些区域至少会下甲烷细雨。部份天文生物学家针对这颗云雾卫星进行的计算机仿真指出，在泰坦上甚至连激烈的风暴都可能发生，伴随着冲刷出表面河道的暴雨。上面这幅图像呈现了刚提到的这种场景， 闪电可能也存在，不过尚未被证实。这些发现，使泰坦表面可能有某些不寻常的生命形式之想法更加风行。

Explanation: Might it rain cold methane on Saturn's Titan? Recent analyses of measurements taken by the Huygen's probe that landed on Titan in 2005 January indicate that the atmosphere is actually saturated with methane at a height of about 8 kilometers. Combined with observations of a damp surface and lakes near the poles, some astrobiologists conclude that at least a methane drizzle is common on parts of Titan. Other astrobiologists reported computer models of the clouded moon that indicate that violent methane storms might even occur, complete with flash floods carving channels in the landscape. The later scenario is depicted in the above drawing of Titan. Lightning, as also depicted above, might well exist on Titan but has not been proven. The findings increase speculation that a wet Titanian surface might be hospitable to unusual forms of life.

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513  
Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass


Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp's nucleus spins about once every 12 hours.

Val Parola 隘口上空的海尔-波普彗星

说明: 在那段时间，海尔-波普彗星 (Comet Hale-Bopp)比它周围任何恒星都来得亮，甚至在灯火通明的都市里都能看见它。当然，远离都市灯光的干扰时，它真是幅不折不扣的奇景。 这张海尔-波普彗星照片拍摄的地点是在Val Parola 隘口，它位在意大利、 Cortina d'Ampezzo市附近的多罗迈山 (Dolomite mountains)中。 海尔-波普彗星 蓝色的离子尾，起源自彗核排放出的离子，受到高速太阳风粒子的撞击。彗核所排放出的大颗粒尘埃和冰晶，循着彗星轨道运行，构成白色的尘尾。观测结果显示，海尔-波普彗星的彗核大约每12小时旋转一圈。

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500

Cosmic Rays


Explanation: Have you ever been hit by a beam of high energy particles from above? Surely you have -- it happens all of the time. Showers of high energy particles occur when energetic cosmic rays strike the top of the Earth's atmosphere. Cosmic rays were discovered unexpectedly in 1912. It is now known that most cosmic rays are atomic nuclei. Most are hydrogen nuclei, some are helium nuclei, and the rest heavier elements. The relative abundance changes with cosmic ray energy -- the highest energy cosmic rays tend to be heavier nuclei. Although many of the low energy cosmic rays come from our Sun, the origins of the highest energy cosmic rays remains unknown and a topic of much research. This drawing illustrates air showers from very high energy cosmic rays. Cosmic rays may even be important to Earth's weather -- common lightning may be triggered by passing cosmic rays.


宇宙射线

说明：你有过被外太空的高能粒子束击中的经历吗？毫无疑问你一定有过，这种事情一直在发生。当高能宇宙射线穿透地球大气的顶端后，高能粒子就会像阵雨一样倾泻下来。宇宙射线的意外发现是在1912年。现在人们知道大多数宇宙射线是核原子，其中多数是氢核子，有一些是氦核子，其余就是那些质量更大的元素。宇宙射线的能量变化相对比较丰富，最高能量的宇宙射线将变成大质量的核子。尽管许多低能宇宙射线来自我们的太阳，但那些最高能宇宙射线的来源还是未知，其仍然是一些研究的课题。这张图象说明了较高能量宇宙射线形成了空气浴。宇宙射线对于地球上的气候很重要，天空中普通的光亮可能就是宇宙射线经过后触发形成的。

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480  

11 Hour Star Trails


Explanation: Fix your camera to a tripod, lock the shutter open, and you can make an image of star trails - graceful concentric arcs traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis. Of course, the length of the star trails will depend on the exposure time. While exposures lasting just five minutes produce a significant arc, in about 12 hours a given star would trace out half a circle. But in any long exposure, the background glow from light-polluted skies can build up to wash out the trails. Still, astronomer Josch Hambsch produced this stunning composite of star trails around the South Celestial Pole with an effective "all night" exposure time of almost 11 hours. To do it, he combined 128 consecutive five minute long digital exposures recorded in very dark night skies above Namibia. In his final image, the background glow on the right is due in part to the faint, arcing Milky Way.

11小时的星迹图

说明：把相机固定在三脚架上，锁定快门让它一直开着，这样你就可以拍摄一张星迹图了。地球绕着轴自转，天空中的恒星就形成了优美的同心圆弧轨迹。当然，星迹的长短取决于曝光时间。曝光只有持续了5分钟后才能形成一个明显的星迹弧线，曝光时间达到12小时时，拍摄的恒星就能描绘出半个圆形。但是任何长时间曝光，背景中的光污染可能会积聚起来破坏星迹效果。但是，天文学家Josch Hambsch还是拍摄到了这张南极附近绚丽的星迹合成影像，曝光时间达到了整个夜晚，几乎有11个小时。为了制作这张影像，他合成了128张在纳米比亚黑暗天空中，连续单独拍摄的5分钟曝光影像。在这张最终的影像里，右方的背景光来自银河系昏暗的弧光

kankankkh

484

Bright Cliffs Across Saturn's Moon Dione


Explanation: What causes the bright streaks on Dione? Recent p_w_picpath of this unusual moon by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn are helping to crack the mystery. Close inspection of Dione's trailing hemisphere, pictured above, indicates that the white wisps are composed of deep ice cliffs dropping hundreds of meters. The cliffs may indicate that Dione has undergone some sort of tectonic surface displacements in its past. The bright ice-cliffs run across some of Dione's many craters, indicating that the process that created them occurred later than the impacts that created those craters. Dione is made of mostly water ice but its relatively high density indicates that it contains much rock inside. Giovanni Cassini discovered Dione in 1684. The above image was taken at the end of July from a distance of about 263,000 kilometers. Other high resolution p_w_picpath of Dione were taken by the passing Voyager spacecraft in 1980.
明亮的冰崖横贯土卫四

说明：是什么造成了土卫四上鲜明的条纹呢？正环绕土星飞行的卡西尼飞船最近拍摄的这颗不寻常的卫星的照片有助于解开谜团。仔细检查上图中土卫四布满白色痕迹的半球，就会发现白色的束状痕迹是落差高达数百米的冰崖形成的。这些冰崖表明在过去土卫四的表面可能经历了某种地壳运动。明亮的冰崖穿过了土卫四上许多撞击坑，这表明地壳运动的过程发生在撞击形成陨石坑之后。土卫四主要由冰组成，但是表面的密度相对比较高，这就说明它内部含有一些岩石。1684年乔万尼.卡西尼发现了土卫四。上面的图像是7月底在距离土卫四大约26.3万公里的地方拍摄的。关于土卫四其它一些高分辨率图像是由l980年飞越经过的旅行者号太空船拍摄的

kankankkh

460

Clouds and Sand on the Horizon of Mars


Explanation: If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? Like the robotic Opportunity rover rolling across the red planet, you might well see vast plains of red sand, an orange tinted sky, and wispy light clouds. The Opportunity rover captured just such a vista after arriving at Victoria Crater earlier this month, albeit in a completely different direction from the large crater. Unlike other Martian vistas, few rocks are visible in this exaggerated color image mosaic. The distant red horizon is so flat and featureless that it appears similar to the horizon toward a calm blue ocean on Earth. Clouds on Mars can be composed of either carbon dioxide ice or water ice, and can move quickly, like clouds move on Earth. The red dust in the Martian air can change the sky color above Mars from the blue that occurs above Earth toward the red, with the exact color depending on the density and particle size of the floating dust particles.
火星地平面附近的云和沙

说明: 如果你能站在火星上，你会看见什么呢？你所见到的景观可能会和正在火星漫游的机会号探测车很相近—－广阔的红沙平原、橘红色的天空、以及轻淡丝缕状的云。在这个月初抵达xxx陨石坑后，机会号的视野就契合上面的描述，只不过它是往远离陨石坑的方向眺望。和其它火星视野大异其趣的是，在这幅经过夸饰处理的彩色组合影像里，几乎看不见任何石头。远处的红色地平线是如此的平坦和单调，基本上和地球宁静蓝色大洋的地平线很相似。火星云的成份不是干冰就是水冰，而且会快速移动就如同地球上的云一般。火星空气里的红色砂尘，让火星天空的颜色能从类似地球的蓝天变红天，确实的颜色要视漂浮在大气中之砂粒大小和密度而定。

kankankkh

461

土星阴影内的景观

说明: 在土星的阴影内出现了预料之外的奇景。无人驾驶的卡西尼号宇宙飞船，最近绕行土星，在这颗巨行星的阴影内飞行了12个小时，当回头眺望被遮掩的太阳时，出现了非常奇特的景观。首先，土星的夜面在壮丽行星环所反射的阳光之照耀下，显得半明半暗。此外，在上面这幅对比经过大幅夸大的彩色影像里，横划过土星盘面的环系看似黝黑的剪影，但较远离土星的部份，则因散射阳光而显得非常明亮。土星的环系变得如此光亮，让天文学家能发现新的行星环，不过在上面影像里它们很难被辨识。上面影像中最外围的土星E环更是格外清晰，它是由土卫二最近刚发现的冰喷泉所产生的。在遥远的远方，影像左侧稍高于明亮主环的地方有个小亮点，它就是几乎被忽视的淡蓝色地球。

In the Shadow of Saturn


Explanation: In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the above image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth.

kankankkh

443

V838 Mon: Echoes from the Edge


Explanation: Variable star V838 Monocerotis lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy, about 20,000 light-years from the Sun. Still, ever since a sudden outburst was detected in January 2002, this enigmatic star has taken the center of an astronomical stage. As astronomers watch, light from the outburst echoes across pre-existing dust shells around V838 Mon, progressively illuminating ever more distant regions. This stunning image of swirls of dust surrounding the star was recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in September of this year. The picture spans about 14 light-years. Astronomers expect the expanding echoes to continue to light up the dusty environs of V838 Mon for at least the rest of the current decade. Researchers have now found that V838 Mon is likely a young binary star, but the cause of its extraordinary outburst remains a mystery.


麒麟座V838变星: 来自银河系边缘的回声

说明: 麒麟座V838变星（V838 Monocerotis）位于在银河系的边缘， 距离太阳大约20,000 光年远。 自从2002年1月观测到爆发，这颗神秘的星就一直是 天文学界的重要事件， 学者试着去了解，如何去拼凑出恒星演化的图像。 当爆炸的光线穿过周围原本就存在的星尘壳层，产生回光现象(flash echoes)，星星看起来剧烈变化。 这张照片 是哈柏太空望远镜(sharp Advanced Camera)在2月所拍摄，星尘壳层看起来直径约有六光年。 但因为光线自星尘反射并非是直线，因此回光的现象使得星爆发生的光延迟约两年左右。 天文学家预期扩张的的星爆将会点亮周围的星尘，至少到2010年。

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3D Mercury Transit


Explanation: Mercury is now visible shortly before dawn, the brightest "star" just above the eastern horizon. But almost two weeks ago Mercury actually crossed the face of the Sun for the second time in the 21st century. Viewed with red/blue glasses, this stereo anaglyph combines space-based p_w_picpath of the Sun and innermost planet in a just-for-fun 3D presentation of the Mercury transit. The solar disk image is from Hinode. (sounds like "hee-no-day", means sunrise). A sun-staring observatory, Hinode was launched from Uchinoura Space Center and viewed the transit from Earth orbit. Superimposed on Mercury's dark silhouette is a detailed image of the planet's rugged surface based on data from the Mariner 10 probe that flew by Mercury in 1974 and 1975.

3D的水星凌日

说明: 现在日出之前的短暂间隙能够看见水星，它是东方地平线附近最亮的一颗"星。而大约在二星期前水星凌越日盘，造成二十一世纪的第二次水星凌日事件。上面这幅以太阳和最内围行星为主体的太空立体影像，趣味地呈现了水星凌日的3D景象，适合以红/蓝眼镜来观赏。日盘影像是来自日出 (Hinode)观日卫星，这颗从日本内之浦太空中心 (Uchinoura Space Center)发射的卫星，在轨道上观看此次水星凌日。影像所迭加的水星影像，是从水手十号探测船的1974到1975年水星观测数据所构建出来的，影像细致到可以看见水星崎岖的表面。

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M57: The Ring Nebula

Explanation: It looked like a ring on the sky. Hundreds of years ago astronomers noticed a nebula with a most unusual shape. Now known as M57 or NGC 6720, the gas cloud became popularly known as the Ring Nebula. It is now known to be a planetary nebula, a gas cloud emitted at the end of a Sun-like star's existence. As one of the brightest planetary nebula on the sky, the Ring Nebula can be seen with a small telescope in the constellation of Lyra. The Ring Nebula lies about 4,000 light years away, and is roughly 500 times the diameter of our Solar System. In this recent picture by the Hubble Space Telescope, dust filaments and globules are visible far from the central star. This helps indicate that the Ring Nebula is not spherical, but cylindrical.

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Nix and Hydra

Explanation: Discovered in mid-2005, Pluto's small moons were provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2. They have now been officially christened Nix and Hydra. Compared to Pluto and its large moon Charon, at 2,360 and 1,210 kilometers in diameter respectively, Nix (inner moon) and Hydra (outer moon) are tiny, estimated to be only 40 to 160 kilometers across. Pluto and Charon are bright enough to create diffraction spikes in this Hubble Space Telescope image, but Nix and Hydra are some 5,000 times fainter than Pluto and appear only as small points of light. Still, their new names are appropriate for the distant Pluto system. In mythology, Nix was the goddess of darkness and night and the mother of Charon, while Hydra was a nine headed monster and is now orbiting the solar system's ninth planet. Of course Nix and Hydra also share initials with the pluto-bound spacecraft New Horizons.

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East of Antares

Explanation: East of Antares, dark markings seem to sprawl through the crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B72, B77, B78, and B59, seen in silhouette against the starry background. Here, their combined shape suggests smoke rising from a pipe, and so the dark nebula's popular name is the Pipe Nebula. This gorgeous and expansive view was recorded in very dark skies over Hakos, Namibia. It covers a full 10 by 7 degree field in the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus.

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Planets, Bees, and a Donkey

Explanation: The heralded alignment of wandering planets Saturn and Mars with the well-known Beehive Cluster took place last weekend on Saturday, June 17. Recorded in dark Arizona skies on that date, this view finds Mars above and right of Saturn - the brightest celestial beacons in the scene - with the Beehive cluster of stars (M44) at the lower right. The two planets appear in conjunction separated by just over half a degree. But about another half a degree along a line joining the two and continuing towards the lower left lies the third brightest object in the image, giant star Asellus Australis. Asellus Australis is also known as Delta Cancri, a middling bright star 136 light-years away in the constellation Cancer, the Crab. Of course, this star's Latin name translates to "Southern Donkey".