Dial-a-Moon | 2023

What will the Moon look like on any date in 2023? What will it look like on your birthday? Find out at NASA Dial-a-Moon. An example of what you will see is pictured below for 10 January 2023. Set dates and see views for readers in the northern hemisphere and for southern hemisphere by following either link. Enter any month and day to see a high definition image. You may leave the universal time (UT) hour at the default value.

After visiting Dial-a-Moon, scan down that web page for a wealth of additional information about the Moon’s motions and appearance. The images of Dial-a-Moon are made from those of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in low altitude orbit around the Moon since 2009.

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Spanish Dancer | Astro-Image NGC 1566

Located about 40 million light years away in the constellation of Dorado (The Dolphinfish), this galaxy is classified as a grand design spiral. It was discovered over 200 years ago by James Dunlop, a Scottish astronomer. The two prominent spiral arms are traced by bright blue star clusters and dark dust lanes. This image was colorized by Leo Shatz from three greyscale Hubble images. It appeared in the 2 July 2019 Astronomy Picture of the Day. What follows this image are three more examples all oriented the same to make easier visual comparisons.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz

Astro-Image | NGC 1512 | Galactic Rings

On 8 May 2022, Astronomy Picture of the Day post this beautiful image from NASA/ESA/Hubble of spiral galaxy NGC 1512 in the far southern skies. The small bright blue central band is called a nuclear ring. Two distinct darker brown spiral arms are gas and dust falling inward from the larger ring at the edges of the image. This in-falling material results in much new star formation yielding the bright blue cast. There are also many areas of new star formation seen in blue scattered around the larger ring.

NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope

Artemis I Launch Seen By GOES-16

The powerful NASA launch vehicle SLS carried the Artemis I mission one step closer to its goal of sending astronauts to the Moon and ultimately Mars. The payload of Orion is unmanned on this initial mission profile. It will go to the Moon and 26 days later be back to Earth.

The GOES-16 weather satellite currently in geostationary orbit frequently images the east coast in many wavelengths. It captured the launch seen here in this video clip.

Astro-Image | Great Barred Spiral NGC 1365

Browsing the Hubble Legacy Archive, the Great Barred Spiral got my attention. I downloaded three greyscale images filtered in blue, green, and red wavelengths which I combined into this color version with software. The result didn’t appear to me as a large spiral galaxy. Spiral arms were present around a bright core of stars. But, it seemed to be missing some larger dimensions than this image showed.

Hubble Legacy Archive | NGC 1365 | Color composite Jim Ruebush