The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross
18.06.2000

This breathtaking patch of sky would be above you were you to stand at the South Pole of the Earth. Just above and to the right of this photograph's center are the four stars that mark the boundaries of the famous Southern Cross.

Lasers in Eta Carinae
29.11.1997

Have you heard about the great LASER light show in the sky? A team led by K. Davidson (U. Michigan) and S. Johansson (U. Lund) discovered that the chaotically variable star Eta Carinae emits ultraviolet light in such a narrow band that it is most probably LASER light!

Comet Hyakutake and the Milky Way
17.08.1998

Two years ago, the Great Comet of 1996, Comet Hyakutake, inched across our northern sky during its long orbit around the Sun. Visible above as the bright spot with the faint tail near...

Starry Night Castle
19.01.2008

The tantalizing Pleiades star cluster seems to lie just beyond the trees above a dark castle tower in this dramatic view of The World at Night. Recorded earlier this month, the starry sky also...

The Mileage of Light
28.05.2011

If you're driving down a dark road on a starry night, you might want to check the odometer. Earlier this month, when traveling astronomer Dennis Mammana did he was greeted with the significant mileage reading of 186,282 miles. That's the number of miles light travels in one second.

Cave with Aurora Skylight
22.07.2014

Yes, but have you ever seen aurora from a cave? To capture this fascinating juxtaposition between below and above, astrophotographer Bjargmundsson spent much of a night alone in the kilometer-long RaufarhСlshellir lava cave in Iceland during late March. There, he took separate images of three parts of the cave using a strobe for illumination.

The Pleiades Star Cluster
6.05.2001

It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and closest open clusters.

The Annotated Galactic Center
29.12.2001

The sky toward the center of our Galaxy is filled with a wide variety of celestial wonders. Many are easily visible with binoculars. Constellations near the galactic center include Sagittarius, Libra, Scorpius, Scutum, and Ophiuchus. Nebulae include Messier Objects M8, M16, M17, M20 and the Pipe Nebula.

Touran Sunrise
23.03.2007

Clouds covered the eastern horizon on Monday, when the Sun rose over the expansive Touran Wildlife Reserve in northeastern Iran. Of course, on that day the Moon rose with the Sun, creating a widely enjoyed partial solar eclipse.

December Sunrise, Cape Sounion
23.12.2009

The Sun is a moving target. Its annual motion through planet Earth's sky tracks north and south, from solstice to solstice, as the seasons change. On December 21st, the solstice marking the first...