Ring of Fire over Monument Valley
5.10.2023

Tracking along a narrow path, the shadow of a new moon will race across North, Central, and South America, on October 14. When viewed from the shadow path the apparent size of the lunar disk will not quite completely cover the Sun though.

8 Minute and 30 Second Eclipse
6.07.2019

The total phase of the July 2nd solar eclipse lasted about 4 minutes and 30 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse. On the surface of planet Earth, that was about 600 nautical miles north of Easter Island in the Southern Pacific Ocean.

Late Afternoon on Mars
20.12.2019

Shadows grow long near sunset in this wide panoramic view from the Curiosity rover on Mars. Made with Curiosity's navcam, the scene covers about 200 degrees from north through east to south (left to right), stitched together from frames taken by the Mars rover on sol 2616. That's just Earth date December 16.

A Lunar Eclipse in Three Exposures
25.01.2000

Our Moon turned red last week. The reason was that during the night of January 20, a total lunar eclipse occurred. The above digitally superimposed photographs captured the Moon three times during this lunar...

Little Planet Shadowrise
24.10.2013

Warm shades and subtle colors come to the sky in the fading sunlight after shadowrise on this little planet. Of course the little planet is planet Earth, and this nadir-to-zenith, around-the-horizon mosaic maps the view from a small airfield near the town of Intendente Alvear, La Pampa province, Argentina.

Eclipse and Ecliptic
9.03.2007

When a Full Moon lies near the ecliptic there can be a lunar eclipse. That cosmic alignment is well illustrated in this composite of eclipse images recorded last Saturday near Paris, France. The projection...

Infrared Saturn
24.07.1999

This delightfully detailed false color image of Saturn was earmarked to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a combination of three images taken in January 1998 and shows the lovely ringed planet in reflected infrared light.

A Lunar Eclipse Mosaic
6.05.2004

From start to finish, this impressive digital mosaic covers May 4th's total eclipse of the Moon. Astronomer Anthony Ayiomamitis reports that the eclipse viewing was wonderful from Greece, where skies cleared shortly before the celestial show began.

Star Trails and the Bracewell Radio Sundial
13.07.2018

Sundials use the location of a shadow to measure the Earth's rotation and indicate the time of day. So it's fitting that this sundial, at the Very Large Array Radio Telescope Observatory in New Mexico, commemorates the history of radio astronomy and radio astronomy pioneer Ronald Bracewell.

The Solstice Moon s Eclipse
23.12.2010

A big, bright, beautiful Full Moon slid into planet Earth's shadow early Tuesday morning. Remarkably, the total lunar eclipse coincided with the date of the December Solstice. During the eclipse, the best viewing...