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Astronomy is the study of the galaxies. Some astrologers practice it as a serious science while for others it is an interesting hobby. For this reason, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to the general public, people usually jump at the chance of looking at it. There are thousands of astronomical pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting celestial objects to keep people enthralled.

NASA of course is a primary source for an astronomy picture of the day. This site NASA.gov shows a new image each and every day. There’s also another section that shows video footage. This could be used to create your own image site. Saturn’s moon Enceladus was featured on November 5, 2008.

That picture was taken by a passing spacecraft. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that hits it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so unusual that Cassini will continue to fly by for more photos later in its mission.

NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy image of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a ‘what if’ footage of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The footage is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.

The entry for September 8th, 1995 was an amazing photo of the central part of the ‘Milky Way’ galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is usually invisible because of the dust masking it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that amazing image of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001. The explanation why both dates displayed this picture is that most people thought of the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually commenced on January 1st, 2001. NASA reasoned it was just easier to just go with the flow and do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html shows mankind’s view of the solar system as it progressed from mere objects circling the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we see it today.

NASA has many more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to view them.

Astronomy: pictures of the day are fascinating to vast numbers of people. If you are fascinated by astronomy, go along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

How much is there to be known or learned about all the objects and phenomenon in the entire universe? Remember that there are about 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars; then that many of those stars have planets spinning around them. Then think about all the moons that orbit those planets and the comets and asteroids, the galaxies these stars form, the nebulae and black holes and everything else that’s out there. The amount of information and data is really quite staggering. This article certainly won’t contain every fact about astronomy. But they are very interesting facts nevertheless.

Let’s take a look at a small subset of astronomy: “the brightest stars as seen from Earth”. That’s discounting the Sun which is about 250,000 times closer than the next nearest star. It’s so bright that when the sky is viewed from the Earth, it washes out all the other stars in the sky during a phenomenon called daylight.

Remember that according to the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter. Our Sun would be about -26.73, while the full moon is -12.6. So, with that in mind, here are the top 5:

#5 is Vega, which is in Lyra, and which means ‘falling eagle’ in Arabic. It’s about 25 light years away from the Earth, with a magnitude of 0.04.

When you are thinking about these astronomical facts, please bear in mind that the ‘brightest from the Earth’ doesn’t mean ‘largest’ or ‘brightest’. The Sun is not the largest or brightest star in the universe or even the galaxy, yet it seems so bright to us because it is near compared to the other stars.

#4 Rigel Centaurus - a very bright, bluish-white supergiant star in the constellation Orion. It is a binary star, with an average apparent magnitude of 0.12. It’s scientific name is Beta Orionis. ‘Rigel Centaurus’ is Arabic for ‘the foot of the centaur’. It’s about four light years from Earth.

#3 is Arcturus. The name is Latin/Greek and means ‘guardian of the bear’. This star is roughly 37 light years away. It is in the constellation of Bootes, behind The Great Bear. It has a magnitude of 0.00

#2 Canopus. Of the top five, Canopus, the Greek name for the pilot of the ship Argo in the stories about Jason and the Argonauts, is the brightest, but because it is 313 light years from Earth, it’s only second on this list of the five brightest stars seen from Earth. It has a magnitude of -.62.

#1 is Sirius, which translate from the Greek as ’scorching’. It’s also sometimes called the ‘Dog Star’ because it is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major, which means ‘The Big Dog’ in Latin. It is situated only 9 light years from Earth, which makes it easily the second closest of these top five. It has a magnitude of -1.44, which makes it very easily the brightest star that can be observed in the night sky.

These few data don’t even scratch the surface of subject of astronomy but it’s something for you to think about the next time you gaze up into the night sky.

Are you interested in Astronomy for Beginners? If you are then, please visait our website at http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

Astronomy is the study of the cosmos. Some astrologers practice it as a serious science while for others it is an educational pastime. For this reason, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to the general public, people usually jump at the chance of looking at it. There are many of astronomical pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting stars to keep people enthralled.

Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new photo each and every day. There is also a section that shows films. These could be used to create your own photo site. Saturn’s moon Enceladus was the ’star’ feature on November 5, 2008.

This footage was taken by a passing spacecraft. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that hits it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so fascinating that Cassini will continue to fly by for more images later on in its mission.

NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy picture of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a ‘what if’ footage of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The picture is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.

The entry for the 8th of September, 1995 was an amazing image of the internal section of the ‘Milky Way’ galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is usually invisible because of the dust obscuring it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that fantastic photo of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was identical on January 1st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001, the reason being that both dates shared this photo is that most people thought of the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually started on January 1st, 2001. NASA decided it was just better to just go with the flow and do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html depicts mankind’s view of the universe as it developed from mere objects circling the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we see it today.

NASA has a lot more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to view them.