Astronomy Picture of the Day 4-04-03

NASA ^ | 4-04-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 April 4

Clusters and Nebulae of the Hexagon
Credit & Copyright: Axel Mellinger

Explanation: At first, the bright stars of the large asterism known as the (northern) Winter Hexagon might be hard to pick out in this gorgeous deep sky mosaic from December 2002. But placing your cursor over the picture will reveal the hexagon's outlines and the bright clusters and nebulae along a stunning portion of the Milky Way opposite the galactic center. The celestial highlights include M42 (aka the Great Nebula of Orion), Orion's Horsehead nebula, the Rosette and Cone nebulae, and nearby star clusters M45 (Pleiades) and Gemini's own M35. For now, this hexagon is sinking low in western evening skies.

[petuniasevan]

This site STILL doesn't support the "onmouseover" attribute, so I had to post the images separately. To see the original page, click HERE.

Sorry I didn't get this out this AM. We've been having some terrible weather - freezing rain and sleet. I had to spend a lot of time getting my car defrosted, so I ran out of time. The roads were skating rinks, as the salt trucks had yet to arrive.

Tonight we are supposed to get several inches of snow (!!!)

With this kind of weather I still haven't had a chance to try any night photography with the new camera. Wisconsin springtime - bah humbug!

[petuniasevan]

[sistergoldenhair]

Good one. Psst.... ping list?

[sistergoldenhair]

You're fast.

[petuniasevan]

No sooner said than done!

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Yikes! Sounds like heavy weather! Thanks for posting the pic...

[Soaring Feather]

Oh lovely, thank you so much.

[MozartLover]

Beautiful image.

Ah, springtime in Wisconsin...........

Every single thing I was scheduled to do today was cancelled.

And have you heard about the snow/wind forecast for Monday???

[foolish-one]

Thanks for your efforts. Worth the wait, as always.

[petuniasevan]

Yep. Tonight 3-5 inches of snow, and it has started here in the southern Fox Valley. Soon it will be up your way (if not already).

Monday sounds like an encore. I could do without it.

At least I don't have to drive far to work.
Wait, maybe that's not such a good thing... ;-D

[farmfriend]

I realize the left coast has it's bad side but the weather ain't it.

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping

[petuniasevan]

Well, not most of the time.

But I sure remember leftovers of tropical storms and Santa Ana winds in SoCal, and heat waves which desiccated my garden and cold snaps which busted water pipes and froze my oleanders in Northern California.