My First Photo Of The Milky Way. (It Was Actually My 26th Attempt. Practice Makes Perfect.) #bluemountains

I saved this meme in 2013, and a full decade later I learned that its real title is “Is Anyone Out There?”

It was painted by Alan Bean, the fourth astronaut to walk on the moon.

And it still makes a darn good meme. (Even if astronauts do have bits of Velcro in their helmets for exactly this reason.)

Happy 90th birthday to Buzz Aldrin.

IC-1396, The Elephant’s Trunk Nebula by CosmicWreckingBall

★☆★ SPACE ★☆★

Toothbrush Cluster RX J0603.3+4214

Comet 21P in cursory close approach by europeanspaceagency

Dueling Bands in the Night : What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly seen band is the one on the right and is the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun orbits in the disk of this spiral galaxy, so that from inside, this disk appears as a band of comparable brightness all the way around the sky. The Milky Way band can also be seen all year – if out away from city lights. The less commonly seem band, on the left, is zodiacal light – sunlight reflected from dust orbiting the Sun in our Solar System. Zodiacal light is brightest near the Sun and so is best seen just before sunrise or just after sunset. On some evenings in the north, particularly during the months of March and April, this ribbon of zodiacal light can appear quite prominent after sunset. It was determined only this century that zodiacal dust was mostly expelled by comets that have passed near Jupiter. Only on certain times of the year will the two bands be seen side by side, in parts of the sky, like this. The featured image, including the Andromeda galaxy and a meteor, was captured in late January over a frozen lake in Kanding, Sichuan, China. via NASA

Mount Wilson Observatory, The Pleiades, M45, +/- 1950 United States.

Vintage silver print

The moon is beautiful

Night of the Perseids

Credits: Petr Horálek