I’m just poking my head up long enough to point you all toward a couple of images that took my breath away (from Astronomy Picture of the Day):
- In the shadow of Saturn, from Cassini
- Orion Deep Field, including both the Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
- Hubble view of the Great Orion Nebula (M42)
That last one is the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen of where my motley crew of Bandicut, Antares, Ik, Li-Jared, and various robots are at this very moment. They’ve just crossed from left to center toward the Trapezium, a tight cluster of four bright stars right in the whitest heart of the nebula. That’s where they are, wondering what in the world they were thinking. Here’s the Trapezium in infrared.
And now I must get back to them.
Charlza
Yup, there have been some very nice pictures recently at APOD.
It’s funny to hear the Chaos gang in that context. Those areas are so far away, it almost sounds like they are there.
If I hadn’t just gotten 2 new Stephen Baxter books from the UK, I’d start re-reading Chaos again next.
tsmacro
Thanks for sharing the pics and using the last couple as a “postcard” from the crew that’s flying around your mind as well as the Trapezium! *S* I can’t wait for some more!
tsmacro
It was good to hear that NASA decided to reinstate the shuttle mission intended to do maintenance on the Hubble telescope. As the Hubble has been the source of so many amazing intersteller pics.