Picture This

The Milky Way arches over La Silla Observatory

23 August 2018 Astronomy Now

The Milky Way arcs above ESO’s La Silla Observatory in this spectacular panorama demonstrating the extraordinarily clear, dark sky enjoyed by astronomers at one of the premier viewing sites in the world. This image captures the disk of the galaxy, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and Jupiter.

One Hubble picture is worth 15,000 words (make that galaxies)

17 August 2018 Astronomy Now

Famous for its “deep field” views of the cosmos, the Hubble Space Telescope has produced another stunning image combining ultraviolet, visible and infrared light, capturing 15,000 galaxies in various stages of evolutionary development in a single frame .

A family portrait of the Very Large Telescope facility in Chile

14 August 2018 Astronomy Now

A full-sky view of the four 8.2-metre (27-foot) telescopes making up the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile, complete with brilliant laser beam guide star to offset atmospheric turbulence

Glittering galaxies galore in wide-angle VST image in Virgo

8 August 2018 Astronomy Now

The European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope and its 256-megapixel OmegaCAM instrument captured this stunning view of galaxies shining in Virgo, part of a survey of elliptical “early type” galaxies.

Sharing an unforgettable moment: The Milky Way over Spain

6 August 2018 Astronomy Now

A dramatic view of the Milky Way sparkling above the Tre Crime Dolomites in Spain. The image is shortlisted in this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition organised by the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Crescent-shaped nebula in Carina harbours energetic Wolf-Rayet star

3 August 2018 Astronomy Now

The European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope captures a stunning view of a crescent-shaped nebula 12,000 light years away in the southern constellation Carina where the outflow from a hot Wolf-Rayet star helps shape the lopsided structure.

Cassini image captures five of Saturn’s moons in one frame

1 August 2018 Astronomy Now

In 2011, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a view showing five of Saturn’s moons – Janus, tiny Pandora, the water world Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea, the planet’s second largest moon – in a single frame, a family portrait that is riveting in its stark beauty.