Cosmic Pursuits

Basic astronomy and night sky information

Astronomy Images and Video

Beautiful and interesting images and video of the night sky including stars, planets, the Milky Way, and deep-sky objects taken through a camera lens or through a telescope.

The Taurus Molecular Cloud

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

The dark nebula Barnard 22 and the tiny flame-shaped reflection nebula IC 2087, both part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. Captured at Grand Mesa Observatory in Colorado. Image credit and copyright Terry Hancock and Tom Masterson. Click to enlarge.

Many stargazers are familiar with the giant Orion Molecular Cloud, a vast star-making complex some 1,300 light years away that harbours, among many other celestial objects, the Great Orion Nebula. But there’s a closer, lesser known molecular cloud quietly churning out new stars just 430 light years away towards the constellation Taurus. The Taurus Molecular Cloud, or TMC-1, is smaller and less dense than Orion but it still intrigues professional astronomers.  The complex contains hundreds of solar masses of dust and gas and all sorts of complex organic molecules formed out of the soot of long-dead stars [Read more…] about The Taurus Molecular Cloud

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The Golden Light of a Winter Solstice

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck

On December 21, 2018 at 22:23 Universal Time, the Sun reaches the December solstice, its most southern point on the ecliptic. This marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere and the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere [Read more…] about The Golden Light of a Winter Solstice

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Dawn Sky – Crescent Moon, Mercury, Regulus, and Orion

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

Late-summer sunrise from Bruneau Dunes State Park, Idaho.

After a cloudy night, the sky cleared as dawn arrived on a late summer morning as seen from Bruneau Dunes State Park in southern Idaho on September 8, 2018. Here you see a very slender waning crescent Moon to the upper left of the star Regulus. Mercury is at the lower middle of this image, just above the clouds. Just minutes earlier, the constellation Orion tried to peak through the early-morning clouds (see below) [Read more…] about Dawn Sky – Crescent Moon, Mercury, Regulus, and Orion

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Lunar Sunrise, Lunar Sunset

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video


The folks at NASA Goddard in Greenbelt, MD, have put together a glorious video of an accelerated sunrise and sunset on the Moon that will reward you with some of the finest images ever taken of our nearest neighbor, and perhaps inspire you to see some of these features with your own telescope. NASA set this visualization of sunrises and sunsets on the Moon to the strains of Claude Debussy’s most famous work, Clair de Lune. Watch the whole thing. It’s a great way to spend a few minutes.

From NASA’s notes [Read more…] about Lunar Sunrise, Lunar Sunset

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The Outer Rim of the Milky Way

By Filed Under: Astronomy Images and Video

The outer rim of the Milky Way as seen in late summer towards the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus.

“Peer at things up close and you may learn their true form
but guessed at from afar, they seem like something else.
Vastness such as this is beyond comprehension:
all I can do is sigh in endless wonder”. – Su Tung-P’o (1060 A.D.)

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