Nebulas

Cats Eye Nebula

M2-9

APOD 3.5

The above is a self taken panorama of the mars rover curiosity. The picture was made by combining images from the Mahli and masthand, both cameras mounted on the rovers tall arm.  The MAHLI, designed for close shots, took the rover itself, while the normal masthand camera took the in the landscape. As such, neither the MAHLI nor Mastcam are visible in this image.  Despite this, the image is very impressive, albeit heavily fish eyed.
One can see how rocky mars is, and how it looks similar to a desert on earth.

APOD 3.4

The following shows Jupiter, with its moons. The moons cast shadows on the planets surface, visible as the two dots. Were you on Jupiter, it would appear as if an eclipse was occurring if you were in the shadows.
Additionally, the famous red spot is slowly moving around the planet to the right, and is just visible in this image.

Apod 3.2

Often, people focus on the big galaxies, with their vast spiral images. However, the small galaxies, like this one, NGC 68822, are also quite beautiful.  It is about 1.5 million light years away, in our local galaxy cluster, and just 7000 light years across.

It is full of young blue stars, hence its color.

Apod 3.1

The above is a long exposure photograph of a rocket launch. This shows off two very important tools for exploring space, a rocket, behind the trees, with the bright trail, and radio telescopes, in the foreground.

The rocket contains a data and tracking satellite.