Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2020 October 21

                       A Night Sky Vista from Sardinia
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Tomás Slovinský

   Explanation: How many famous sky objects can you find in this image?
   The featured dark sky composite combines over 60 exposures spanning
   over 220 degrees to create a veritable menagerie of night sky wonders.
   Visible celestial icons include the Belt of Orion, the Orion Nebula,
   the Andromeda Galaxy, the California Nebula, and bright stars Sirius
   and Betelgeuse. You can verify that you found these, if you did, by
   checking an annotated version of the image. A bit harder, though, is
   finding Polaris and the Big Dipper. Also discernible are several
   meteors from the Quandrantids meteor shower, red and green airglow, and
   two friends of the astrophotographer. The picture was captured in
   January from Sardinia, Italy. You can see sky wonders in your own night
   sky tonight -- including more meteors than usual -- because tonight is
   near peak of the yearly Orionids meteor shower.

      News: NASA's OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.


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