Starship Asterisk*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070529.html

For publishing all the great image's that make APOD a science teacher

You've just gotta love the amazing resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has quite a long focal length. If only one didn't have to stitch SO many exposures together to make up a big image like this one. The Hubble Heritage folks and anyone else who processes Hubble data will know what I mean.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070529.html

IMPORTANT: If you click through the image on the above page to the large version, then convert it from the ProPhoto RGB color space to sRGB in a color managed application (e.g., Photoshop), you'll see the colors as the creators originally intended. As of the time of this writing, the M81 images you see in your browser are somewhat dull with muted colors, because the default color space of applications that do no color management is sRGB.

-Noel

Hi NoelC I like the view from the Hubble site because it is zoom-able.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... s/2007/19/

Orin

I just want to send out a hearty 'THANK YOU' to one of our local TV stations' weather reporters--CHUCK GAIDICA of WDIV TV, Detroit--for again proving that he is an advocate of popularizing astronomy by spotlighting the May 29, 2007 APOD of M81 on that evening's newscast.

As I was in the kitchen preparing dinner, I didn't catch the beginning of the report (I ran to the TV when I heard him mention "M81"), but I did manage to catch Chuck explain that the image was taken by the HST, that it was that of a spiral galaxy, and that M81 is VERY FAR AWAY. To emphasize M81's distance from Earth, he translated the light years into miles (with LOTS of ZEROS) so that all could understand and appreciate that vast distance. The only thing Chuck neglected to mention was that M81 is readily available for anyone to observe provided they have access to the combination of dark skies, a telescope, and/or a pair of binoculars. I'm only stressing this point as this APOD is so beautiful and that its real object is one of amateur astronomy's greatest ambassadors--well within anyone's reach....even welcomed newcommers to the hobby. Either way, as I have mentioned, since Chuck is VERY GOOD about keeping Metro Detroiters informed about astronomical phenomena, I'll let this relatively minor ommision slide.

Once again, thanks Chuck! Keep up the good work!