Shows / NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These podcasts are my discussion of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. These are brief (3-5 minute) audio summaries of the picture posted on NASA's Picture of the Day website: APOD. Video versions of these are available on YouTube. I use these as the introduction to each of my introductory astronomy classes. Students will be able to access them here to review what was discussed in class. I appreciate any comments or suggestions which can be sent to: wagnerastronomy@gmail.com.
Episodes
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 31 - HH-222: The Waterfall Nebula
In today's image, we see what is known as the Waterfall Nebula for its distinct shape and appearance to a waterfall on Earth.My podcasts are available in video…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 30 - An Artificial Comet
In today's image, we see an image showing some of the thousands of Starling satellites. This is s combination of multiple 20 second exposures which cause the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 29 - M1: The Crab Nebula
In today's image, we see the supernova remnant known as the Crab Nebula. This is the remnant of a star that was seen to explode here on Earth nearly 1000 years…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 28 - NGC 1898: Globular Cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud
In today's image, we see a globular star cluster located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 27 - Apollo 17's Moonship
In today's image, we see Challenger - the lunar module (specifically the ascent stage) as it returned two astronauts from the surface of our Moon in December…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 26 - 3I/ATLAS Flyby
In today's image, we see an image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS a week or so ago - shortly before its closest approach to Earth. (This was about twice the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 25 - Unicorn, Fox Fur, and Christmas Tree
In today's image, we see a star forming region in the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. Within it are the Christmas Tree Star Cluster and the Fox Fur…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 24 - Mystery: Little Red Dots in the Early Universe
In today's image, we see several LRDs - Little Red Dots which existed in the early universe. These have been recently discovered by the James Webb Space…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 23 - Red Sprites and Circular Elves Lightning over Italy
In today's image, we see a single frame from a video showing red sprite lightning as well as circular elves lightning as seen recently over Italy.My podcasts…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 22 - Sunset Solstice over Stonehenge
In today's image, we see the sunset around the time of the winter solstice as seen over Stonehenge. My podcasts are available in video form through this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 21 - Solstice on a Spinning Earth
In today's image, we see a timelapse showing the positioning of Earth over the course of a year as imaged by a satellite in Earth orbit. We can see how the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 20 - A Solstice Sun Tattoo
In today's image, we see a tattoo of frost left behind on the pavement in the image taken around the time of the solstice. This is when the Sun is lowest in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 19 - Long Shadows of the Montes Caucasus
In today's image, we see long shadows from the Montes Caucasus as the Sun rises off over the eastern horizon. My podcasts are available in video form through…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 18 - Jupiter and the Meteors from Gemini
In today's image, we see a picture created from 40 different exposures taken a few days ago, then digitally combined together in a singe image. These are part…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 17 - W5: The Soul Nebula
In today's image, we see the Soul Nebula which is a star forming region in the constellation of Cassiopeia in the northern sky.My podcasts are available in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 16 - Andromeda and Sprites over Australia
In today's image, we see the Andromeda Galaxy as well as red sprite lightning as imaged over Australia last month.My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 15 - Gemini Meteors over Snow Capped Mountains
In today's image, we see an image put together from a number of different images from the past few days showing meteors of the Geminid shower that recently…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 14 - Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
In today's image, we see an animation put together from images taken by the Juno spacecraft as it flew by Ganymede and Jupiter back in 2021.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 13 - Orion and the Ocean of Storms
In today's image, we see the Orion spacecraft around the Moon. This was part of the Artemis I mission which was an uncrewed craft returning to the Moon…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 12 - Northern Fox Fires
In today's image, we see fox in front of the northern lights as they shimmer over Finland. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 11 - Galaxies in the River
In today's image, we see galaxies in the constellation of Eridanus - the river. This is an example of interacting galaxies where the larger galaxy is in the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 10 - The Horsehead Nebula
In today's image, we see the Horsehead Nebula which is a part of the nearby Orion star forming region.My podcasts are available in video form through this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 09 - The Heart of the Soul Nebula
In today's image, we see the central region of the star forming region known as the Soul Nebula locates in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 08 - Flying Over the Earth at Night
In today's image, we see a timelapse video showing various regions on Earth as imaged by the International Space Station flying over Earth in a relatively low…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 07 - The Sun and Its Missing Colors
In today's image, we see the spectrum of our Sun. The spectral lines are specific to different elements. Studying the strengths of the spectral lines helps us…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 06 - Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
In today's image, we see an image from the Apollo 17 mission with the astronauts exploring the edge of Shorty Crater which is visible off to the right. My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 05 - The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae
In today's image, we see jets being emitted from he variable star RX Andromedae. This is actually a binary system with one star transferring mass to another…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 04 - Galaxies in the Furnace
In today's image, we see interacting galaxies in the constellation of Fornax. When galaxies interact they become distorted with the loops and shells that we…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 03 - Visualization: Near a Black Hole and Disk
In today's image, we see a visualization of what one would see if they were to head toward the center of our galaxy at over 60% of the speed of light.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 02 - M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center
In today's image, we see an example of a Seyfert galaxy. This is a spiral galaxy with an unusually active center. The activity is fueled by material being…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 December 01 - 3I ATLAS: Tails of an Interstellar Comet
In today's image, we see 3I ATLAS which is a visitor to our solar system from another distant solar system. It was likely ejected from a distant solar system…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 30 - The Surface of Titan from Huygens
In today's image, we see an image from the surface of Saturn's large moon, Titan. This was taken by the Huygens lander as part of the Cassini mission back in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 29 - Moon Games
In today's image, we see the thin waxing crescent Moon as seen just a few days after the new moon of this month.My podcasts are available in video form through…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 28 - NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
In today's image, we see the cCrescent Nebula. This is a nebula around a hot, young Wolf-Rayet star. The strong stellar winds help to expel material from the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 27 - Portrait of NGC 1055
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy NGC 1055. The galaxy has an extended halo likely from a satellite galaxy which has been disrupted after passing too…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 26 - Globular Cluster M15 Deep Field
In today's image, we see the globular cluster M15. This deep image composed of over 100 hours of imaging, brings out more detail and allows us to see the gas…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 25 - Comet Lemmon and the Milky Way
In today's image, we see Comet Lemmon which was visible earlier this year and is now heading back to the outer solar system. In addition, we see our Milky Way…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 24 - Apep: Unusual Dust Shells from Webb
In today's image, we see unusual dust shells imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. These shells are formed by two orbiting Wolf-Rayet stars which are some…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 23 - The Observable Universe
In today's image, we see - Everything. This is the entire observable universe. Our solar system is at the center and regions further out contain stars in our…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 22 - Dione and Rhea Ring Transit
In today's image, we see the moons of Saturn - Dione and Rhea as they cross Saturn's ring plane as seen from Earth. The rings appear thin as they are seen…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 21 - 3I/ATLAS: A View from Planet Earth
In today's image, we see the interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS. This is the third object discovered that has visited our solar system from outside. It made…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 20 - Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka
In today's image, we see the three bright stars that make up the belt of Orion. In addition, we see some of the nebulae that are also present in this star…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 19 - Chamaeleon Dark Nebulas
In today's image, we see dark nebulae in the constellation of Chamaeleon which is visible in the southern skies. This region also includes the beta star of the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 18 - The Galactic Plane: Radio Versus Visible
In today's image, we see the plane of our galaxy in both visible light and radio light. The video pans through the galactic plane allowing us to see the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 17 - Comet Lemmon's Wandering Tail
In today's image, we see Comet Lemmon. In this image, we ca see the variations in the comet's ion tail causes by the major solar storms which have occurred…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 16 - Crossing Saturn's Ring Plane
In today's image, we see an image from the Cassini spacecraft taken back in 2005 when it crossed the ring plane of Saturn, which causes the thin rings to…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 15 - Andromeda and Friends
In today's image, we see the Andromeda galaxy also known as M31. We also see two companion elliptical galaxies of the Andromeda galaxy.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 14 - Florida Northern Lights
In today's image, we see the northern lights as seen recently in Florida. This is because of recent coronal mass ejections which cause distortions in Earth's…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 13 - Orion and the Running Man
In today's image, we see part of the Orion star forming region including he Orion Nebula and the Running Man nebula. My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 12 - A Super Lunar Corona
In today's image, we see a corona around our Moon. The corona is caused by refraction of light through water droplets in the thin clouds around the Moon.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 11 - Jupiter in Ultraviolet from Hubble
In today's image, we see the planet Jupiter as images in the ultraviolet from he Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble regularly monitors the giant planet to help…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 10 - Micro Moon vs. Super Moon
In today's image, we see two images of full moons from 2025. On the left we see a micro moon from April when our Moon was at apogee. On the right, we see a…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 09 - Road to the Galactic Center
In today's image, we see a road in monument valley heading out toward the center of the galaxy. The galactic center, above the horizon here, is hidden from…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 08 - A Full Moon at Perigee
In today's image, we see the full moon from a couple of days ago. This fun moon occurred when the Moon was at perigee or the closest approach to Earth in its…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 07 - A Dark Seahorse in Cepheus
In today's image, we see a dark nebula in the shape of a seahorse. This is part of a star forming region located in the constellation of Cepheus.My podcasts…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 06 - NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
In today's image, we see a spiral galaxy. The is an example of a starburst galaxy - a type of active galaxy currently undergoing a larger than normal burst of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 05 - Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 3370. The is an important spiral galaxy because we have been able to measure its distance using two…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 04 - Comet Lemmon Beyond Lomnicky Peak
In today's image, we see Comet Lemmon in the sky, with its prominent tails stretching back away from the Sun. This has become the most prominent comet of the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 03 - A Double Helix Lunar Eclipse
In today's image, we see a lunar eclipse which occurred last month. In addition, we see the double helix - the Milky Way and the zodiacal light in the sky.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 November 02 - A Horseshoe Einstein Ring from Hubble
In today's image, we see an almost complete Einstein ring which is caused by the closer elliptical galaxy which bends the light from the more distant galaxy…