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 July 04 - NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and the open star cluster NGC 6939 in the same image. This is a very deep exposure, requiring 68 hours of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 July 03 - Nova V462 Lupi Now Visible
In today's image, we see the nova known as V462 Lupi. This is one of two novae currently visible in the southern sky. Another one is expected sometime that…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 July 02 - Milky Way over Otago Spires
In today's image, we see an image showing our Milky Way rising between the Otago Spires in New Zealand.My podcasts are available in video form through this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 July 01 - Eye Sky a Dragon
In today's image, we see a "Little Planet" 360 degree image. Here we see the sunset, the Milky Way galaxy, as well as a deserted outpost and even the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 30 - NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
In today's image, we see the galaxy known by the popular name of the Umbrella Galaxy. The "umbrella" is actually a tidal stream of material from a small…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 29 - Dark Sand Cascades on Mars
In today's image, we see dark steaks on the plant Mars caused as a darker sand cascades down the sand dunes neat the Martian North Pole. My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 28 - Lunar Farside
In today's image, we see the far side of the Moon. This is the portion of our Moon that can never be seen from Earth because of the fact that the lunar…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 27 - Messier 109
In today's image, we see the barred spiral galaxy known as Messier 109. This galaxy is similar in size and structure to our own Milky Way, but is located 60…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 26 - The Seagull Nebula
In today's image, we see the emission nebula known as the Seagull Nebula. This is part of a great emission nebula located in the direction of the constellation…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 25 - Rubin's First Look: A Sagittarius Skyscape
In today's image, we see one of the first images from the new Vera C. Rubin observatory. This shows a part of the sky near the constellation of Sagittarius…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 24 - In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M61
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M61. In the arms of tis galaxy, we see the telltale signs of star formation including the blue star…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 23 - W5: Pillars of Star Formation
In today's image, we see W5, which is a star forming region. The central, hollowed out region, contains the older stars while the edges contains the stars just…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 22 - A Berry Bowl of Martian Spherules
In today's image, we see small spherules of hematite on the Martian surface as discovered by the Opportunity Rover back on 2004. These are another one of the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 21 - Two Planets, Two Analemmas
In today's image, we see analemmas that were taken on two different planets - Earth and Mars. An analemma shows the changing position of the Sun over the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 20 - Major Lunar Standstill 2024-2025
In today's image, we see multiple stacked images showing both sunrise and moonrise from June 2024 through June 2025. During this time, the Moon is what is…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 19 - NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
In today's image, we see a deep image of a galaxy showing a halo of material. This is likely the remnant of other small galaxies which have been torn apart by…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 18 - Space Station Silhouette on the Moon
In today's image, we see an image of the International Space Station as it passes in front of our Moon. The Silhouette of the ISS is clearly visible in the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 17 - Rosette Nebula Deep Field
In today's image, we see the region in space near the Rosette Nebula. This is a part of a star forming region where a new cluster of stars is in the process of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 16 - APOD is 30 Years Old Today
In today's image, we see a mosaic of images from APOD images used during the past five years. These are put together to reproduce Van Gogh's famous Starry…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 15 - Two Worlds, One Sun
In today's image, we see the sunset as seen on two different planets. On the left we see the sunset as seen from Earth. On the right we see the sunset as seen…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 14 - Meteors and Satellite Trails over the Limay River
In today's image, we see a view over the Limay River in Argentina. In the sky, we see our Milky Way, the planet Venus as well as several meteors and many…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 13 - Rubin's Galaxy
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as UGC 2885, also known as Rubin's galaxy after astronomer Vera Rubin who studied galaxies like this to suggest the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 12 - Solar Eclipse
In today's image, we see an example of a total solar eclipse from 2023. A total solar eclipse occurs when our Moon passes in front of our Sun, temporarily…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 11 - 25 Brightest Stars in the Night Sky
In today's image, we see s compilation of images of the 25 brightest stars visible in the sky. This includes the brightest star, Sirius. You will note Polaris…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 10 - Enceladus in True Color
In today's image, we see the moon of Saturn known as Enceladus. This moon is known to have an ocean of liquid water below its surface and is a potential…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 09 - Between Scylla & Charybdis
In today's image, we see two recently discovered nebula candidates. Scylla is a candidate for a supernova remnant while Charybdis is a candidate for a…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 08 - Facing NGC 3344
In today's image, we see the nearby spiral galaxy known by its catalog designation NGC 3344. This is an example of a face on spiral galaxy where we are looking…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 07 - Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity
In today's image, we see an image taken by the Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars. The image shows the rover itself as well as the Ingenuity…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 06 - NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula
In today's image, we see the planetary nebula known as the Butterfly Nebula for its distinctive shape. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 05 - Savudrija Star Trails
In today's image, we see the area around the Savudrija Lighthouse alone with star trails in the sky. the star trails consist of 400 images of 30 seconds each…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 04 - A Milky Road to the Rubin Observatory
In today's image, we see the Milky Way and Small Magellanic Cloud in the sky over the soon to be in operation, Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 03 - Rainbow Airglow over the Azores
In today's image, we see the airglow and gravity waves in the sky giving various rainbow patterns in the night sky.My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 02 - Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Ancient Supernova
In today's image, we see the Veil Nebula. The remnant of a star that would have been seen to explode here on Earth about 7000 years ago. The image is divided…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 June 01 - UGC 1810: Wildly Interacting Galaxy from Hubble
In today's image, we see th galaxy known as UGC 1810. This is an example of what is sometimes called a peculiar galaxy because of its unusual structure. Many…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 31 - Afterimage Sunset
In today's image, we see a processed image of the Sun setting behind a bell tower. Staring at this image for about 30 seconds and then looking at a white…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 30 - Mars in the Loop
In today's image, we see a number of images of Mars showing its retrograde loop which occurred between December of last year and February of this year. The…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 29 - Irregular Dwarf Galaxy Sextans A
In today's image, we see a member of our local group of galaxies, an irregular dwarf galaxy known as Sextans A.My podcasts are available in video form through…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 28 - Herbig-Haro 24
In today's image, we see what is known as a Herbig-Haro object which is formed as jets of material are expelled from a protostar as it is in the process of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 27 - Zeta and Rho Ophiuchi with Milky Way
In today's image, we see the regions around the constellation of Ophiuchus. Here we see part of our own Milky Way, red emission nebulae, and blue reflection…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 26 - Spiral Galaxy NGC 2566 from Webb
In today's image, we see the barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 2566 as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. The cross pattern at the center of the galaxy…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 25 - Beneath Jupiter
In today's image, we see an image taken by the Juno spacecraft as it passed below Jupiter. Juno has been studying Jupiter for nearly a decade now, giving us a…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 24 - Deimos before Dawn
In today's image, we see one of the moons of Mars as imaged by the Perseverance rover several months ago. This image was created from several images which were…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 23 - NGC 6366 and 47 Ophiuchi
In today's image, we see the globular star cluster NGC 6366 and the nearby star 47 Ophiuchi.My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 22 - Curly Spiral Galaxy M63
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M63. In this deep exposure, we can see the curled edges of the galaxy, likely caused by tidal interactions…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 21 - International Space Station Crosses the Sun
In today's image, we see an image of the Sun, with multiple images of the International Space Station as the ISS passes directly in front of the Sun from this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 20 - Milky Way over Mauna Kea
In today's image, we see the plane of our Milky Way in the skies over the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii.My podcasts are available in video form through this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 19 - Charon Flyover from New Horizons
In today's image, we see a flyover of Pluto's moon, Charon created from images gathered by the new Horizons spacecraft when it flew by the dwarf planet back in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 18 - Pluto Flyover from New Horizons
In today's image, we see the dwarf planet, Pluto in this 2 minute Timelapse video showing a flyover of the dwarf planet constructed from images taken by New…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 17 - Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
In today's image, we see landing site of the fictional Ares 3 craft on Mars as shown in the novel the Martian. The coloration is blue because of the specific…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 16 - Messier 101
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as Messier 101. This is an example of a spiral galaxy seen face-on. This allows us to see the details in the spiral…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 15 - A Plutonian Landscape
In today's image, we see an image of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft which flew by Pluto nearly a decade ago. My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 14 - NGC 1360: The Robin's Egg Nebula
In today's image, we see the planetary nebula known as the Robin's Egg Nebula. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like our own Sun where the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 13 - Gaia Reconstructs a Top View of Our Galaxy
In today's image, we see a reconstructed image of our Milky Way as viewed from the top. The image is created using data from the Gaia spacecraft which was…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 12 - Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of Our Galaxy
In today's image, we see a reconstructed image of our Milky Way as viewed from the side. The image is created using data from the Gaia spacecraft which was…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 11 - The Surface of Venus from Venera 14
In today's image, we see one of the rare images of the surface of Venus. Because Venus is covered in clouds, it cannot be imaged directly from space. The…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 10 - Yogi and Friends in 3D
In today's image, we see a 3D image from the surface of Mars showing the Sojourner rover on Mars as well as the Pathfinder lander and several rock features on…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 09 - IXPE Explores a Black Hole Jet
In today's image, we see an artist's rendering of the jet of material being emitted from around a black hole. Recent observations have determine that the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 08 - M1: The Incredible Expanding Crab
In today's image, we see two images of the Crab Nebula showing the expansion that has taken place in the time between these two images.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 07 - Galaxy Wars: M81 versus M82
In today's image, we see a pair of galaxies which are in the process of merging. Galactic mergers like this can take billions of years as the galaxies will…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 06 - The Doubly Warped World of Binary Black Holes
In today's image, we see a computer simulation of two supermassive black holes and their accretion disks in orbit around one another. My podcasts are available…