Our Earth is covered by volcanoes.

Volcanoes are breaks in the Earth's cool surface where
hot liquid rock from the interior comes out -- sometimes suddenly.

In the above image from the
ASTER camera aboard NASA's orbiting
Terra satellite, snow-capped volcanoes are seen from overhead that compose the
picturesque Islands of the
Four Mountains
in the
Aleutian Islands,
Alaska,
USA.

The islands contain restless
Mt. Cleveland,
an active volcano currently being watched to see if it emits an
ash cloud that could
affect air travel over parts of North America.

A close look at Mt. Cleveland, seen near the image center, shows a red rocky base, a white snow-covered peak,
a light plume of gas and ash, and dark lanes
where ash and debris fell or flowed.

Millions of volcanoes have likely been active over the turbulent history of the Earth's surface, while about 20 volcanoes are
erupting even today, at any given time.

alaska Clevand volcano 2012

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A new rocket, the Falcon 9, was launched successfully from
Cape Canaveral,
Florida,
USA, last week.

The Falcon 9,
standing about as high as a 15-floor building, was developed by the commercial
SpaceX corporation as a step toward a relatively inexpensive
space launch system.

Falcon 9's success follows successful launches of the Falcon 1
last year.

Pictured above,
a movie of the Falcon 9's launch includes an insect,
the launch as viewed from far away, and
images from the
side of the vehicle
which include the separation of the lower stage.

When topped with
SpaceX's Dragon
Cargo or Crew capsule, the Falcon 9 may be used to lift satellites and astronauts to low Earth orbit and the
International Space Station in the coming decade.

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Long before
Stonehenge was built, well before the
Dead Sea Scrolls
were written, ancient artists painted life-sized figures on canyon walls in
Utah,
USA -- but why?

Nobody is sure.

The entire panel of figures,
which dates back about 7,000 years, is called the
Great Gallery and was found on the walls of
Horseshoe
Canyon in
Canyonlands National
Park.

The humans who painted them likely hunted
Mammoths.

The unusual fuzziness of largest figure led to
this mural section's informal designation as the
Holy Ghost Panel, although the intended attribution and societal importance of the figure are really unknown.

The above image was taken during a clear night in March.

The oldest objects in the above image are not the
pictographs, however, but the stars of our
Milky Way Galaxy far in the background, some of which are billions of years old.

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At opposition
in late January, Mars shone very brightly in planet
Earth's night sky, among the stars of the constellation
Cancer
the Crab.

Since then the
Red Planet
has been fading, but still lingers in Cancer
during April and May.

In mid-April, Mars wandered remarkably close to Cancer's famous
star cluster M44, the Beehive Cluster.

M44 is also known by an older name, Praesepe,
Latin for cradle or manger.

Captured in this 60 second time exposure made on April 14,
a yellow-tinged Mars and M44 are near the center
of the field, seemingly just beyond the reach of a pine tree.

Of course, M44's stars are about 600 light-years away,
while Mars was more like 600
light-seconds
from Earth.

The digital photograph
was made with a camera mounted on
a telescope tracking the stars through dark skies above
a camp ground in Virginia, USA.

During the exposure, passing car lights briefly illuminated the tree
branches.

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Although you've surely seen it, you might not have noticed it.

During a cloudless twilight, just before
sunrise or after
sunset,
part of the atmosphere above the horizon appears
slightly off-color, slightly pink.

Called the Belt of Venus, this off-color band between the dark
eclipsed sky and the
blue sky can be seen in nearly every direction
including that opposite the Sun.

Straight above, blue sky is normal sunlight reflecting off the atmosphere.

In the Belt of Venus, however, the
atmosphere reflects light from the setting (or rising)
Sun which appears more red.

The Belt of Venus can be seen from any location with a
clear horizon.

Pictured above, the Belt of Venus was photographed above
morning fog in the
Valley of the Moon, a famous wine-producing region in northern
California,
USA.

The belt is
frequently
caught
by
accident
in
other
photographs.

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It was a sky for the imagination.

In the early evening last week, the sky illuminating the
unaided eye was perhaps
even more illuminating to the mind's eye.

The unaided eye saw clouds framing the
Moon setting over a calm and reflective bay,
spruce trees lining the nearby shores, the Pleiades open star cluster (M45) glowing prominently in the center of the sky, the
Andromeda galaxy hovering just over the horizon on the right, and the
belt stars of Orion lined up on the left,
just below the bright orange star
Betelgeuse.

The bright star Sirius
peeked out of the trees on the far left.

The mind's eye
might further imagine, however, some of the
constellations coming to life, with Orion the Hunter taking up his sword and shield,
followed into battle by his
Big Dog
(Canis Major,
whose right eye is Sirius), and watched from across the sky by
Cassiopeia, the Queen of
Ethiopia, sitting on her Throne.

The above image was taken over
Pleasant Bay,
Maine,
USA,
and digitally merged with constellations from
Uranographicarum, drawn in the 17th century by J. Hevelius.

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Twice a year, at the Spring and Fall
equinox,
the Sun rises due east.

In an emphatic demonstration of this
celestial
alignment, photographer Joe Orman recorded
this inspiring image of the Sun rising exactly along the east-west oriented
Western Canal, in
Tempe,
Arizona,
USA.

But he waited until one day after the northern
Spring equinox, in 2001, to photograph the striking view.

Why was the rising Sun due east one day
after the equinox?

At Tempe's latitude
the Sun rises
at an angle, arcing southward
as it climbs above the horizon.

Because the distant mountains hide the true horizon, the
Sun shifts
slightly southward by the time it clears the
mountain tops.

Waiting 24 hours allowed the Sun
to rise just north of east and arc back to an exactly
eastern alignment for the photo.

Today is another Equinox + 1 day, with the Sun crossing the celestial equator yesterday at about 17:32 Universal Time.

equinox

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Photo slideshow of the lunar eclipse as seen near hiking area* atop Skyline Drive; Oakland/Ringwood border, northern New Jersey, USA. This slideshow captures the second half of the eclipse: starting just after sunset, from when the moon was entirely in the earth's shadow, til the shadow passed and the full moon became visible. Info about Lunar Eclipses: en.wikipedia.org Photos courtesy of Dennis Reulbach and daughter, Beth. For a more full-spectrum time-lapse animation of photos, see the .gif at this link (give it time to load, it's over 50 pictures): img.photobucket.com Thanks, Dennis and Beth, for taking the time to make these beautiful pictures! oxo * = by the roadside "Ent". ;p

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The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest human-made object
ever to orbit the Earth.

The ISS is so large that it can be seen drifting overhead with the unaided eye, and is
frequently
imaged
from
the
ground
in
picturesque
fashion.

Last month, the station was
visited again by
space shuttle,
which resupplied the station and added a
new module.

The ISS is currently operated by the Expedition 22 crew, now consisting five astronauts including two supplied by
USA's NASA, two by
Russia's RKA,
and one by
Japan's JAXA.

After departing the
ISS, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour captured
the above spectacular vista of the orbiting
space city high above the clouds, waters, and lands of Earth.

Visible components include modules,
trusses, and expansive
solar arrays
that gather sunlight that is turned into needed
electricity

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What created those rocket waves, and why did they destroy that sun dog?

Close inspection of the
above image shows not only a rocket rising near the center, but unusual air ripples around it and a colorful sundog to the far right.

The rocket, carrying the
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), lifted off two weeks ago from
Cape
Canaveral,
Florida,
USA into a cold blue sky.

The SDO is designed to observe the Sun continuously over the next several years,
exploring the
Sun's atmosphere
at high resolution and fast time scales.

The air ripples -- seen about one minute after launch -- were unexpected,
as was the sudden disappearance of the
sundog after the ripples passed.

Noticed and recorded by
several
onlookers, there has been much speculation about the origin of
the ripples.

An ongoing discussion about them can be joined
here in APOD's discussion board
the Asterisk.

A leading hypothesis holds that the ripples resulted from a
sonic boom created as the rocket broke the
sound barrier,
which then jumbled a thin layer of
ice crystals
that were aligned to create the
sundog.

Lingering questions include why
other rocket launches
don't produce air ripples as noticeable,
and why the ripples appeared more prominent above the rocket.

If you know of images of any other
aircraft or
spacecraft that have produced similar air ripples, please post them to
the discussion thread -- they may be
help create a better understanding of the effect.

SUN DOG

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Sometimes, the space shuttle
launches at night.

Pictured above, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off in yesterday's early morning hours from
Launch Pad 39A in
Kennedy
Space Center,
Florida,
USA,
bound for the
International Space Station (ISS).

A night launch, useful for reaching the space station easily during some times of the year, frequently creates
vivid launch imagery.

The shuttle, as
pictured above, is framed by an enormous but typical
exhaust plume ejected as the shuttle's
powerful rockets
began lifting the two million kilogram
space bus into
Earth orbit.

Endeavour's mission, labeled
STS-130, includes the
delivery of the
Tranquility module to the space station.

Tranquility will provide extra room for space station astronauts
and includes a large
circular set of windows designed to bestow vastly
improved views of the Earth, the night sky, and the
space station itself.

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