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hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Hourly Cosmos
@hourlycosmos.bsky.social
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Photo sharing bot for planetary and deep space images.

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hourlycosmos.bsky.social
8/21/2017 Eclipse, DSC01777 - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/Y7DW8n
November 16, 2025 at 12:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Slanted Saturn - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/k1h5xs
This view of Saturn was snapped by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) during its "Storm Watch" observations. This composite is made of images that were taken on February 10, 2014 and received on Earth February 11, 2014. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,229,868 miles (1,979,280 kilometers) away, and the image was taken using the CB2, MT3, MT2, BL1, CL1 and CL2 filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans
November 15, 2025 at 11:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Iridescent clouds over Gale Crater (enhanced color) - From Simeon Schmauß (stim3on.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2qJvryP
This enhanced color panorama was taken by Curiosity's Left Mastcam after sunset on Sol 3724 (27 January, 2023). It shows an iridescent high altitude cloud, likely made from CO2 ices. The sun has already set on the ground, but continues to illuminate this cloud which is likely at 60-80km altitude. The iridescence (rainbow effect) is caused by diffraction at sub µm ice particles. More information: doi.org/10.1029/2024GL111183 This panorama was stitched from 14 MAST_LEFT images from the PDS. The individual images were color calibrated to approximate what the human eye would see. The panorama was further enhanced to emphasise cloud structure and subtle color variations. See here for an unenhanced variant of the panorama: flic.kr/p/2qJwraX LMST: Sol-03724M18:52:13 Sun: Az: 276.2 deg, El: -5.9 deg Rationale: Characterize potentially iridescent ice clouds in twilight Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Simeon Schmauß
November 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Blast From The Past #7 - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/8A2Nwp
TBD. Voyager 1 NAC OGB
November 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Faint H-Alpha Shells of the Toby Jug Nebula (IC 2220) - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2ikpoQL
IC 2220, also known as the Butterfly Nebula or Toby Jug Nebula, is a rare orange reflection nebula located 1,200 light years away towards the Southern constellation of Carina (The Keel). While most reflection nebulae appear blue, lit up by young bright blue stars, IC 2220 instead reflects the warm orange light of a red giant in its centre. The star is five time heavier than the sun, and has therefore already evolved rapidly towards the end of its life even though it is only 50 million years old. In this late stage of its life, the star is somewhat unstable and periodically loses mass out into the surrounding space. Further from the star this hot ejected material has condensed into dust, primarily silica, and formed the bright central cloud with its beautiful delicate structures. In 2018, astrophotographer Josep Drudis, together with his daughter Anna, discovered several large faint H-Alpha shells around IC 2220, extending up to 21 arc minutes in diameter. This deep image contains 21 hours of H-Alpha data in order to show both the central reflection nebula and the newly discovered faint outer H-Alpha shells, providing a view of IC 2220 in its entirety. It is apparent the central star has undergone several distinct mass loss events in the past, producing both the large outer elongated bubble of H-Alpha emission and at least one separate inner bubble which appear more circular. Image details: Date: December 2018 - February 2019 Exposure: HaLRGB: 1260:175:35:30:20 mins, tota...
November 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Astrophotography - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2jqjw1L
24 x 10sec ISO 1250 images using SONY DSC-RX10M3 taken 7/22/2020 between 10:51 and 10:58 PDT. File: r_le8292to8315Deb_[#####]_cvt2_png:1:24-Up to 4K
November 15, 2025 at 6:02 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Starless Eagle Nebula and The Pillars of Creation - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2nxreCe
www.rolfolsenastrophotography.com/Astrophotography/Nebula... This image shows the famous Pillars of Creation region of the bright Eagle Nebula (Messier 16) in Serpens. Constructed from monochrome exposures in two very narrow wavelength bands of ionised Hydrogen and Oxygen, the data has been combined into a colour image to reveal this highly detailed and very dramatic scene. The bright colours are due to emission from the ionised gases, energised by light from nearby stars. The stars were removed during image processing to fully reveal the intricate structure of the nebula. Orange-red nebulosity corresponds to H-Alpha emission, and the blue areas are OIII. The core area of the nebula was made famous in 1995 as the "Pillars of Creation" by images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The pillars are giant columns of gas and dust, approximately 9 light-years long, that are slowly being eroded away by intense radiation pressure from nearby young stars. The nebula lies 6000 light-years distant in the Sagittarius arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Image details: Date: Sep-Nov 2021, June 2022 Exposure: Ha OIII: 450:690 mins, total 19 hours @ -25C Telescope: Homebuilt 12.5" f/4 Serrurier Truss Newtonian Camera: QSI 683wsg with Lodestar guider Filters: Astrodon 3nm Ha/OIII Taken from my observatory in Auckland, New Zealand
November 15, 2025 at 5:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
a +fff++final - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iK1sfj
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
A panorama with a dust devil and Ingenuity - Perseverance, sol 92 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2m1ZaXf
Panorama made with 25 pictures taken by Mastcam-Z Right on sol 92 (May 24, 2021) at 13:00 pm martian local time. A dust devil is located on the upper left of the image and Ingenuity helicopter on the right.
November 15, 2025 at 3:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Jupiter 's Southern Hemisphere, Jet S3 - Nasa’s Juno PJ 33 - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kZND6G
PJ33 JET S3 Nasa/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/AndreaLuck
November 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
GALEX Andromeda Mosaic - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/FPGi9u
I have recently turned my attention to some archival GALEX data and found it quite promising. What surprised me the most was the presence of galactic cirrus in the FUV (far ultraviolet) channel. Because I am unfamiliar with the "personality" of the telescope I almost mistook it for some kind of odd artifacting. As far as I know, this cirrus has never been presented in a GALEX image before, so I am happy to have found it there. If you are having a hard time seeing it, a brighter version is available here (6.7MB JPG). Processing notes: Of greatest concern is the FUV-bright star (Nu Andromedae) in the lower left. There was no FUV data available; all came from a single, low duration NUV (near ultraviolet) exposure. The brightness of the star was interpolated based on nearby contextual clues from frames which did contain FUV information. It is definitely the brightest FUV source in the frame, and I think it was fair to "fake" it like this. From what I am able to gather, observations of bright FUV sources were avoided due to long-term issues with the detectors, so that is probably why there were never any exposures of this particular star. Several areas are monochrome like this, mostly in the lower left corner and another near the southern tip of the galaxy. These filler data are very coarse and do not look good up close, but they had to suffice. Many little annuli were removed, including a giant line of them emanating from Nu Andromedae. I tried to match ...
November 15, 2025 at 1:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Beautiful Layers in the Central Uplift of Mazamba Crater - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2rhnae1
This is only one of four impact craters known that possesses intact layers exposed in the central uplift. Scientists believe this layered material originates from kilometers beneath the present surface and is raised up during the formation of the crater itself. These craters give us a window into these deep layers, which would otherwise remain hidden. Image cutout is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and the spacecraft altitude was 252 km (157 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link. www.uahirise.org/ESP_033248_1520 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
November 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Interacting Galaxies NGC 1549 and NGC 1553 in the Dorado Group - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/2jybqyW
This very deep image shows the two large interacting galaxies NGC 1549 and NGC 1553 in the Dorado Group. Located around 60 million light years away towards the southern constellation Dorado, it is one of the richest galaxy groups of the Southern Hemisphere with 46 members and tens of additional candidate members. The interaction of NGC 1549 and NGC 1553 appears to be in an early stage, and gravitational disruption in the form of irregular shells and tidal jet/arcs of material is clearly visible in both galaxies. Between the two large galaxies a small fuzzy blob with a faint spiral structure is visible; perhaps a remnant core from an earlier interaction, similar to the one observed in the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 3923 in Hydra. The largest of the galaxies is NGC 1549 to the North (top), discovered by John Herschel on 6 December 1835. It contains a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass between 390 and 810 million solar masses. To the south lies NGC 1553; the second brightest member of the Dorado Group. It is an impressive lenticular galaxy with a prominent soft isophotic ring surrounding another highly structured ring encircling the centre. A further very small spiral structure is visible in the core. In 2000 an inner torus-like dust lane about 3″ across was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope at the galaxy's center. The galaxy is thought to host an obscured central active galactic nucleus (AGN). In the lower left of the image lies the small edge-on spir...
November 15, 2025 at 11:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
1 (2) - From Jacint Roger (landru79.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2iJYAqa
November 15, 2025 at 9:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Saturn-W00066615-Feb-24-RAW - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/9qCyXA
Storm on Saturn
November 15, 2025 at 8:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
CURIOSITY sol 48 mastcam r - Sun - From 2di7 & titanio44 - https://flic.kr/p/demwos
"Courtesy NASA/JPL -Caltech" processing 2di7 & titanio44
November 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Vertical Milky Way over the AAT / Vía Láctea vertical sobre el AAT - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/JeKHHQ
(En español abajo) Vertical Milky Way over the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Image obtained on 30th June 2016 at 22:04 AEST (14:04 UTC) using a CANON 5D Mark III with a 14mm f2.8 wide lens. Single 30 seconds exposure at 3200 ISO. Besides the conversion from RAW to JPEG, no further image process was applied. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU) La Vía Láctea vertical sobre el Telescopio Anglo-Australiano. Imagen obtenida el 30 de junio de 2016 a las 22:04 AEST (14:04 UTC) con una cámara CANON 5D Mark III y un objetivo de 14mm a f/2.8. 30 segundos de exposición a 3200ISO. No tiene ningún procesado, salvo la conversión de RAW a JPEG dada por el programa de CANON. Crédito: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU)
November 15, 2025 at 6:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
NGC-7380 Wizard Nebula in Narrowband, 2021-08-06 - From Ryan Kinnett (rkinnett.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2mgfzXa
Imaged with APM 140mm doublet, 0.8x reducer, asi1600mm mono camera, and ZWO Ha, Sii, and Oiii filters. Custom blend.
November 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Dione in front of Saturn - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/subrQq
This is an approximate true color view of Saturn and its moon Dione. Dione is seen here hovering above Saturn's rings. A bluish haze is slightly visible on the edge of Saturn's yellow limb. This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on May 21, 2015 and received on Earth May 22, 2015. The camera was pointing toward Dione and Saturn, and the images were taken using the green, blue, and infrared filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans about.me/valerieklavans
November 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Canyon in Tyrrhena Terra - CRISM / CTX - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2h1XpJJ
Incised valley network located in Tyrrhena Terra imaged by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on November 30, 2011. This valley was probably carved by an ancient river system. The channel now directs the flow of wind, forming dunes along the former river path. This image combines color data collected by MRO's CRISM spectrometer and CTX camera system to produce a true-color image. This image uses CRISM stamp 21A07. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / JHUAPL / Justin Cowart
November 15, 2025 at 3:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Jupiter’s Stunning Southern Hemisphere - From NASA Marshall Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/GxRZqB
See Jupiter’s southern hemisphere in beautiful detail in this new image taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The color-enhanced view captures one of the white ovals in the “String of Pearls,” one of eight massive rotating storms at 40 degrees south latitude on the gas giant planet. The image was taken on Oct. 24, 2017 at 11:11 a.m. PDT (2:11 p.m. EDT), as Juno performed its ninth close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 20,577 miles (33,115 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of minus 52.96 degrees. The spatial scale in this image is 13.86 miles/pixel (22.3 kilometers/pixel). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt/ Seán Doran Read more NASA Media Usage Guidelines
November 15, 2025 at 2:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Iapetus - Rev 49 - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2ehgMYy
Cassini monochrome mosaic of terrain on Saturn's moon Iapetus. This mosaic captures a swath of terrain located near a hemispherical boundary between surfaces dominated by light and dark materials, respectively. It was taken from an altitude of ~4700 km during a targeted flyby of Iapetus on September 10, 2007. Image Credit: NASA / JPL / Cassini-ISS / Justin Cowart
November 15, 2025 at 1:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
ESP_050354_1470 - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/23BjvNr
Terrain in Terra Sirenum NASA/JPL/University of Arizona (276 km above the surface, less than 1 km across top to bottom and north is to the right.) uahirise.org/ESP_050354_1470
November 14, 2025 at 11:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Jupiter 2023-10-14 - From Ryan Kinnett (rkinnett.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2pkdWxk
30 minute loop. Imaged with Meade LX200 14" at f/20.
November 14, 2025 at 10:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Looking towards Titan's south polar vortex - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/cni7z7
In this view, a vortex swirls around Titan's south pole while layers of haze surround the moon. This is a false color view of Titan colorized to approximate true color. Titan's south polar vortex can be seen in the lower left of this image. More information about Titan's vortex can be found here: What's that spot on Titan's South Pole? This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on June 26, 2012 and received on Earth June 27, 2012. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 300,176 miles (483,087 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using methane band, continuum band and ultraviolet filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans about.me/valerieklavans
November 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM