Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Yuri's Planet

NASA ^ | April 12, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: On another April 12th, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human to see planet Earth from space. Commenting on his view from orbit he reported, "The sky is very dark; the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly". On yet another April 12th, in 1981 NASA launched the first space shuttle. To celebrate in 2013, consider this image from the orbiting International Space Station, a stunning view of the planet at night from low Earth orbit. Constellations of lights connecting the densely populated cities along the Atlantic east coast of the United States are framed by two Russian spacecraft docked at the space station. Easy to recognize cities include New York City and Long Island at the right. From there, track toward the left for Philadelphia, Baltimore, and then Washington DC near picture center.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: ISS Expedition 30, NASA]

[SunkenCiv]

Gosh, I wonder what Google has for its special logo *today*?

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[rlmorel]

Probably something like this:

[ExGeeEye]

Since you asked:

Horrible, ain't it?

[null and void]

I will never understand “Don’t Be Evil”’s Al-Gore-ithm for what to honor on their doodles.

Gagarin earned an honorable mention, even on America’s google home page.

[Squawk 8888]

Another plug for Chris Hadfield's Twitter feed.

[SunkenCiv]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts#Vladimir_Ilyushin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Ilyushin

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3006970/posts

[mikrofon]

Cool ... you can detect the Hudson Valley, and in the upper right Syracuse, Rochester & Buffalo(!) along the NYS Thruway, with the Toronto metroplex across Lake Ontario.