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July 17, 1850The first photograph of a star is taken at the Harvard Observatory. The star photographed was Vega in the Lyra constellation, the 2nd brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere.*** "On the night of July 16–17, 1850, Whipple and Bond made the first daguerreotype of a star (Vega)"First star photograph (α Lyrae, Vega) obtained by John Adams Whipple and William Cranch Bond using the 38 cm Harvard refractor (daguerreotype, 100 s exposure).Observational History Astrophotography, the photography of celestial objects, began in 1840 when John William Draper took an image of the Moon using the daguerreotype process. On 17 July...

Sorry for the Vanity, but I was on an Astronomy Ping List and haven't seen any pictures in a good, long while. Is it still active?

From the day that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act went into effect to the morning that the federal healthcare exchange went live, 1288 days passed. 3 years, 6 months, and 8 days. In all that time, our federal government could not construct a website that actually worked, and we are still waiting for a final product. Here are 4 things the United States government accomplished in less time than it has taken to build a working website: (Number 2 is pretty amazing) http://www.camharris.us/2013/11/4-things-the-us-government-accomplished-in-less-time-than-it-took-to-build-a-working-obamacare-website/

When the moon hits your eye using a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, this is what you get. Did you see the moon rise this past weekend? It was full, and gorgeous, and at the right angle - huge. Case in point: this photo of Mount Hamilton taken by photographer Rick Baldridge. He says he snapped the photo Saturday night at 6:08 p.m. near the San Jose airport. Baldridge says he used a DOS-based program called SKYMAP to pinpoint the exact location he needed to get the moon over the Lick Observatory. After he performed what seems to us to be...

Ben Canales has astounding skills as a night photographer, capturing the child-like wonder and awe of our world as we stare up at the stars. When he was younger, he lived in an urban area where a starry night means maybe seeing a maximum of 20 stars. Now he lives on the West Coast “nearby some very dark, much less light-polluted night skies. It’s been a thrill and a treasured experience to look up and see a literal field of diamonds in the stars above.” Besides photographing the stars for personal enjoyment, Ben does it for us so we can...

NASA'S space shuttle Atlantis has been caught in a stunning snap silhouetted against the sun. The pic — the first ever image taken of a solar transit of a space shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope — was taken by an amateur astronomer from his back garden.

The International Space Station has grown so big and bright, you can see it even when it is directly in front of the Moon. Oscar Martin Mesonero of Salamanca, Spain, took this picture on April 1st: Click on link below for a larger image (~750 KP) (BE SURE TO CLICK ON THE IMAGE ITSELF TO ENLARGE IT)http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/03apr09/Oscar-Martin-Mesonero1.jpg?PHPSESSID=ja5b01lq2khqagamnuk41qbik7 "I recorded the transit using my 8-inch Celestron telescope and a Canon EOS 50D," says Mesonero. "The ISS was much brighter than the lunar background." His snapshot caught the space station passing over the Sea of Nectar (Mare Nectaris). Just to the north...

An astronaut, Don Pettit, has put together a 10-minute movie of what cities look like at night as seen from space. He shot these images while he was Science Officer aboard ISS Expedition 6 about 5 years ago. He recently posted this on YouTube.This video "Cities at Night; an Orbital Tour Around the World" is a video made from digital still images.A bit of trivia.... most of the music during the movie is from royalty-free clips from Adobe Auditions, but for the Australian sequences, Don played his own didgeridoo that he had with him in space aboard ISS. As you...

A new window to the universe has opened with today's release of the first dazzling images from NASA's newly named Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility. The first observations, of a glowing stellar nursery; a swirling, dusty galaxy; a disc of planet-forming debris; and organic material in the distant universe, demonstrate the power of the telescope's infrared detectors to capture cosmic features never before seen. The Spitzer Space Telescope was also officially named today after the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr. He was one of the 20th century's most influential scientists, and in the mid-1940s,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 September 25 Jupiter, Moons and Bees Credit & Copyright: Russell Croman Explanation: Rising before the Sun on September 4, Jupiter and an old crescent Moon gathered in the dim constellation of Cancer. Watching from a hillside near Austin, Texas, planet Earth, astrophotographer Russell Croman recorded this view of their passing as clouds gracefully dimmed the brilliant moonlight. Earthshine illuminates the lunar night side and on close inspection,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 10 A Southern Sky View Credit amp; Copyright: Gordon Garradd Explanation: On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia by astronomer Gordon Garradd. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens, resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view....