"The Beauty of the Heavens" is sometimes more than just a figure of speech. In some (unfortunately rare) cases, the sophisticated instrumentation used by astronomers for their research actually delivers beautiful images. This consideration is not meant to reinforce the prejudice once formulated (and then variously refined) by a friend of mine more or less as "Astronomers are lucky because their work is to look at nice, colourful images from which they can draw inspiration to try and seduce hot chicks!" (for an example of the "nice" images with which I am presently (19 April 2001) dealing many hours a day click here), but rather to share the sense of wonder that these images may arise even in the most reluctant and dry hearts!
The M100 Spiral Galaxy imaged
by the
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1 and
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on-board the NASA/ESA
Hubble Space Telescope.
A relatively shallow image, but with a moving personal side.
For my Master Thesis, I performed
simulations based on this image for not less than 6 months, getting to know
virtually every pixel of it. As such, it deserves the place of honour!
Soon available: Infrared maps of ELAIS and HDFs fields obtained through the
reduction of ISOCAM 7 and 15 $\mu$m data with the
LARI Method!
The Solar Flare of 2 April 2001
observed by the EIT instrument on-board the NASA/ESA
SOHO spacecraft.
The Hubble Deep Field observed with the
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
on-board the NASA/ESA
Hubble Space Telescope.
The Crab Nebula imaged by
Very Large Telescope of the
European Southern Observatory.
My favourite desktop background image: the
Lund Observatory Milky Way Panorama,
available in gif format as a
800x600,
1024x768,
1280x1024 or
1600x1200 image.
Information on its history and on the ordering of photographic reproductions
is available here.
| STScI | ESO | ESA | AAO | Frei and Gunn Galaxy Catalog |
|---|
