Astronomy Picture of the Day has their Astronomy Pictures of the Year up now. Their list is gorgeous. Duh.
Funny, very few of their images were considered by me for my list! The Saturn occultation one is on my runners-up (more on that later), and the image of Comet McNaught is one I had on my list but for which I couldn’t find a high-res version!
The Iapetus image is particularly chagrinning. I had it on my list and it would have been in the Top Five, but for some stupid reason I thought the image came out in 2006! Arrrrg! So I purely and simply blew it there. It’s on my runners-up list as well. I’ll post those later this week, I think.
Also, please give the love to the pluperfect Angela Gunn, who is always lovely to me and BA. She is teh awesome.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Hey Phil — check the link to the Astronomy Pictures of the Year — it also points to the USA Today post by the fabulous Ms. Gunn –
December 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
You have the wrong URL for the APOY (you duplicated Angela’s URL).
Here’s the correct one:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/apoys2007.html
December 17th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Yes, that’s true :S
Thanks for the link, Thanny.
December 17th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I would HIGHLY recommend the APOD automatic wallpaper program. It runs in the background and automatically sets the picture of the day as your PC’s wallpaper, I use it all the time. It also includes an embedded description for each picture on the desktop. Unfortunately it is Windows only if you’re a Mac user. Here’s the link:
http://nightskylive.net/software/apod/
December 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
The Comet McNaught picture is the one that gets my #1 seal of approval for this year. It was THE most gorgeous picture show ever.
It’s gonna be hard to beat in years to come
December 17th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Hmm… perhaps there’s something for Mac like that, but I don’t know (Mac user here).
But I’m happy with my desktop showing that image of Saturn classified as the best astronomy picture of 2006 by the Bad Astronomer
December 17th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think here’s one:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20462
Sorry for the double post.
December 18th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I’m with Michelle, the McNaught picture is beautiful.
Deep space and planetary pictures are stunning and awe-inspiring but there’s something about near earth visitors that just blows my mind.
I was lucky enough to see some shooting stars in Iceland last year – I’d been able to feel earth tremors that day, there were active volcanoes and geysers nearby and then meteors burning up in the sky overhead. It made me realise that this solar system isn’t finished with construction yet.
If someone on the crew thought it was done after 6 days he was seriously slacking off
Love this site, thanks BA.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Although it was difficult to narrow down to one favorite, the panoramic image of the Mars crater is absolutely incredible.
December 19th, 2007 at 4:18 am
[...] Astronomy Pictures of the Year for 2007 Northern Cygnus, man…she's a beaut. (via Phil) [...]