Wikipedia Picture of the Day - December 16th, 2021 - Zinnia elegans (Narrated by Joanna) Zinnia elegans, known as the youth-and-age, common zinnia or elegant zinnia, is an annual flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is native to Mexico but grown as an ornamental in many places and naturalised in a number of countries, including scattered locations in South and Central America, the West Indies, the United States, Australia and Italy. This photograph of a Z. elegans bloom in a garden in Bamberg, Germany, was stacked from fifteen separate images. Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-12-16 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TvETYm1XyI

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - February 25th, 2021 - Donner Pass (Narrated by Joanna) Donner Pass is a 7,056-foot-high (2,151 m) mountain pass in California in the northern Sierra Nevada. This panoramic photograph shows the view from the pass towards the east, with Donner Lake visible in the distance. The pass has been used by the California Trail, the first transcontinental railroad, the Overland Route, the Lincoln Highway and the Victory Highway (both later U.S. Route 40), as well as indirectly by Interstate 80. The pass got its name from the Donner Party, many of whom died here during the winter of 1846–47. Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-02-25 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkmzs22kuCU

Astronomy Picture of the Day - January 3rd, 2023 - Kemble’s Cascade of Stars (Narrated by Amy) This line of stars is real. A little too faint to see with the unaided eye, Kemble’s Cascade of stars inspires awe when seen with binoculars. Like the Big Dipper though, Kemble’s Cascade is an asterism, not a constellation. The asterism is visible in the northern sky toward the long-necked constellation of the Giraffe (Camelopardalis). This string of about 20 unrelated stars, each of similar brightness, spans over five times the angular width of the full moon. Stretching diagonally from the upper left to the lower right, Kemble's Cascade was popularized last century by astronomy enthusiast Lucian Kemble. The bright object near the top left of the image is the relatively compact Jolly Roger open cluster of stars, officially designated as NGC 1502. Image Credit & Copyright: Tommy Lease Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230103.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YwY4_lOOxU

Astronomy Picture of the Day - June 9th, 2021 - A Total Lunar Eclipse Corona (Narrated by Salli) This moon appears multiply strange. This moon was a full moon, specifically called a Flower Moon at this time of the year. But that didn't make it strange -- full moons occur once a month (moon-th). This moon was a supermoon, meaning that it reached its full phase near its closest approach to the Earth in its slightly elliptical orbit. Somewhat strange, a supermoon appears a bit larger and brighter than the average full moon -- and enables it to be called a Super Flower Moon.  This moon was undergoing a total lunar eclipse. An eclipsed moon can look quite strange, being dark, unevenly lit, and, frequently, red -- sometimes called blood red. Therefore, this moon could be called a Super Flower Blood Moon. This moon was seen through thin clouds. These clouds created a faint corona around the moon, making it look not only strange, but colorful. This moon was imaged so deeply that the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, far in the background, was visible to its lower right. This moon, this shadow, this galaxy and these colors were all captured last month near Cassilis, NSW, Australia -- with a single shot. (Merged later with two lower shots that better capture the Milky Way.) Details: Annular Solar Eclipse Tomorrow Gallery: Total Eclipse of the Super Flower Blood Moon Image Credit & Copyright: Helmut Eder Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210609.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOcKNnGtDo