Astronomy Picture of the Day - January 22nd, 2023 - In Green Company: Aurora over Norway (Narrated by Brian) Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not only cleared up but lit up with a spectacular auroral display. Arms went high in the air, patience and experience paid off, and the creative featured image was captured as a composite from three separate exposures. The setting is a summit of the Austnesfjorden fjord close to the town of Svolvear on the Lofoten islands in northern Norway. The time was early 2014. Although our Sun passed the solar minimum of its 11-year cycle only a few years ago, surface activity is picking up and already triggering more spectacular auroras here on Earth. Image Credit & Copyright: Max Rive Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230122.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FxXj8pj5A

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - December 25th, 2020 - Pope Pius VI (Narrated by Brian) Pope Pius VI (25 December 1717 – 29 August 1799) was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 until his death in 1799. He condemned the French Revolution and the resulting suppression of the Catholic Church in France. In 1796, French troops commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the papal troops and occupied the Papal States. Refusing to renounce his temporal power, Pius was taken prisoner and transported to France. He died in exile six weeks later in Valence, having reigned for longer than any previous pope. This 1775 oil-on-panel portrait of Pius VI by the Italian painter Pompeo Batoni is in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. Painting credit: Pompeo Batoni Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2020-12-25 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84dWp0Hncl4

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - March 6th, 2021 - Palais Galliera (Narrated by Amy) The Palais Galliera, formally known as the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris, is a museum of fashion and fashion history located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Following the death of her husband in 1876, the Duchess of Galliera gave land and funds for the erection of a museum to house his collection of paintings and fine art that she proposed to give to the state. The building was completed in 1894, but the collections were in fact donated to Genoa, Italy, where they are now displayed at the Palazzo Rosso and the Palazzo Bianco. Photograph credit: Joe deSousa Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2021-03-06 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XBlMe4AyTY

Astronomy Picture of the Day - June 2nd, 2023 - Messier 101 (Narrated by Brian) Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries, with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic spans about 40,000 light-years across the central region of M101 in one of the highest definition spiral galaxy portraits ever released from Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features of the galaxy's face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about 25 million light-years away. Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230602.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzilF5XITd0