Astronomy Picture of the Day - May 29th, 2020 - Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (Narrated by Brian) That's not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It's Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two inner planets closely shared this telescopic field of view on May 22, seen from a balcony in Civitavecchia, Italy. Venus, the very bright celestial beacon, is wandering lower into the evening twilight. It grows larger in apparent size and shows a thinner crescent as it heads toward its inferior conjunction, positioned between Earth and Sun on June 3. Mercury, in a fuller phase, is climbing in the western sky though, reaching its maximum angular distance from the Sun on June 4 Still, this remarkably close pairing with brilliant Venus made Mercury, usually lost in bright twilight skies, easier to spot from planet Earth. Gallery: Notable Venus & Mercury Conjunction 2020 Images submitted to APOD Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Meniero Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200529.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTN5BepZjiM

Wikipedia Picture of the Day - April 16th, 2020 - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (Narrated by Joanna) Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842) was a prominent French portrait painter. Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo, with elements of an adopted Neoclassical style. She enjoyed the patronage of European aristocrats, actors, and writers, most notably serving as Marie Antoinette's portrait painter, and created some 660 portraits and 200 landscapes, which are now owned by major museums and collections in Europe and the United States. This oil-on-canvas painting, entitled Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, was painted by Vigée Le Brun sometime after 1782. She is depicted in the open air against a cloud-dotted sky, wearing a straw hat decorated with an ostrich feather and a posy of rustic flowers. The artwork was a "free imitation" of Portrait of Susanna Lunden by Rubens, in particular the blend of two forms of illumination: natural daylight and the radiance of the sun. Unlike the sitter of Rubens's portrait, who crosses her arms and peers out from below her hat, Vigée Le Brun portrays herself as being friendly and welcoming to the viewer. Painting credit: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2020-04-16 This video was auto generated using data and media from Wikipedia. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ4gtXXSSt4

Astronomy Picture of the Day - March 11th, 2024 - A Full Plankton Moon (Narrated by Emma) What glows in the night? This night featured a combination of usual and unusual glows. Perhaps the most usual glow was from the Moon, a potentially familiar object. The full Moon's nearly vertical descent results from the observer being near Earth's equator. As the Moon sets, air and aerosols in Earth's atmosphere preferentially scatter out blue light, making the Sun-reflecting satellite appear reddish when near the horizon. Perhaps the most unusual glow was from the bioluminescent plankton, likely less familiar objects. These microscopic creatures glow blue, it is thought, primarily to surprise and deter predators. In this case, the glow was caused primarily by plankton-containing waves crashing onto the beach. The image was taken on Soneva Fushi Island, Maldives just over one year ago. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995) Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240311.html This video was auto generated using data from NASA Open API. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuwUeBYkNs

Beautiful News Daily - August 25th, 2020 - ‘Global Green New Deal’ could eliminate 99.7% CO2 emissions (Narrated by Brian) The climate crisis demands that we switch to renewable energy. 143 countries, responsible for nearly all the world’s CO2 emissions, are capable of doing this by 2050. Electric industry, electric vehicles, electric heating and cooling. The transition would pay for itself, and even reduce the amount of energy we use. Cheaper. Cleaner. Better. Credits: David McCandless, InformationIsBeautiful.net. License: Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Source: https://informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnews/1262-global-green-new-deal This video was auto generated using data and media from InformationIsBeautiful.net. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QEsL4DPb9s