Friday, er..., Sunday Galactic Blogging

This image depicts NGC5866, a striking lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco, also known as the Spindle Galaxy. Click once to see the APOD page for this object, click again to see the high resolution version of the image, in which a number of background galaxies are easily visible.

Friday Galactic Blogging

What galaxy is this? It's actually an interior view (the only kind of view available, of course) of our galaxy, The Milky Way. The second APOD image is actually an artist's depiction of a possible external view, showing the central bar and spiral arms.

Robotic Theology

Elegantly expressed, funny, and on point.

Thanks, once again, to Pharyngula.

Friday Galactic Blogging

Andromeda is the closest, largest, brightest galaxy in the sky - easily viewed with the naked eye. Its surface brightness is such that you really don't get a good idea of the extent of it in the sky. The second APOD image here is a composite with a full moon to show just how big Andromeda is in the night sky.

Having Mentioned Leonard Cohen...

It wouldn't be right not to include something with the great man, himself. And in this case with Sonny Rollins! How cool is that?

Friday Galactic Blogging

Galaxies generally don't come in onesies. Our home galaxy the Milky Way, is a member of something prosaically named the Local Group, a collection of some dozens of galaxies including two monsters, our own and the Andromeda Galaxy, which is the nearest large bright galaxy, and a naked eye object. (Fainter members are still being discovered.) Groups are not the largest collections of galaxies, which at the largest known scales come grouped in clusters and superclusters, which can contain thousands of individual galaxies.

This photo depicts a striking nearby (60 million light years) group named Hickson 44 which contains some dramatically different spirals and a big elliptical in the upper left. As always click the image once to see the APOD description. Click again to see the higher resolution view.

But, how do you explain the Bermuda Triangle?

Via Pharyngula.
Update: Al deserves a link.