... I'm just on my way up to Clavius

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Sep 14, 2012 9:08 PMNov 20, 2019 12:36 AM

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Thierry Legault is no stranger to this blog (see Related Posts below or search the blog for his stuff); his astrophotos are always amazing. Always. And he just sent me a link to a new batch that are jaw-dropping: very high-resolution images of the Moon, Mercury, and even Uranus. As an example, here is a shot he got of the giant crater Clavius on the Moon:

I shrank that image way down to fit the blog; click it to monolithenate. The detail is astonishing. There are lots more shots of the Moon like that on his site; and you most certainly want to click the links to Uranus and Mercury above. You can see details on both planets (the surface for Mercury, and cloud tops for Uranus)! I always say that astronomy is much more than just pretty pictures, but sometimes, when the pictures are as pretty as this, astronomy is quite simply art. [One gold star to anyone who can identify the title of this post without looking it up.]Image credit: Thierry Legault


Related Posts: - Interloper of the Venus transit - China’s space lab has a spot in the Sun - Doomed ROSAT captured in video - Atlantis, one last time in the Sun - SERIOUSLY jaw-dropping pictures of Endeavour and the ISS! - INSANELY awesome solar eclipse picture

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