Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2016 May 25

NGC 5078 and Friends
Image Credit & Copyright: Dietmar Hager, Eric Benson

 

Explanation: This sharp telescopic field of view holds two bright galaxies. Barred spiral NGC 5101 (top right) and nearly edge-on system NGC 5078 are separated on the sky by about 0.5 degrees or about the apparent width of a full moon. Found within the boundaries of the serpentine constellation Hydra, both are estimated to be around 90 million light-years away and similar in size to our own large Milky Way galaxy. In fact, if they both lie at the same distance their projected separation would be only 800,000 light-years or so. That’s easily less than half the distance between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. NGC 5078 is interacting with a smaller companion galaxy, cataloged as IC 879, seen just left of the larger galaxy’s bright core. Even more distant background galaxies are scattered around the colorful field. Some are even visible right through the face-on disk of NGC 5101. But the prominent spiky stars are in the foreground, well within our own Milky Way.

Find the Keystone in Hercules

Tonight, from mid-northern latitudes, you can easily find the brilliant star Vega in the eastern sky at dusk and nightfall. Vega acts as your guide star to the Keystone – a pattern of four stars in the constellation Hercules.

Look for the Keystone asterism – star pattern – to the upper right of the brilliant blue-white star Vega. Hold your fist at an arm length. There is easily enough room between Vega and the Keystone for your fist to fit beneath the two.

You can also locate the Keystone by using Vega in conjunction with the brilliant yellow-orange star Arcturus. From mid-northern latitudes, Arcturus is found way high in the southern sky at nightfall and evening. The Keystone is found about one-third the way from Vega to Arcturus, the two brightest stars to grace the Northern Hemisphere’s spring and summertime sky. The only star-like object to outshine these stars is the king planet Jupiter, in your south to southwest sky at nightfall.

The Keystone, in turn, is your ticket to finding a famous globular star cluster in Hercules, otherwise known as the Great Cluster in Hercules, aka Messier 13 or M13.

Most likely, you’ll need binoculars to see the Hercules cluster, although sharp-eyed people can see it with the unaided eye in a dark, transparent sky. Through binoculars, this cluster looks like a dim and somewhat hazy star. But the telescope begins to resolve this faint fuzzy into what it really is – a great big, globe-shaped stellar city populated with hundreds of thousands of stars!

The Keystone and the Hercules cluster swing high overhead after midnight, and are found in the western sky before dawn.

Bottom line: Let the bright star Vega guide you to a famous star pattern in Hercules – called the Keystone – and then to the Great Cluster in Hercules, aka M13, a famous globular star cluster.

 

Author

The Wisdom of Buddha

What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What’s the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood?

Your Daily Influences
May 25, 2016

 

 

Five of Pentacles
Poverty and unemployment are possible. Possessions may be lost. A troubled soul is likely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mannaz
Mannaz reversed may indicate you are in a period of depression. Be careful when making serious decisions at this time. Trust only those whom time has proven trustworthy.

 

 

 

Cancer the Crab
This aspect of your life will be strongly influenced by a person who is emotional, loving, intuitive, imaginative, shrewd, cautious, protective and sympathetic. This could be an elder you look up too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Daily Influences represent events and challenges the current day will present for you. They may represent opportunities you should be ready to seize. Or they may forewarn you of problems you may be able to avoid or lessen. Generally it is best to use them as tips to help you manage your day and nothing more.

Your Charm for Today

Today’s Meaning:
Over the next weeks and months this aspect should be one that requires little effort on your part to keep things moving forward. This is one of the few charms that has the same meaning upright or inverted.

General Description:
This curiously shaped charm, a pre-Christian cross, has been universally popular in all countries and throughout all ages. The Ancients believed that it bestowed upon the wearer long life, great happiness, good fortune, and the best of good luck. These symbols have been found in North and South America, India and China, where they were used as religious emblems at least ten centuries B.C. and are met with on very old Buddhist coins and inscriptions. The Swastika is also called the Gammadion, from the Greek letter gamma placed together four times.

Your Daily Domino
May 25, 2016

Blank/Two
New friendships and opportunities will soon be yours. It is possible you will meet a new love, or the love you already have will deepen. However you must be open to change and have the courage to act.

Your Daily Tile
May 25, 2016 

Circles 2
Symbol: Pine Tree
The Pine Tree tile represents strength and resolve. It often refers to a powerful, determined man. While powerful, this person is not violent, but very skilled in attaining his goals through diplomacy.