We will start by taking a look at a small section of astronomy: “the brightest stars seen from the Earth”. That is excepting the Sun which is roughly 250,000 times nearer than the next nearest star. In fact, it is so bright that when the sky is viewed from the Earth, it blinds out all the other stars in the sky during a phenomenon called daytime.

So, keep in mind while reading this list that according to the scale used, lower numbers are brighter. The Sun would be about -26.73, whereas the full moon is -12.6; bearing that in mind, here are the top 5:

#5 is Vega, meaning ” falling eagle” in Arabic. is in Lyra. It’s more or less 25 light years away and has a magnitude of 0.04.

When considering these astronomical facts, please remember that ‘brightest from Earth’ doesn’t mean largest or brightest. The Sun is not the largest or brightest star in the universe or even the galaxy, yet it appears so bright because it is so near compared to other stars.

#4 is Rigel – a very bright, bluish-white supergiant star in the constellation Orion. It is a binary star, with an average apparent magnitude of 0.12. It’s scientific name is Beta Orionis. Rigel is Arabic for ‘foot’. It’s about four light years from Earth.

#3 is Arcturus. The name is Latin/Greek and means ‘guardian of the bear’. This star is roughly 37 light years away. It is in the constellation of Bootes, behind The Great Bear. It has a magnitude of 0.00

#2 Canopus. Of the top five, Canopus, the Greek name for the pilot of the ship Argo in the stories about Jason and the Argonauts, is the brightest, but because it is 313 light years from Earth, it’s only second on this list of the five brightest stars seen from Earth. It has a magnitude of -.62.

#1 is Sirius, which means ’scorching’ in Greek. It’s also called the ‘Dog Star’ because it is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major, which means ‘The Big Dog’ in Latin. It is only 9 light years from Earth, which makes it the second closest of these top five. From Earth it has a magnitude of -1.44, which makes it quite easily the brightest star as seen in the night sky.

This information doesn’t even scratch the surface on the subject of astronomy facts but it’s something to consider next time you look into the night sky.

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Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new picture each and every day. There is also a section that shows movies. These could be used to create your own photo site. For example, Saturn’s moon Enceladus was the feature with “star billing” on November 5, 2008.

This photo was taken by a passing spacecraft. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that reaches it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so fascinating that Cassini will continue to fly by for more footage later on in its mission.

NASA keeps an archive of all the astronomy picture of the day dating all the way back to June 16th, 1995. It was a ‘what if’ image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The picture is a computer generation. The most fascinating feature is that the constellation of Orion is visible twice. This is because even light from behind a neutron star is visible since the dense star bends the light around it. This causes some objects to be seen twice.

The entry for the 8th of September, 1995 was an amazing image of the internal section of the ‘Milky Way’ galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is normally not visible because of the dust masking it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that amazing picture of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2001. The reason both dates shared this image is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually began on January 1st, 2001. NASA figured it was just better to just do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html displays man’s view of the solar system as it progressed from mere objects orbiting the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we know it today.

NASA has a lot more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their web site, NASA.gov to view them.

Astronomy: pictures of the day are fascinating to vast numbers of people. If you are fascinated by astronomy, go along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

Astronomy is the study of the universe. It is a serious science, but also an enjoyable hobby. Therefore, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to people, they usually take it. There are plenty of such pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting objects out there to keep people looking.

Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new picture each and every day. There is also a section that shows movies. These could be used to create your own photo site. For example, Saturn’s moon Enceladus was the feature with “star billing” on November 5, 2008.

The picture was taken by a passing rocket. It gets down to details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects nearly 100% of all the light that hits it. Wear sunglasses. This moon is so fascinating that Cassini will continue to fly by for more images later in its mission.

NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy image of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of 1995. It was a ‘what if’ image of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The footage is a computer generation. The most noteworthy feature is that the constellation of Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light around it. This causes some objects to be seen twice.

The entry for September 8th, 1995 was an amazing image of the central part of the ‘Milky Way’ galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is usually invisible because of the dust masking it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that amazing picture of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was identical on January 1st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001, the reason being that both dates displayed this picture is that most people thought of the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually began on January 1st, 2001. NASA figured it was just easier to just go with the flow and do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html depicts mankind’s view of the universe as it developed from mere objects circling the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we see it today.

NASA has a lot more days with their very own unique astronomy picture of the day. Visit their website, NASA.gov to see them.