Friar Bellows

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has certainly captured some pretty images of the universe over the years. Here is a link to a few hundred Hubble photos categorised into subjects:

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/listcat.cgi" target="_blank">Hubble Pictures - Category Listing</a>

Below are a few of my favourite HST images (click on the small images to see a large image):

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/2002/14/prc/0214w.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.2002+14" target="_blank">Beauty in the Eye of Hubble</a> Planetary nebulae have consistently provided some of the most spectacular images to come from the HST.

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/2000/12/content/0012w.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.2000+12" target="_blank">The Glowing Eye of NGC 6751</a> Another nice planetary nebula.

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/1999/16/content/9916w.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.1999+16" target="_blank">Ring Around a Galaxy</a> Galaxy mergers also provide another excellent source of beautiful Hubble images.

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/2001/23/content/0123w.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.2001+23" target="_blank">Hubble Photographs Warped Galaxy</a> The warped disk shown here is probably being caused by a merger.

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/2001/24/content/0124w.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_.and._views/pr.cgi.2001+24" target="_blank">Hubble Captures Best View of Mars Ever Obtained from Earth</a> The Red Planet is always pretty.

Shadowy Man

Have you seen the new pics from the Advanced Camera for Surveys?

Friar Bellows

Yeah, they are ridiculously detailed and stunningly beautiful. I saved these four. Again, click on the thumbnails to see a larger, more detailed image:

<a href="http://www.saverscape.com/pics/mice.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://www.saverscape.com/pics/tadpole.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://www.saverscape.com/pics/m17.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

<a href="http://www.saverscape.com/pics/cone.jpg" target="_blank"></a>

Vibr8gKiwi

The first time I saw the "deep field" shot from the hubble on TV I had a near religious experience. The shot is a look at just one tiny speck of space out past our galaxy... and it shows tons of other galaxies floating around out there. Until I saw that shot it had never hit me how many other galaxies there are out there and how tiny our little world is.

<a href="http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/pr/96/01/MosaicQ.jpg" target="_blank">hubble deep field</a>. <a href="http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/96/01.html" target="_blank">from this page</a>

I used a version of the deep field shot as my desktop background for years.

[ October 16, 2002: Message edited by: Vibr8gKiwi ]</p>

Liquidrage

I love looking at releases of Hubble pics.

And I am also pumped over the thoughts of seeing pics from a fully functional VLT.

Autonemesis

The image of the Tadpole, UGC 10214, is already as deep as the Hubble Deep Field. According to Sky & Telescope, the Tadpole image contains about as many galaxies as the Hubble Deep Field North and South together. The ACS imager covers about twice the angular area on the sky compared to the previous WFPC2 camera that took the two deep field images. So the Hubble now has a camera that, in a 8-hour exposure for publicity purposes, matched what the previous camera did with 200 hours exposure time. In other words, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

<a href="http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/11/zoompana.html" target="_blank">Here's a page</a> at STSci that lets you zoom in on the Tadpole image, adjusting resolution as you go to reveal all the details at highest zoom.

The STSCi also <a href="http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2002/11/pr-photos.html" target="_blank">release</a> full-size 3806 x 4160 images in JPEG and TIFF. If you're really adventurous, all HST raw data and the software to retrieve it, process it, analyze it, and make pretty pictures of it, are available FOR FREE at the <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu" target="_blank">STSci Archive</a>.

Shadowy Man

VLT Images are pretty nice. There are a lot of great telescopes on line right now. Don't forget the Twin Kecks:



and Subaru:




Photos taken by me.

[ October 16, 2002: Message edited by: Shadowy Man ]</p>

Liquidrage

Hopefully, a few years from now you can take a picture of <a href="http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/" target="_blank">this</a>

99Percent

I think its more worthwhile to invest resources in making deep space telescopes than in actual exploration of planets. Man on mars? Who gives a shit. I rather have extremely detailed pictures of deep space, maybe even of other solar systems' planets.

Shadowy Man

Hehe.. I was at a conference at the end of August where they talked about OWL. Ugh.

In a couple of years I'll be working <a href="http://www.salt.ac.za" target="_blank">here</a>: