Where shall we go next? or
Nebula Today’s photograph
What this light is telling us
Scale
Look closer
Behind the photograph
Most loved this week
The sights that moved the most of us this week
On this day
What we learned about the universe on this date, and the photos released that day
Events
Published on this day
From the days around it
Daily archive
Your favorites
The places in the universe you’ve chosen to return to
Tonight’s sky
Look up. This is the sky above you tonight, and every marker is a place someone once pointed a telescope. Tap a constellation to visit it, or a marker to look closer
Chart options
Scroll to zoom · drag to look around · click a constellation to visit itPinch to zoom · drag to look around · tap a constellation to visit it
About
About me, and this site
Hi, I’m Joe, and thank you for finding your way to my humble corner of the internet!
For as long as I can remember, the night sky has had a hold on me: galaxies wheeling like pinwheels of fire, nebulae blooming in impossible reds and golds, star clusters spilled like jewels across black velvet. Then modern life and its many temporally taxing duties crept in, until the wonder became a casualty of the calendar. Ten-year-old me would be ashamed.
So, twenty-odd years late, I built this page as a promise to that kid and a reminder to myself: however ugly things get on terra firma, the universe above stays eternally beautiful. Most of these breathtaking pictures get a single day in the spotlight before drifting into an archive. Here, they get to linger: one photograph a day, and the story behind it.
How each day is picked
A new photograph goes up at midnight UTC, and everyone sees the same one. I rotate between nebulae, galaxies, night skies and stars, and it’ll be at least 960 days before anything comes around again. If you wander off and browse at random, today’s photograph stays put.
There are 1,593 photographs here so far, from ESA/Hubble, ESA/Webb, ESO, NSF NOIRLab and NASA. I looked through every one before it went in, and each story is written from the observatory’s own caption. The archive starts on the day the site launched.
A few things I care about
- Only real photographs: telescope images and night-sky photography. No illustrations or simulations.
- Nothing is upscaled. If you want to get really close, Immersive view will fetch the observatory’s full-resolution file.
- The Hubble vs Webb sliders use ESA/Webb’s own lined-up pairs, so you’ll only see one where they made it. The guided tours stop at things the observatory itself points out.
- When an observatory singled a picture out, say in its Top 100 or as a Picture of the Week, I note it under “Recognition”.
Credit where it’s due
None of these pictures are mine. Images from ESA/Hubble, ESA/Webb, ESO and NSF NOIRLab are shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, and NASA’s aren’t under US copyright, though NASA asks to be credited. Every photograph carries its full credit, and the Download menu will copy it for you.
Every photograph also has its own link, so if one stops you in your tracks, send it to someone.