By which I mean one moon eclipses another.

Neither is Earth’s Moon of course.

Via Astronomy Picture of  the Day for 26/2/24 this is Mars’s moon Phobos eclipsing its other moon, Deimos, as seen by European Space Agency‘s probe Mars Express.

Isn’t this beautiful?

The picture is from Astronomy Picture of the Day for 18/2/24, via the Hubble Telescope. It’s a ring galaxy, called Hoag’s Object after the man who discovered it.

Amazingly there is another ring galaxy in the background behind the circle of stars, at about seven o’clock in the main picture.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 28/1/24. Constructed from images sent back by the New Horizons probe, Pluto as it would apear to the naked eye:-

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 29/12/23. This is an image of Uranus and some of its moons taken by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on the James Webb Space Telescope. Uranus’s rings are also clearly visible. These moons are all named after characters in Shakespeare plays.

It never fails to astound me we can view such sharp images of faraway objects.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 4/11/23. This is an asteroid known as 152830 Dinkinesh. It’s only 800 or so metres wide. It was flown past by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft on 1/11/23 and the long range camera revealed that the asteroid has a moon. The moon is about a quarter the size of Dinkinesh.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 3/10/23.

This looks like something you might find in a fairground exhibit,  a ghost train or the like.

It’s in fact a planetary nebula, known as MyCyn 18.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 25/9/23. Another evocative galaxy as pictured by the Hubble Telescope.

This is NGC 2936, the so-called Hummingbird Galaxy. For obvious reasons.

Astronomical phenomena can be enigmatic but also beautiful.

This from (Astronomy Picture of the Day for 19/9/23) is both.

These are jets from Herbig-Haro object 211 seen in infra-red light.

Herbig Haro objects are bright patches of luminosity found around stars which are in the process of forming or have recently formed. Whether all stars emit jets when they form is not known for sure.

Does this somewhat eerie image, from Astronomy Picture of the Day for 19/8/23, depict Saturn and one of its moons? Or is it even from another solar system?

No. It is in fact the planet Neptune captured by the James Webb Telescope in infra-red light. Its largest moon, Triton, brighter than its primary in reflected sunlight, is at the top left showing the James Webb Telescope’s typical diffraction spikes.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 20/7/23.

This is an odd sight. A half and half galaxy. Sometimes called the Sleeping Beauty galaxy or the Black Eye galaxy.

Seemingly the galaxy’s stars are contained in two contrarotating systems, most likely the result of two galaxies merging billions of years ago.