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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera. This week, the recently brightened comet appears in northern skies to the east just before dawn, but is only barely visible to the unaided eye. The many-degree ion tail captured on long duration camera exposures is not unusual for a comet - it is primarily due to the Earth's nearly sideways view of the tail as it points away from the Sun. In the featured image taken last week, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) showed off its flowing tail through a valley between two peaks in the Himalayan mountains of India.   The comet passed its closest to the Sun yesterday. As it nears its closest approach to Earth next week, a bushy dust tail may become visible. The comet is slowly moving out of northern skies and by the end of the month will be visible after sunset in southern skies as it fades and leaves our Solar System.  Growing Gallery: Comet R3 PanSTARRS in 2026

Photo by Basudeb Chakrabarti & Samit Saha

A shepherd wearing a red turban, smiling and waving in the setting sun at Jawai Bandh in Rajasthan, India.

Paramanu Sarkar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11 1884 - November 7 1962)

Ravi Shekhar on Unsplash

Nature's Evening Symphony: Embracing the tranquility of dusk as birds find solace in their nests.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Have you ever had stars in your eyes? It appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars. The featured 27-frame mosaic was taken in 2019 from Ojas de Salar in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The eye is actually a small lagoon captured reflecting the dark night sky as the Milky Way Galaxy arched overhead. The seemingly smooth band of the Milky Way is really composed of billions of stars, but decorated with filaments of light-absorbing dust and red-glowing nebulas. Additionally, both Jupiter (slightly left the galactic arch) and Saturn (slightly to the right) are visible. The lights of small towns dot the unusual vertical horizon. The rocky terrain around the lagoon appears to some more like the surface of Mars than our Earth. Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after 1995)

Photo by Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

The Rain Vortex at night. The world's largest and tallest indoor waterfall, 40 metres (130 ft) high. In Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore.

This Photo was taken by Timothy A. Gonsalves. Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author. I would much appreciate if you send me an email tagooty@yahoo.com or write on my talk page, for my information. Please contact me before commercial use. Please do not upload an edited image here without consulting me. I would like to make corrections only at my own source to ensure that the changes improve the image and are preserved.Otherwise you may upload an edited image with a new name. Please use one of the templates derivative or extract., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Reuben Teo on Unsplash

"Drove around chasing after the morning sun across the beautiful Tuscan landscapes. Greeted by peaceful villages and rows of cypress trees, the sunlight of Tuscany never fails to amaze me".

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Near the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is getting brighter. Readily visible in binoculars and small telescopes, the comet may be just on the verge of naked-eye visibility from dark sky sites. Though it was not quite apparent to the eye, PanSTARRS is still easy to spot in this camera image taken on April 16. In the view from a volcanic peak overlooking France's Reunion Island, planet Earth, the comet shares eastern predawn skies with naked-eye planets Mars and Mercury and fainter Neptune. Saturn is hiding behind the low cloudbank that doesn't quite hide an old crescent Moon. This is a good weekend for northern hemisphere comet watchers to try to catch PanSTARRS an hour or so before sunrise, as the comet grows brighter approaching its perihelion on April 19. On April 26 the comet makes its closest approach to our fair planet but by then will be difficult to see in the solar glare. Good views of this comet PanSTARRS in late April and early May will be from the southern hemisphere.

Photo by Luc Perrot