Most Wow Astro Pic of the Day Ever?

Very often, the most stunning celestial photographs are either digitally composited (i.e. multiple exposures) or false-colored. Not that there's anything demeaning about that--the image data still refers to real photons, and arguably allows us to observe that which would not otherwise be observable to us.

Nevertheless, such images require qualification to the layperson, something that rarely if ever occurs. (See my post, "Is There Evidence from Space of Man on Earth?".)

Orange County Astronomers member and veteran astrophotographer Wally Pacholka has taken one of the most stunningly spectacular and single exposure images I have ever seen. That means that it requires little qualification for the layperson, other than to say that it is a long exposure.

Enjoy, and be sure to read the description at the bottom.

Space Visionaries Prove Naysayers Wrong--Again

That's the title of this write-up over at Wired.com's Science blog, which begins:

"SpaceX's Falcon 1 became the first privately built liquid rocket to orbit the Earth tonight, following in the footsteps of SpaceShipOne which became the first privately built crewed spaceship to fly suborbitally in October 2004."

Read the whole thing!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/space-visionari.html

(Hat tip: Keith S.)