Amazing sunset this weekend over Glacier National Park (@GlacierNPS). by usinterior

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The Starry Sky under Hollow Hill The Starry Sky under Hollow Hill

Look up in New Zealand's Hollow Hill Cave and you might think you see a familiar starry sky. And that's exactly what Arachnocampa luminosa are counting on. Captured in this long exposure, the New Zealand glowworms scattered across the cave ceiling give it the inviting and open appearance of a clear, dark night sky filled with stars. Unsuspecting insects fooled into flying too far upwards get trapped in sticky snares the glowworms create and hang down to catch food. Of course professional astronomers wouldn't be so easily fooled, although that does look a lot like the Coalsack Nebula and Southern Cross at the upper left ... via NASA http://ift.tt/1n77RoL

St. Mary Lake sits within the St. Mary Valley—”the eastern gateway to @GlacierNPS. Prairies, mountains, and forests all converge in the valley to create a diverse and rich habitat for plants and animals. The open meadows surrounded by dense forests can afford some great opportunities for wildlife viewing.” Photo: Kim Keating, @USGS by usinterior

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The Wizard Nebula The Wizard Nebula

Open star cluster NGC 7380 is still embedded in its natal cloud of interstellar gas and dust popularly known as the Wizard Nebula. Seen with foreground and background stars along the plane of our Milky Way galaxy it lies some 8,000 light-years distant, toward the constellation Cepheus. A full moon would easily fit inside this telescopic view of the 4 million year young cluster and associated nebula, normally much too faint to be seen by eye. Made with telescope and camera firmly planted on Earth, the image reveals multi light-year sized shapes and structures within the Wizard in a color palette made popular in Hubble Space Telescope images. Recorded with narrowband filters, the visible wavelength light from the nebula's hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms is transformed into green, blue, and red colors in the final digital composite. But there is still a trick up the Wizard's sleeve. Sliding your cursor over the image (or following this link) will make the stars disappear, leaving only the cosmic gas and dust of the Wizard Nebula. via NASA http://ift.tt/1u2ZCy5