A Celebration of Hubble

The space telescope Hubble celebrated its 25th birthday this week and I, for one, baked it a virtual cake. Can you remember life before the remarkable photos offered up by Hubble?

I love the night sky. 

When I was young, I looked at the night sky with wonder. The moon was my light, the stars were my friends. Since my city was much smaller in those days, I was able to see much of the Milky Way as it spread across the darkened sky.

I've always loved the moon, and even though I celebrate the daylight
hours, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the amazing sights of the night. 

But then light pollution hit as the city grew. Although the moon was still there as well as the evening/morning stars, the broad spread of our galaxy across the night sky was weakened and diluted. My own life changed, I grew up, moved several times, and married. I left my love of the night sky behind me and discovered my love of the sunrise and sunset. And then things changed once more. (All photos below are copyright NASA.)

This photo of Celestial Fireworks was released to celebrate Hubble's
25th anniversary. Look at all of those new stars. FABULOUS! 

Hubble was launched and eventually the photos began to be released. The world sucked in it's collective breath in as the wonders of the universe hit the airwaves and magazine pages with multicolored photographs of images we'd only dreamed of existing. New galaxies and the birthplaces of stars were now on the coffeetables and the topics of breakroom discussions.

Here is some pillars of creation in the Carina Nebula. 

So Happy Birthday, Hubble. You're still producing fantastic photos to demonstrate how small we really are in the great scheme of things. You're still inspiring kids to study the skies and how we can get to those distant points of light. You're still amazing us day after day with new views of the wonders we share. Thank you.

I adore this enhanced picture of the Crab Nebula. So beautiful! 

Happy Saturday to all, and have a great weekend. I don't have anything on my Sunday schedule except working around the house. That's a nice change from the past two weekends and I'm liking the idea of sleeping in on Sunday.