The LOIRP released another image today, this time from Lunar Orbiter IV, of the lunar south pole. Download bigger versions on the original post.

This image of the Moon’s south pole was taken by Lunar Orbiter IV on 16 May 1967 at 16:00:08 GMT. This image is identified as Frame 4094, high resolution subframe h1. Large craters visible in this image include Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott.

Eventually I had to get back to the series naming I started with, right? This week’s edition would be better-named as “Randomspam”, but oh well. To start, a lovely image of the Iris Nebula by Alvin Jeng.

Next, a page from the Dunhuang Star Atlas, a Chinese work dating from 649-684 AD:

This ancient Chinese map of planet Earth’s northern sky is part of the Dunhuang Star Atlas, one of the most impressive documents in the history of astronomy. The oldest complete star atlas known, it dates to the years 649 to 684, discovered at the Silk Road town of Dunhuang in 1907. A recent analysis that examines the accuracy and projections used to make it notes the atlas marks positions of over 1,300 stars and outlines 257 Chinese star groups or asterisms. The star positions in the hand drawn atlas were found to be accurate to within a few degrees. In this example showing the north polar region, a very recognizable Big Dipper, part of the modern constellation Ursa Major, lies along the bottom of the chart. An additional 12 charts depict equatorial regions in 30 degree sections and also include a grouping resembling the modern constellation Orion. The atlas is on display at the British Library in London to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.

On June 15th, the LOIRP released another Lunar Orbiter image, this time of the Apollo 12 landing site:

(There’s also a version at the site without annotations, if you want it. Both images come in a large version.)

Finally, as Saturn approaches its equinox in August, Cassini is recording interesting nearly-edge-on images of Saturn’s rings, and a tiny moon among them:

(You really need to see them large to get the full effect. I hate how image sizing puts kinks in diagonal lines, blah.)

To understand what you’re seeing, I highly recommend this article by Phil Plait, as he does a great job explaining what’s going on and why it’s significant. Below is another view of the tiny moon Daphnis, chugging along in Saturn’s rings.

As mentioned Wednesday, a Soyuz took off earlier today, carrying Expedition 19 to the International Space Station. This phenomenal launch photo by Bill Ingalls gives me excited fits; hope you enjoy. There’s quite a few more to look at, as well; I think downloading and enjoying the largest resolution available (otherwise known as ENORMO-VISION) is the only way to go.

In other heart-stoppingly-beautiful image news, the Flickr blog had a feature today on “stellar” Flickr photography, talking a bit about the International Year of Astronomy and such; this image by orvaratli was featured. The colors are what get me, and apparently such a shot is not common: “the combination of clear skies, snowy foreground and highly active Aurora is a rare thing in Iceland but it makes a great shot.”

Last, but absolutely not least, the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Program (LOIRP) released their second image last weekend, a fantastic view of Copernicus crater. For those unfamiliar with the program, the above link gives the history nicely, and I look forward to many more images in the future!

Speaking of ENORMO-VISION, the full-size, full-resolution version can be downloaded for the low, low ticket price of 2.2 GIGABYTES (…the satellite internet says NO. Will have to wait on that one until I’m somewhere fast… and for a few hours solid.)

Enjoy the pics — maybe Friday picspam will become a regular thing?

This extraordinary image was taken in 1966 by Lunar Orbiter 1, and is the first image of the Earth from the Moon. The image was recently released at a higher quality than ever before, due to a restoration project twenty years in the making. (You can download the “small” high-res version here; small = over 3000 pixels wide.)

Below, a detail shot at near-full resolution, showing some of the textures captured way back when: