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Roj Smith 📷

@rojsmith.com

Seeker of purpose. Ex-unpaid carer. Ex-coder. Frequent photographer. Infrequent baker. #Cymru #Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 #photography #GRist rpsmithphoto.co.uk rojsmith.co.uk

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ESO@eso.org · 2h ago

Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al. 1/4

David K. Barnes@davidkbarnes.com · yesterday

Here’s the latest stop motion animation from my Tiny Angry Witch team. (I’m the writer, I can’t take credit for the animating!) It’s one of our longest, and it nearly drove us all mad, but we’re really proud of getting it made! 1 x Tiny Angry Witch 1 x broom No AI

Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 2d ago

51 years ago I painted a trio of Viking related works for NASA HQ including the widely reproduced one of the landing on Mars. I have reimagined the Landing portrayal in updated form using digital methods of visualization and painting. I chose the same angle but with reality replacing anticipation.

This oil painting portrays the Viking 1 landing on Mars, which appeared in countless publications. The story of this work is relayed in an earlier post and is shown here for comparison with the new portrayal of this very view, showing the event as it would have appeared. This 1975 anticipatory painting was done with oils on a gesso smoothed 16 X 20 canvas panel, using traditional art methods including a tracing paper guide featured earlier. This work shows in retrospect my ideal of the 'spirit of space art', showing something of a summary of what is known of the subject while conveying what it is about the subject's known or theorized attributes that I find visually compelling. The new digital painting updates that visual impression with one based on our current knowledge. The new digital work was also done at the same size as this one was for possible printing purposes, 16 by 20 inches at 300 DPI. #Sciart In 1976 the pair of Viking spacecraft orbiter/lander combos were sent to Mars. Before Viking, Mars was still largely a place of our imaginations, an unknown that we wrote stories about then studied from Earth and space. The dominance of cratered terrain on the portions of Mars photographed by Mariners 4, 6 and 7 gave an initially Lunar impression of that world, which changed during the development of the Viking lander after Mariner 9 revealed the planet. The first landing was aimed for a flat flood plain, judged as a decent place to search for life. The landing date was July 4, however the intended site appeared too rough for comfort in the high quality orbiter photos, causing the landing to wisely be delayed. A smoother site further 'down stream' was found using photo and radar data. The landing proceeded quite nominally, a magnificent achievement that apparently accounted for what it had to and made it the first time. The first photo from the surface was a look at a footpad to see how solid the 'footing' appeared. Then a moderate resolution panorama of the surroundings was obtained, first showing the rocks, hills, dunes-and bright sky. The latter was my biggest surprise as a space artist. The adjustments to the color balance of the later photos were gradually narrowed down. The ubiquitous dust is planet wide, suspended in the air and coloring the sky a luminous tan ochre. This digital painting shows the view a meter above the surface seeing the lander briefly kicking up dust less than a second before touchdown with the footpads 1.4 meters high. The landing rockets were designed with many nozzles to disturb the surroundings as little as possible. The nearby disturbed dust resembles in color that of the sky. We are 6 meters away from the center of the lander. field of view is 60 degrees, we are looking Northwest with the Sun and Earth off the frame to the left. This is a digital art update of the pre mission oil painting I did for NASA HQ 1n 1975. #Sciart
Cambridge Diary@cambridgediary.bsky.social · 4d ago

1st August 2026 This 'gull' was entertaining the crowds at the Cambridge Folk Festival today when it suddenly 'flew' over to these two guys who were eating and just stood there watching them and now the more I think about this the funnier it gets.

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CNN@cnn.com · 4d ago

The final contenders have been revealed for 2026 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. See the stunning images that made the short-list: https://cnn.it/4ftSdaM 📸: Chuhong Yu and Zuoming Wang | ZhiPu Wang | Uroš Fink | Richard Addis

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