One great thing about the 21st century: humanity can appreciate the cosmos like never before.

Along with increasingly affordable high-powered telescopes, a new artistic field has come into being: astrophotography.

Connecticut-based Robert Gendler is one of the best atsrophotographers in the world; his work has been featured 63 times on NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day website.

Gendler’s latest APOD contribution is this succulent image of the Triffid Nebula. Cosmic eye-candy. Enjoy!

The Triffid Nebula; photo by Robert Gendler

Last November I blogged about a jaw-dropping image of the Milky Way by the American photographer Wally Pacholka – see Amazing. He’s developed a stunning way of photographing the night sky that gives a sense of three dimensionality.

According to his website, NASA has now published 34 of Mr Pacholka’s photographs in its Astronomy Picture of the Day series – more than any other photographer.

Today’s APOD – The Milky Way Over Devil’s Tower – is the latest. Devil’s Tower in Wyoming will be familiar to movie goers; it was the scenic backdrop for Stephen Speilberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The Milky Way Over Devil's Tower by Wally Pacholka

The western mass media’s coverage of Iran just gets worse and worse.

Don’t the Hollywood clowns even know how to lie anymore?

The L.A Times, June 16th 2009: Why is the President waving at 'anti-Government protestors'?

Hat-tip to Whatreallyhappened Com

UPDATE: June 22nd

The BBC gets some feisty responses from viewers to its explanation about using a similar photo – see What really happened on the BBC Editors Blog.

I especially liked this comment (links and emphasis added):

malleestump wrote:

Very gracious of the BBC no doubt, thank God for the internet and sites like ‘whatreallyhappened.com‘ being a site I peruse daily.

Now people, have a look at Mike Rudin‘s story and the comments (esp from abour 3,000 on)in the editor’s blog called “Caught up in a conspiracy” and see how the BBC is refusing to update The Rudin ‘Conspiracy File‘ programs on 9/11.

For example, the BBC will not report on the recent paper of 4th April 2009 by Niels Harrit and 8 other scientists on the confirmation of ther finding of nano-thermitic residue in the twin towers dust. Why not BBC? the Danes have put Niels Harrit on TV to explain the findings of the militarised explosives.Why should the Danes be more informed than the British in relation to the mass murders on 9/11?

The BBC will not/has not update/d their “No Mystery” program citing official investigators explaining that the No 7 building fell down due to ‘thermal expansion’. But the BBC will not report on the concession by those official people that building No 7 fell down with 2.25 seconds of freefall for the equivalent distance of about 8 stories. That simply means that the underlying building structure had to be instantaneously and simultaneously removed. I suppose that was done by pixies eh, BBC? No! Try explosives. That certainly demonstrates that the ‘thermal expansion’ explanation is nonsense, as is the whole of the Bush believers Conspircay theory that 19 Arabs did 9/11‘

The BBC has many more corrections to publish before it can be relied upon as a ‘news’ source.

In the meantime people, look elsewhere for reliable information.

According to folklore:

“Agate is believed to discern truth, accept circumstances, and is a powerful emotional healer. Legend says that Agate improves memory and concentration, increases stamina and encourages honesty.”

Agate is therefore the perfect gift for all journalists.

Here’s exquisite Brazilian Agate, embedded in quartz:

Quartz Agate from Brazil