Earth and Moon from 114 Million Miles

In the lower left portion of this image, the Earth can be seen, as well as the much smaller Moon to Earth's right. When MESSENGER took this image, a distance of 183 million kilometers (114 million miles) separated the spacecraft and Earth. To provide context for this distance, the average separation between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)...more here.

And still I stared into the sky

image from the Astronomy picture of the day.

“Without a wish, without a will,
I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars and still
I stared into the sky.”

~Ralph Hodgson

Meteors

In other news, last night while on the rooftop of a club in Boulder, we witnessed a large meteor. Everyone on the rooftop was taken back. Boulder is located a the base of the flat-irons/mountains so we were able to see the meteor disappear into the blackness. It was extremely bright with a huge green glow - so much so that many of us thought it may have been a firework. We concluded that the trajectory was too far off to be a firework (there was no arch either), and came home to find out that this weekend marks the Lyrid Meteor Shower.

According to SkyTonight.com; "The Lyrid meteor shower comes to maximum during the predawn hours of the 23rd. The waxing 6-day-old crescent Moon will be a distraction until it sets soon after 2 a.m., when the Lyrid radiant (near the Hercules-Lyra border, a few degrees southwest of Vega) will be about halfway up the eastern sky. Although the meteor count should increase as the radiant rises, expect only modest activity. Even under a relatively dark sky, an attentive observer can expect a dozen or so Lyrids per hour." It was really quite amazing to see. It was similar to the photo above, but clearer with no background at all - just mountain darkness.