Astronomy Top Ten

It's that time of year for all the dreadful reviews of everything from politics to pop culture, as though suffering through the heaps of slop doled out by our media mavens wasn't horrible enough the first time. Of course, there are the requisite "best of" shows to make us all feel as though the year wasn't completely moribund and with this in mind, I'm linking to Phil Plait's list of the Top Ten Astronomy pictures of the year. Having already posted the breathtaking image of Saturn as taken by the Cassini probe (an image too stunning not to make it my desktop), Phil rounds up several more excellent pix, some of remarkable scientific value as well as beauty. Though of limited scientific value, one struck me as particularly cool. Thierry Legault did an amazing job planning a photograph of the transit of the space station and the shuttle across the solar disk this past September.



Zooming in reveals shapes of the shuttle and the ISS in transit across the solar disk:


Check out the top ten at Bad Astronomy, where, in fact, you will see some very good astronomy.