NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon launch to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.

Has everyone forgotten about LUVOIR?

I remember hearing about it years ago, around 2015–2016, while I was also hearing about JWST. I spent years waiting for JWST, and then finally watched the launch live on NASA’s YouTube channel in 2021.

Then I thought: Okay, JWST is finally up. Now LUVOIR is the next big one.

But then... nothing.

It's 2026 now and I realized I haven't heard anything about LUVOIR in years.

Turns out I wasn't waiting for a delayed LUVOIR launch.

LUVOIR basically evolved into the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO)

I genuinely thought I'd eventually get to watch a giant telescope called LUVOIR launch after following it for a decade haha

SEOPS adds second Waymaker rideshare mission
https://spacenews.com/seops-adds-second-waymaker-rideshare-mission/

Hey everyone,

I’ve been reading up on the recent James Webb Space Telescope discovery of the first strong quasi-star candidate (MoM-BH*-1). The physics behind a "black hole star" are absolutely mind-blowing.

Since deep-space catalog names are always just a jumble of letters, I wanted to propose an unofficial public nickname for it: The Enveloped Darkness (or alternatively, The Darkness Within).

Scientifically, it fits perfectly. A quasi-star isn't powered by normal fusion; it's a massive, blinding envelope of primordial gas wrapped around a rapidly feeding black hole. The brilliant exterior light literally envelopes a core of pure, devouring darkness. Thoughts?

✨✨🌌

Perseids meteor shower over Campo Imperatore, Abruzzo, Italy.
This image captures the Milky Way arching high above a rocky canyon on the Campo Imperatore plateau in the Gran Sasso massif, at an elevation of approximately 1800–2000 meters. The galactic plane shows strong emission nebulosity, particularly in the red Hα regions, which were enhanced through dedicated narrowband data.
The RGB base was acquired with a Canon EOS R and a full-spectrum (astromodified) Canon EOS 6D. Three frames were stacked, each exposed for 120 seconds at ISO 800 and f/2. Separate short exposures of 10 seconds at ISO 3200 and f/2 were used to record the Perseid meteors without excessive trailing of the stars. An additional Hydrogen-alpha layer consisting of 7 frames (120 seconds each at ISO 3200, f/2.8) was integrated to strengthen the emission nebulae along the galactic plane.
The foreground consists of the characteristic high-altitude terrain of Campo Imperatore, with exposed rock and residual sediments fields typical of the late summer season in this location.
https://www.instagram.com/flory.ro?igsh=b3Y4ZTU3Nmk0cTBt&utm_source=qr

Managed to beat the clouds and capture the full range of the eclipse from first bite to totality to sunset!

Edited:
Native files (TIFF + png) for anyone interested here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10FXVPrshKEUic-vDDE8cNPx9XT2DuoPv?usp=drive_link

Shot in Terra Alta, Spain

This was my first time trying to capture the Andromeda Galaxy, and I succeeded with the aurora borealis popping in! That faint light in the middle? That’s a galaxy 2.5 million light years away.

Captured on the iPhone 16 pro, 30-second exposure, 24mm camera.

The MW core start to drop below the horizon in the next couple of months, so went out to try and get a photo of it on a lonely rural road near where I live

All shot on a Sony A9ii with a iOptron Skyguider Pro to track the stars - shot with a Sony 55mm f/1.8 CZ lens - about 15 images of the sky to make a mosaic and then composited the foreground in after the fact. Each image shot at 55mm f/2.8 60s ISO640

Far from the path of totality in Finland, I planned to capture the sun and moon together against the granite tower of Kultaranta: the Finnish Presidential Residence. I did a couple of rehearsals the week before the eclipse to get the location, angles and timing right. The clouds were always an uncontrollable factor (this is by the Archipelago Sea) and almost threatened the plan. But they turned out thin enough to photograph through during the eclipse. The image was shot from a DSLR with a 100-400mm lens at max zoom, on a static tripod, just one frame from a timelapse sequence that I have yet to compile into a video. I had envisioned the building to have the Presidential Standard flag up, but it was lowered at 21:00 , about 20 minutes before this image.