Meetkat (19/5/2003)
是一種挺可愛的動物，有看過動物紀錄片的，或許會見過牠們經常用兩隻腳站立起來，周圍去搜索捕獵者，可愛非常。是群居的靈貓科動物，牠們會輪流換更站哨，如果你跟混熟了，取得了牠們的信任，牠們更會沿著我們的背爬上我們的肩膀或頭頂來站哨呢。

Caption:: The remains of a millipede hang from the mouth of a meerkat in the Kalahari Desert. Long claws dig up bugs, lizards, and other treats.

Credit:: Mattias Klum

Earth from Space 太空中的地球 (18/5/2003)
我一直都很喜歡那些在太空影回地球的相，無什麼特別原因的，就是因為那是地球，那個我們居住的，藍色的星球。也不曉得雲層下的是什麼地方，只知道這裡是地球已足夠了，一直以來，其實都很想知道究竟太空人在太空望著地球的感覺是怎樣，雖然我想我永遠都不能真正知道，但我相信這份感覺一定會令你更這個星球－我們的家。

Caption:: What will you feel like when you look back our planet from space? I have no such experience, nor in the future, the only thing I know is, everyone who have seen our blue planet in the darkness, one must love it. What's under the cloud is no important, the most important is that, this is planet Earth, our home planet.

Credit:: Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA JSC

Hyakutake in Fisheye 魚眼鏡中之百武彗星 (17/5/2003)
昨日介紹過的百武彗星位於這相的上方，但他似乎不是這張相的主角，主角是下方的銀河。用上了特別的攝影鏡頭－魚眼鏡，全天360度現在也投影在一張相片上。我自己覺得魚眼鏡影的相真的一絕，配上漆黑的夜空就可以得出一張像這張一樣的相，將最漂亮最漂亮的銀河也拍下來。香港的環境實在很光，我們無可能看到一條這樣的銀河掛在天上，但只要遠離燈火，我們就可以好像古人一樣每晚也可以看見一條天上的河流橫跨全天，陪伴著我們渡過每一夜。另外，在下方的是南天半球很美的大麥哲倫雲。

Caption:: On 1996 March 22, a Galaxy and a comet shared the southern sky. They were captured together, from horizon to horizon, in the night sky above Loomberah, New South Wales, Australia by astronomer Gordon Garradd. Garradd used a home made all-sky camera with a fisheye lens, resulting in a circular 200 degree field of view. This gorgeous sky view was dominated by the luminous band of our Milky Way Galaxy cut by dramatic, dark interstellar dust clouds. Along with the bright stars of our Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud is visible at the lower left. That night sky was also graced by the long, lovely, bluish tail of Comet Hyakutake, which can be seen toward the top of the image, near the bright star Arcturus. Bright city lights from nearby Tamworth glow along the Northwestern horizon.

Credit:: Gordon Garradd

Comet Hyakutake 百武彗星 (16/5/2003)
我到現在為止，尚未親看過一些大的彗星，的確是一個遺憾，記得好朋友跟我說他在美國的大哥，每晚都在窗口看見彗星掛在天上，仲要看到厭時，真心生妒忌，奈何香港每次看到大彗星的時間都遇上春天，那個多雲多霧的春天...所以至今仍未看到莊麗的彗星。記得96年是的百武彗星，來得快也走得快，碰上三月的來訪，註定我與它無緣，雖然無機會親眼看到，但從相中見到百武是一顆很漂亮的彗星。彗星是居住於太陽系外圍的流浪者，他們也有分好幾類，而百武是屬於稀客的一類，幾萬年才造訪一次，比較哈雷的76年長，但也有一些彗星走完一轉，以後也不會再回來。由於百武最返地球時只有同太陽距離的十份一，相當近，所以看起來非常巨大。

Caption:: A major disconnection event is seen here in Comet Hyakutake's blue ion tail. The disconnection is seen as a kink in the tail as the comet moves through Ursa Major. The ion tail can actually disconnect from the comet when the comet crosses a region of different polarity in the magnetic field of the sun. A new ion tail begins forming immediately leaving the disconnected tail behind. The blue ion tail is formed by material ejected from the nucleus, which is mostly water ice and dust. The ice is heated by the comet's approach to the sun, and it sublimates, going directly from a solid to a gas, bypassing the liquid form. As the material from the nucleus is ejected it forms a gigantic cloud around the nucleus which we see as the coma. Some of the molecules in the ion tail are broken down by sunlight and then become electrically charged and are called ions, hence the name ion tail. The ion tail is then blown away from the sun by the solar wind and the ion tail points directly away from the sun. This tail gets its blue color and is visible because the ions glow as they fluoresce, much the same as a fluorescent light. The bright star in the ion tail is Alkaid, the end star in the Big Dipper's handle. Alcor and Mizar, bright companions in the famous visual double star in the handle, are at the bottom of the photo.

Credit:: Jerry Lodriguss

Columbia Launch 哥倫比亞升空 (15/5/2003)
日期是1999年7月22日，太空穿梭機哥倫比亞號順利發射升空...但這一幕現在已經不可能再重現，在今年2月1日，哥倫比亞號在太空返回地球時發生意外，機身解體，在大氣層中燃燒...因為哥倫比亞的事故，所有戴人太空任務在美國本工仍未恢復。說回99年的任務，太穿梭機將錢德拉X射線望遠鏡帶上太空，而錢德拉是一台很重要的太空望遠鏡，等同於哈勃太空望遠鏡的重要性，但因為他專門觀測X射線，大家平常會較少接觸到。正就是那次的升空，哥倫比亞又為天文學帶來很多新發現。而這張晚間湖面倒影的升空照片，很不錯。

Caption:: Reflected in the waters near Launch Pad 39-B, Space Shuttle Columbia rockets into the night sky on mission STS-93. After two unsuccessful attempts on previous nights, liftoff occurred at 12:31 a.m. EDT. July 22, 1999. STS-93 is a five-day mission primarily to release the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which will allow scientists from around the world to study some of the most distant, powerful and dynamic objects in the universe. The crew numbers five: Commander Eileen M. Collins, Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby, and Mission Specialists Stephen A. Hawley (Ph.D.), Catherine G. Coleman (Ph.D.) and Michel Tognini of France, with the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

Credit:: NASA