Astronomy Picture of the Day · August 2026

APOD, August 2026

31 entries from August 2026: 27 images and 4 videos. 24 carry a copyright notice from the credited creator.

Buck Moon and Belt of Venus August 1, 2026 · Copyrighted

Buck Moon and Belt of Venus

Branko NadjA Fire Rainbow over West Virginia August 2, 2026 · Copyrighted

A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia

Christa HarbigA dark starfield has a faint red nebula near the center. A bright streak crosses the image horizontally from the lower left, filled with faint evaporating wisps in many colors. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. August 3, 2026 · Copyrighted

Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the Lacerta Nebula

Tom BurnettA closeup of a small section of the Helix Nebula, an expanding shell of gas and dust. Thousands of orange and gold comet-like pillars stream upward from the bottom, like thin liquid blown up a sheet of glass. These pillars are around the ci August 4, 2026

Curious Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)A large gaseous planet surrounded by a large ring of material (actually multiple rings). The planet and its rings are rotating. A dark shadow appears at the left side of one of the rings and disappears after a short period of time. August 5, 2026 · Copyrighted

Spokes on Saturn's B Ring

Brad CroslinA image shows flowery dark and light structures on a yellow background. August 6, 2026

New Sharpest Image of the Sun Uncovers Instability

NSF, NSO, AURA, MPS, Inouye TelThis exceptionally deep image from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory reveals the renowned COSMOS field and its surroundings in the constellation Sextans. The view is crowded with galaxies and galaxy clusters spanning an immense range of dis August 7, 2026 · Copyrighted

Rubin's COSMOS Field

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURAGreenish cometary coma of 10P/Tempel 2 and globular star cluster M30 August 8, 2026 · Copyrighted

A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

Dan BartlettContemplating the Sun August 9, 2026 · Copyrighted

Contemplating the Sun

Steven GilbertThree galaxy pairs are arranged vertically in the same field of view.. August 10, 2026 · Copyrighted

Three Galaxy Pairs

Rafael SampaioA telescopic image of Saturn with rings and six moons. August 11, 2026 · Copyrighted

Six Moons of Saturn

Alexandre TrentiniThe ground is shown in a little planet perspective, surrounded by the sky with a diffuse glow. The Milky Way is visible in the sky, as well as some nebulae in red and over a hundred meteors. Most of them appear to come from the same point. August 12, 2026 · Copyrighted

Perseids over a Little Planet

Marcin RosadzińskiThe Moon covers the Sun in the middle of the sky above an ornate church. A ring of bright whisps from the Sun's corona surrounds the Moon. In front of the church is a river that shows ripples across the eclipse's reflection. Some people are August 13, 2026 · Copyrighted

Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain

Ruiyu ZhangTotal Solar Eclipse from Greenland August 14, 2026 · Copyrighted

Total Solar Eclipse from Greenland

Aditya MadhavanTwo meteors flash through the night sky. One is reflected in the water below. August 15, 2026 · Copyrighted

Bright Perseids from Sweden

P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)A composite image of the night sky above the old faithful guyser in Yelowstone National Park. August 16, 2026 · Copyrighted

Milky Way over Yellowstone

Dave LaneA total eclipse Sun is featured in the image center. Around the Sun is a filamentary gold-hued corona flowing out in all directions. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. August 17, 2026 · Copyrighted

A Golden Corona Eclipse

Rui Santos (Living Impressions)A starfield is bounded by trees on three sides and a pond on the bottom. Amongst the stars are many streaks of light appearing to emanate from a place on the sky just above a foreground bridge. August 18, 2026

Perseids from Perseus

Jakub KuřákVideo August 19, 2026 · Video · Copyrighted

The Case of the Mysterious Maybe Meteor

Juan Pablo CastañedaAn image of a long, trunk-like interstellar cloud. August 20, 2026 · Copyrighted

The Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus

Eddie SgarbossaVideo August 21, 2026 · Video

Time Lapse of the Star S301 Orbiting the Black Hole in the Center of the Galaxy

ESO/GRAVITY collaboration/L. CalçadaAn allsky camera view of the Perseid meteor shower. August 22, 2026 · Copyrighted

Mostly Perseids

Jakub Koukal (Valašské Meziříčí Observatory)Cassini Approaches Saturn August 23, 2026 · Video · Copyrighted

Cassini Approaches Saturn

Video Credit & Copyright: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, NASA, ESA, S. Van Vuuren et al.; Music: Adagio for Strings (NY Philharmonic)Comet 220P with green coma and white dust tail. August 24, 2026 · Copyrighted

Comet 220P in Outburst

Spilios AsimakopoulosMany images of Earth's Moon are shown each partly eclipsed. The lunar images are arranged so that the eclipsed dark part is toward the center, showing a large dark circle in the center. August 25, 2026 · Copyrighted

Earth's Shadow Visualized with Lunar Eclipses

Tim MartinJWST’s Near Infrared Camera and Mid Infrared Instrument combined image of planetary nebula NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, against the black background of space. The nebula is at center, circular in shape, and looks like a male lion’s head. In t August 26, 2026

JWST Images The Lion's Head Nebula

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)Aurora with green, pink and yellow shades over a waterfall will stars in the background. August 27, 2026 · Copyrighted

Colorful Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall

Victor LimaA picture of star trails in the night sky above a telescope. August 28, 2026 · Copyrighted

The Sky Turns Above Paranal

Osvaldo CastilloThere are two panels, top and bottom. In the top panel is an image of a total solar eclipse. In the bottome panel is an image of a partial lunar eclipse. August 29, 2026 · Copyrighted

Eclipse Pair

Gwenaël BlanckA spiral galaxy with grand, winding spiral arms. August 30, 2026

M74: A Grand Design Spiral

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA)- ESA / Hubble Collaboration Acknowledgment: R. Chandar (U. Toledo) & J. Miller (U. Michigan)Video August 31, 2026 · Video

Launch of the Roman Space Telescope

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