                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 February 23

                            Orion over Green Bank
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Green

   Explanation: What will the huge Green Bank Telescope discover tonight?
   Pictured, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) on the lower
   right is the largest fully-pointable single-dish radio telescope in the
   world. With a central dish larger than a football field, the GBT is
   nestled in the hills of West Virginia, USA in a radio quiet zone where
   the use of cell phones, WiFi emitters, and even microwave ovens are
   limited. The GBT explores our universe not only during the night -- but
   during the day, too, since the daytime sky is typically dark in radio
   waves. Taken in late January, the featured image was planned for months
   to get the setting location of Orion just right. The image is a
   composite of a foreground shot taken over a kilometer away from the
   GBT, and a background shot built up of long exposures during the
   previous night. The deep background image of Orion is fitting because
   the GBT is famous for, among many discoveries, mapping the unusual
   magnetic field in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

                     Tomorrow's picture: colorful stars
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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