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Flower buds of a Agapanthus praecox Snow White. A pure white dwarf, 45 cm. Focus stack of 50 photos.

Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Publius Ovidius Naso known in English as Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus  and was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace and often ranked  with them as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature.Ovid was extremely popular during his lifetime but was exiled by emperor Augustus to Tomis, known today as Constanța, a historical city located on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a carmen et error ("poem and a mistake"), but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Source: The Tristia of Ovid

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom. Formally recognized as a distinct cloud type only last year, asperitas clouds can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, and are relatively unstudied. Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed, asperitas clouds appear to have significant vertical structure underneath. Speculation therefore holds that asperitas clouds might be related to lenticular clouds that form near mountains, or mammatus clouds associated with thunderstorms, or perhaps a foehn -- a type of dry downward wind that flows off mountains. Clouds from such a wind called the Canterbury arch stream toward the east coast of New Zealand's South Island. The featured image, taken above Hanmer Springs in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2005, shows great detail partly because sunlight illuminates the undulating clouds from the side.

Photo by Witta Priester

Position light (with image of St. Christopher) of a Rolls-Royce Phantom II.

Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

"Earth’s atmosphere contains carbon dioxide, which is good for life on Earth – in moderation." ..."The atmospheric concentration of CO2 has risen by more than 50% since industries began burning coal and other fossil fuels in the late 1700s, reaching concentrations that haven’t been found in the Earth’s atmosphere in at least a million years. And the concentration continues to rise..." More at The Conversation➜

Eruption of Strokkur (Icelandic for "churn") a fountain geyser located in the Haukadalur geothermal area, southwest of Iceland.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In the predawn sky on August 13, two planets were close. And despite the glare of a waning gibbous Moon, bright Jupiter and even brighter Venus were hard to miss. Their brilliant close conjunction is posing above the eastern horizon in this early morning skyscape. The scene was captured in a single exposure from a site near Gansu, China, with light from both planets reflected in the still waters of a local pond. Also seen against the moonlight were flashes from the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, known for its bright, fast meteors. Near the much anticipated peak of activity, the shower meteors briefly combined with the two planets for a celestial spectacle even in moonlit skies.

Photo by Jeff Dai

This painting on the ceiling in Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, a church on Via Veneto in Rome, depicts the Virgin Mary being assumed body and soul into heaven. Today is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary in much of Western Christianity or the Dormition of the Mother of God in Eastern Christianity.

Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.