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The Scroll of Eighty-Seven Immortals, drawn by an unknown painter, measuring 30cm high and 292cm wide, is a line-drawing Chinese figure painting. Drawn on a long silk scroll with lines, the painting depicts 87 taoist immortals, including three supreme gods with halo, ten divine generals, seven deities and 67 celestial maidens marching from the right to the left on the bridge. The painting manifests the momentum of the glorious age of Tang Dynasty and was regarded by Xu Beihong as a work of Wu Daozi. Xie Zhiliu ang Chang Dai-chien thought that the painting style of the scroll was simlilar to that in Dung Huang frescoes of later Tang Dynasty and attributed it to Later Tang Dynasty (923–937), while a noted painting and calligraphy connoisseur, Xu Bangda, thought it should be drawn by a Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) painter.

AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System, innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant Saturn. Pictured on the left, Earth is the pale blue dot just below the rings of Saturn, as captured by the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting the outermost gas giant. On that same day people across planet Earth snapped many of their own pictures of Saturn. On the right, the Earth-Moon system is seen against the dark background of space as captured by the sunward MESSENGER spacecraft, then in Mercury orbit. MESSENGER took its image as part of a search for small natural satellites of Mercury, moons that would be expected to be quite dim. In the MESSENGER image, the brighter Earth and Moon are both overexposed and shine brightly with reflected sunlight. Destined not to return to their home world, both Cassini and MESSENGER have since retired from their missions of Solar System exploration.

Rainbow yarn for knitting displayed in front of a needlework shop in Graz, Austria.

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

Saratoga Passage, WA

"Survey after survey has found that Americans agree that the political system is not serving them......Americans say they are angry at the political dysfunction, disgusted with the divisive rhetoric, weary from the lack of options, and feel unheard and unrepresented" More at The Conversation ➜

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation. The planetary nebula phase represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the sun as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's transforming star is the faint one near the center of the overall bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments clearly extend below and to the left. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to be over 4 light-years across.

Photo by Bruno Rota Sargi

Sanderling (Calidris alba) looking for food on the beach of Westkapelle, Netherlands.

Stephan Sprinz, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission region and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, this cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. The detailed telescopic view features the bright swept-back ridges and pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas that abound in the region. But the dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This rendition spans a 1 degree wide field of view though, about the angular size of 2 full moons.

Photo by Giorgio Ferrari