Huge, gorgeous astronomy photos

I have a 5K computer display (5120×2880). Even “high-resolution” desktop wallpaper images stop at 2560 wide… just half the pixels I have to play with. Fortunately, there are many astronomy images available that are not only as big as my display but even far bigger, and I really love astronomy stuff.

Here are two good sources of large and spectacular astronomy photos, with downloads in wide range of sizes, including 10-20,000 pixel wide monsters.

• European Southern Observatory
• HubbleSite (a large, confusing site: I recommend browsing photos in the “entire collection” view)

I should also mention the very simple “Astronomy Photo of the Day” website. It has had a neat picture every day, with a short explanation, practically since the beginning of the Internet. (Well, since June 16, 1995 anyway. They are really not organized at all. It’s just a humungous list of pages.) Not all of the APOD photos are available in large sizes, but many are.

I have many favourites. Here’s just one that I particularly love:

ESO.org: “Omega Centauri, in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), is the largest globular cluster in the sky, but the very wide field of view of VST and its powerful camera OmegaCAM can encompass even the faint outer regions of this spectacular object. This view includes about 300,000 stars.” Credit: ESO/INAF-VST/OmegaCAM. Acknowledgement: A. Grado/INAF-Capodimonte Observatory