NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, also known as APOD, is one of my favorite Astronomy resources. Though I wrote about APOD in my high school Astronomy resources post, I wanted to talk more about how I use it in the classroom. The subjects and sources vary greatly, and pictures are often topical to things happening in space news.

I begin my Astronomy class every single day with the APOD. It gives the class a routine, but students also find it fascinating. They especially love the amateur astronomy photos – showing that these things are real and you don’t always need super sophisticated equipment to see them. We often delve deeper into how and where photos were taken and research more on the background of the subject. It’s a great way to learn something new every single day.

One of the very first APODs, a photograph of the Pleiades, way back from 1995!

I also love that the pictures are very topical. We will discuss a meteor shower, or rocket launch, or nearby comet, and the very next day the picture of the day will be of that. It gives such relevancy and realism to what we are studying in my Astronomy class. One day, I got carried away and forgot to show the picture of the day. My students were legitimately upset!

Here is one of my recent favorites, of the Cygnus spacecraft taken from the ISS. We watched the launch together, so it was exciting for my students to see the craft actually in space.

A sample APOD taken from the ISS
Image Credit: ESA, NASA

Check out APOD at  https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html