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Picture of the day archives

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2022: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2023: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2026: January February March April May June July August September October November December

These featured pictures, as scheduled below, appeared as the picture of the day (POTD) on the English Wikipedia's Main Page in the last 30 days.

You can add an automatically updating POTD template to your user page using {{Pic of the day}} (version with blurb) or {{POTD}} (version without blurb). For instructions on how to make custom POTD layouts, see Wikipedia:Picture of the day.Purge server cache


December 5

Till the Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American Technicolor musical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a fictionalized biopic of composer Jerome Kern, portrayed by Robert Walker. Kern was involved with the production, but died before its completion. It was the first in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers. The film, directed by Richard Whorf, premiered on December 5, 1946, in New York City.

Film credit: Richard Whorf

Recently featured:

December 4

Siege of Baghdad

The siege of Baghdad took place in early 1258 when a large army under Hulegu, a prince of the Mongol Empire, attacked Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Hulegu had been sent by his brother, the Mongol khan Möngke, to conquer Persia. When Baghdad's ruler, Caliph al-Musta'sim, failed to reinforce the Mongol army, an angered Hulegu decided to overthrow him. The Mongol army routed a sortie led by al-Musta'sim's dawatdar (a leading minister) and besieged the city. After Mongol siege engines breached Baghdad's walls within days, al-Musta'sim surrendered and was later executed. The Mongol army pillaged the city for a week. The number of deaths was inflated by epidemics of disease, but Hulegu estimated his soldiers killed 200,000. Although the siege is often seen as the end of the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad prospered under Hulegu's Ilkhanate. This double-page illustration, taken from a 14th-century manuscript of Rashid al-Din Hamadani's Jami' al-tawarikh, depicts the attempted escape of the dawatdar down the river Tigris (centre right); the soldiers on the pontoons forced him back to Baghdad with the loss of three ships. The manuscript forms part of the Diez Albums, now in the collection of the Berlin State Library in Germany.

Illustration credit: unknown


December 3

Golden-shouldered parrot

The golden-shouldered parrot (Psephotellus chrysopterygius) is a rare species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae found in the southern Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. It is a small bird, with a length of 25 to 27 centimetres (9.8 to 10.6 in) and a mass of 54 to 56 grams (1.9 to 2.0 oz), and is closely related to the more common hooded parrot and the extinct paradise parrot. Adult males are mainly blue, with a characteristic yellow area over the shoulder and black cap, while adult females are mainly dull greenish-yellow, and have a broad cream bar on the underside of the wings. This pair of golden-shouldered parrots – a female (left) and a male (right) – were photographed near the Peninsula Developmental Road south of Yarraden, Queensland.

Photograph credit: John Harrison


December 2

Pedro II of Brazil

Pedro II of Brazil (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), also known as Pedro the Magnanimous, was the second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for more than 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro as the seventh son of Pedro I and Maria Leopoldina, Pedro II inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, but he turned Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew to be distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth, and form of government – a functional representative parliamentary monarchy. Pedro pushed through the abolition of slavery in Brazil despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests. He established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture, and the sciences, and he won the respect and admiration of people such as Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was a friend to Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others. Historians have regarded Pedro positively and several have ranked him as the greatest Brazilian. This 1872 painting by Pedro Américo depicts Pedro II delivering the speech from the throne in the General Assembly and wearing the Imperial Regalia.

Painting credit: Pedro Américo; photographed by Imperial Museum of Brazil


December 1

The Massacre of the Mamelukes

The Massacre of the Mamelukes is an 1819 history painting by the French artist Horace Vernet. It depicts one of the final events in the rise to power of Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali, when the Mamluk people was massacred at the Cairo Citadel in 1811. The painting shows Ali sitting calmly after ordering the killings, smoking his narguile as he watches the violence unfold. The Massacre of the Mamelukes, one of several versions of the scene produced by Vernet, was exhibited at the Salon of 1819 in Paris, and is now in the collection of the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, France.

Painting credit: Horace Vernet


November 30

Shirley Chisholm

Shirley Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968 she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, and she represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972 she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for president of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In 2015 Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This photograph shows Chisholm as she was announcing her candidacy for the presidency in 1972.

Photograph credit: Thomas J. O'Halloran; restored by Adam Cuerden


November 29

Many-worlds interpretation

The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is a philosophical position about how the mathematics used in quantum mechanics relates to physical reality. It asserts that the universal wavefunction is objectively real, and that there is no wave function collapse. This implies that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are physically realized in some "world" or universe. In contrast to some other interpretations of quantum mechanics, the evolution of reality as a whole in MWI is rigidly deterministic and local. Many-worlds is also called the relative state formulation or the Everett interpretation, after physicist Hugh Everett, who first proposed it in 1957. Bryce DeWitt popularized the formulation and named it "many-worlds" in the 1970s. This graphic illustrates the many-worlds interpretation of Schrödinger's cat, a popular thought experiment concerning quantum superposition, depicting the experiment's different outcomes as two branching strips of film stock. Every quantum event is a branch point; the cat is both alive and dead, even before the box is opened, but the "alive" and "dead" cats are in different branches of the multiverse, both of which are equally real, but which do not interact with each other.

Illustration credit: Christian Schirm


November 28

Rock hyrax

The rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), also known as the dassie, is one of four living species of the hyrax order, Hyracoidea, and the only living species in its genus. Like all hyraxes, it is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal between 4 kg (9 lb) and 5 kg (11 lb) in mass, with short ears and tail. The rock hyrax is found across Africa and the Middle East, at elevations up to 4,200 metres (13,800 ft). It resides in habitats with rock crevices which it uses to escape from predators. Along with the other hyrax species and the manatees, these are the living animals most closely related to the elephant. This rock hyrax was photographed near Omaruru, Erongo, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp


November 27

1884 United States presidential election

The 1884 United States presidential election was held in November 1884 between Grover Cleveland of the Democratic Party, James G. Blaine of the Republican Party, and two third-party candidates. The election was narrowly won by Cleveland, who won 219 Electoral College votes to Blaine's 182, ending a run of six consecutive Republican victories. The issue of personal character featured strongly during the 1884 campaign. Blaine had been prevented from getting the Republican presidential nomination during the previous two elections because of the stigma of a set of letters that he had written, while Cleveland was perceived as having high personal integrity. This campaign advertisement for Blaine, captioned "Another voice for Cleveland", was published in the New York magazine The Judge on September 27, 1884, and aimed to shift this balance and attack Cleveland's morals by alleging that he had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo, New York. The chromolithograph illustration depicts a weeping woman holding a baby who cries out "I want my pa!" as Cleveland walks past. Cleveland's campaign responded that he had formed a connection with the woman in question and had assumed responsibility for the child, but that his paternity was unproven.

Poster credit: Frank Beard; restored by Adam Cuerden


November 26

Basilica of Superga

The Basilica of Superga is a hilltop Catholic basilica in Superga, in the vicinity of Turin, Italy. It was built from 1717 to 1731 for Victor Amadeus II, the duke of Savoy and future king of Sicily, to a design by Filippo Juvarra. The building of the church fulfilled a vow Victor Amadeus had made during the Battle of Turin, after defeating the besieging French army in the War of the Spanish Succession. The basilica is considered to be an example of late Baroque-Classicist architecture. Its royal crypt is the traditional burial place of members of the House of Savoy, including various kings of Sardinia and of Italy. In 1949, the basilica was the site of the Superga air disaster when the plane carrying the Grande Torino football team collided with the church's rear supporting wall, killing the entire team and their coach. This photograph shows the basilica with the Monte Rosa massif in the background.

Photograph credit: Domeian


November 25

Pink cockatoo

The pink cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri) is a medium-sized cockatoo that inhabits arid and semi-arid inland areas across Australia, with the exception of the north east. The bird has a soft-textured white and salmon-pink plumage and large, bright red and yellow crest. The sexes are quite similar although males are usually bigger, while the female has a broader yellow stripe on the crest and develops a red eye when mature. The pink cockatoo is usually found in pairs or small groups, and feeds both on the ground and in trees. Formerly known as Major Mitchell's cockatoo, after the explorer Major Thomas Mitchell, the species was officially renamed to pink cockatoo by BirdLife Australia in 2023, due to Mitchell's involvement in the massacre of Aboriginal people at Mount Dispersion and a general trend to make Australian species names more culturally inclusive. The bird is listed as endangered by the Australian government. This pink cockatoo in flight was photographed near Mount Grenfell in New South Wales, Australia.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison


November 24

Renate Reinsve

Renate Reinsve (born 24 November 1987) is a Norwegian actress. She made her film debut in Joachim Trier's film Oslo, August 31st (2011). Her breakout role came in Trier's romantic drama The Worst Person in the World (2021), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has since starred in the Apple TV+ legal-thriller series Presumed Innocent, the A24 satirical dark comedy A Different Man, and the thriller Armand (all 2024). She reunited with Trier for the film Sentimental Value (2025). This photograph of Reinsve was taken at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Photograph credit: Harald Krichel


November 23

Lactarius resimus

Lactarius resimus is a species of mushroom in the Russulaceae family. It has a cap which ranges from 4–15 cm in diameter, while its stalk has a length from 2–6 cm and a width of 1–3 cm. The mushroom is generally white, but stains yellow to orange. Its spores are white-yellow, elliptical and bumpy. An edible fungus, it is considered a delicacy in Russia and some other countries of Eastern Europe, often pickled in salt. This L. resimus mushroom was photographed in Katon-Karagay National Park, Kazakhstan.

Photograph credit: Avustfel


November 22

White-lipped tree frog

The white-lipped tree frog (Nyctimystes infrafrenatus) is a species of tree frog in the subfamily Pelodryadinae of the family Hylidae. It is found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, parts of Solomon Islands, and in the wet tropics of north-eastern Queensland, Australia, and lives in rainforests, cultivated areas, and around houses in coastal areas. A large species, the white-lipped tree frog has a typical length of 11 to 14 cm (4.3 to 5.5 in) and a mass of 30 to 60 g (1.1 to 2.1 oz). Its dorsal surface is usually bright green, although the colour changes depending on the temperature and background, and can be brown, while its lower lip has an eponymous distinctive white stripe. This white-lipped tree frog was photographed in the Daintree Rainforest, Queensland.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison


November 21

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy)

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered in 2014 by Australian astronomer Terry Lovejoy using a 0.2-meter (8 in) Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope. It was discovered at apparent magnitude 15 in the southern constellation of Puppis, and is the fifth comet discovered by Lovejoy. Its blue-green glow is the result of organic molecules and water released by the comet fluorescing under the harsh UV and optical light of the sun as it passes through space.

Photograph: John Vermette


November 20

Otto von Habsburg

Otto von Habsburg (20 November 1912 – 4 July 2011) was the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in November 1918. In 1922, he became the pretender to the former thrones, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and sovereign of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, upon the death of his father. He resigned as Sovereign of the Golden Fleece in 2000 and as head of the Imperial House in 2007. This photograph of von Habsburg was taken in 2006 by German photographer Oliver Mark.

Photograph credit: Oliver Mark


November 19

Grey-headed honeyeater

The grey-headed honeyeater (Ptilotula keartlandi) is a species of bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae. It is endemic to Australia, where it has an extensive range covering much of the central arid and semi-arid areas of the continent. It mostly frequents eucalyptus scrub and woodlands in stony hill country and timbered gullies within ranges, but has also been observed on sand-plains with flowering vegetation, mulga and mallee woodlands, riverine areas and occasionally in Mitchell grasslands. The grey-headed honeyeater is thought to be largely sedentary, but undertakes nomadic movements in response to flowering events. The bird is relatively small for a honeyeater, with a total body length of 13–16.5 cm (5.1–6.5 in) and a mass of 12–18 g (0.4–0.6 oz). Adults have a distinctive grey crown above a black facial mask with the nape and remaining upper body parts coloured dark fawn-grey, with light olive-yellow breast, belly, flanks, and throat streaked with brown, a light-grey brown rump and a short black bill. It feeds on invertebrates as well as insects on the wing and, like many honeyeaters, it consumes nectar from flowering trees. This grey-headed honeyeater was photographed in Watarrka National Park in Australia's Northern Territory.

Photograph credit: JJ Harrison


November 18

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. Drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939–1940, but some regions of the high plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. This black-and-white photograph, captioned "Broke, baby sick, and car trouble!", was taken by the American photographer Dorothea Lange in 1937 and depicts the jalopy of a Missouri migrant family of five on U.S. Route 99 near Tracy, California.

Photograph credit: Dorothea Lange; restored by Adam Cuerden


November 17

Council of Clermont

The Council of Clermont was a mixed synod of ecclesiastics and laymen of the Catholic Church, called by Pope Urban II and held from 17 to 27 November 1095 at Clermont, Auvergne, at the time part of the Duchy of Aquitaine. The council was intended as a synod focused on implementing the Cluniac reforms, enacting decrees and settling local and regional issues. This also included the extension of the excommunication of Philip I of France for his adulterous remarriage to Bertrade of Montfort and a declaration of renewal of the Truce of God, an attempt on the part of the church to reduce feuding among Frankish nobles. The most notable event in the council was Pope Urban's speech on 27 November which included a call to arms that would result in the First Crusade, and eventually the capture of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This image comes from the Passages d'outremer, a chronicle of the crusades published and illustrated three centuries after this event.

Illustration credit: Jean Colombe


November 16

African buffalo

The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a species of true buffalo in the Bovidae family. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it is found in a number of disjoint ranges stretching from south-eastern Senegal through West and Central Africa to South Africa. It lives in savannas, swamps and floodplains, as well as mopane grasslands, and the forests of the major mountains of Africa. The African buffalo is a large bovid, with a shoulder height ranging from 1.0 to 1.7 m (3.3 to 5.6 ft) and head-and-body length between 1.7 and 3.4 m (5.6-11.2 ft). There is variation between subspecies, the African forest buffalo having a mass of 250 to 450 kg (600 to 1,000 lb) while the Cape buffalo weighs 425 to 870 kg (937 to 1,918 lb), males being about 100 kg (220 lb) heavier than females. The adult African buffalo is known for its characteristic horn. This male African buffalo was photographed in Phinda Private Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It has a red-billed oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) perched on its muzzle.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp


November 15

Pied-billed grebe

The pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) is a species of water bird in the grebe family, Podicipedidae. It is found in ponds throughout the Americas, from Canada south to Argentina and Chile. The pied-billed grebe is small, stocky, and short-necked, with a length of around 31 to 38 centimeters (12 to 15 in), a wingspan of 45 to 62 centimeters (18 to 24 in) and a mass of 253 to 568 grams (8.9 to 20.0 oz). It is mainly brown, with a darker crown and back. The undertail is white and it has a short, blunt, light-grey bill, encircled in summer by a broad black band, giving the bird its name. There is no sexual dimorphism, and juveniles have black and white stripes. The pied-billed grebe rarely flies, but is known for its slow dive, which can reach depths of 6 meters (20 ft). It feeds mainly on aquatic invertebrates, and also on small fish and amphibians. This pied-billed grebe of the subspecies P. p. antarcticus was photographed in Parque La Florida, Cundinamarca, on the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp


November 14

Czapski Palace

The Czapski Palace is a palatial complex in the center of Warsaw, Poland. It was constructed in about 1686 for the country's Catholic primate, Michał Stefan Radziejowski, using a design by Dutch-born Polish architect and engineer Tylman van Gameren. The palace was reconstructed between 1712 and 1721, and acquired its present rococo character in 1752–65. The building has been home to various notable individuals, including artist Zygmunt Vogel, composer Frédéric Chopin, and poets Zygmunt Krasiński and Cyprian Norwid. It now houses the Academy of Fine Arts. This photograph shows the front façade of the Czapski Palace's main building.

Photograph credit: Adrian Grycuk


November 13

Lockheed T-33

The Lockheed T-33 is an American subsonic jet trainer produced by Lockheed. It was manufactured between 1948 and 1959 with Lockheed producing a total of 5,691 and a further 866 built under licence by other manufacturers. The two-seater T-33s were used in the United States Air Force as an advanced trainer, and they have also been used for such tasks as drone director and target towing. It has also been supplied for use in the militaries of around 25 other countries. The plane was retired in the US in 1997 and its final operator, the Bolivian Air Force, retired it in 2017. This photograph shows a Lockheed T-33 aircraft in flight during the Arctic Thunder Special Needs and Family Day at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska, in 2016.

Photograph credit: Alejandro Pena, for the United States Air Force


November 12

Large milkweed bug

The large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) is a medium-sized hemipteran (true bug) in the family Lygaeidae. It is distributed throughout North America, from Central America through Mexico, the Caribbean and the United States, to southern Canada. It inhabits disturbed areas, roadsides, and open pastures. Due to this widespread geographic distribution, this insect exhibits varying life history trade-offs depending on the population location, including differences in wing length and other traits based on location. Adult large milkweed bugs are around 11–12 mm in length and have a red/orange and black X-shaped pattern on their wings underneath the triangle that is typical to hemipterans. Its diet often consists of milkweed seeds, but it has also been observed feeding on aphids, monarch caterpillar eggs, and larvae, displaying opportunistic behavior. The insect is often used as a model organism and reared for laboratory experiments due to being easy to rear and handle, short developmental time, few instars, and high fecundity. This large milkweed bug was photographed in the Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

Recently featured:

November 11

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels and three short story collections; further works were published after his death. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Vonnegut enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943. Deployed to Europe to fight in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and interned in Dresden, where he survived the Allied bombing of the city in a slaughterhouse. Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. Two of his novels, The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Cat's Cradle (1963), were nominated for the Hugo Award. Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), a best-seller that resonated with its readers for its anti-war sentiment amidst the ongoing Vietnam War, thrust Vonnegut into fame as an important contemporary writer and a dark humor commentator on American society. Numerous scholarly works have examined Vonnegut's writing and humor. This photograph by Bernard Gotfryd shows Vonnegut in 1965.

Photograph credit: Bernard Gotfryd; restored by Adam Cuerden


November 10

Buddha's hand

Buddha's hand (Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis), also known as the fingered citron, is a citron variety whose fruit is segmented into finger-like sections, resembling those seen on representations of the Buddha. Like other citrons, the plant is a shrub or small tree with long, irregular branches covered in thorns. It has large pale green oblong leaves and white flowers. The fruit's fingers contain only the white part of the fruit and sometimes a small amount of acidic pulp, but many of them are completely juiceless and some are seedless. The fruit is used for its aroma, as a zest in food and drinks, as candied fruit, and in traditional medicine. It is also sometimes used as a religious offering in Buddhist temples and has been sold as a Halloween novelty under the trademark "goblin fingers".

Photograph credit: Kaldari


November 9

Kumaon

Kumaon is a revenue and administrative division in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Historically known as Manaskhand and Kurmanchal, the Kumaon region has been ruled by several dynasties over the course of its history, most notably the Katyuri and the Chand. In 1790, the Kingdom of Kumaon was invaded and annexed by the Gorkhas, from whom it was conquered by the British East India Company in 1815, following which it became part of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces (which later became the United Provinces). After Indian independence in 1947, it remained part of the state of Uttar Pradesh until 2000, when the state of Uttarakhand was created as a result of the Uttarakhand movement. The people of Kumaon are known as Kumaonis and speak the Kumaoni language. This picture shows a panoramic view of the Kumaon Himalayas as seen from the hill station and town of Ranikhet, with mountains such as Trisul (7,120 m, 23,360 ft), Nanda Devi (7,817 m, 25,646 ft), Nanda Kot (6,861 m, 22,510 ft), Panchachuli (6,904 m, 22,651 ft), and other peaks prominently visible.

Photograph credit: Harshit Rautela; edited by UnpetitproleX


November 8

Indian paradise flycatcher

The Indian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is a medium-sized passerine bird in the family Monarchidae, the monarch flycatchers. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, with resident and breeding populations in most of Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, as well as parts of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The bird has a length of 20 to 50 centimetres (7.9 to 19.7 inches) from beak to tail. Males have elongated central tail feathers, and a black and rufous plumage in some populations, while others have white plumage. Females are short-tailed with rufous wings and a black head. The Indian paradise flycatcher feeds on insects, including grasshoppers, butterflies and praying mantises, as well as flies. It typically captures prey in the air, kills it by hitting it on a rock, and then extracts the inner parts. This Indian paradise flycatcher in flight was photographed in Pilibhit in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Photograph credit: Prasan Shrestha


November 7

Fraunhofer lines

The Fraunhofer lines are a set of spectral absorption lines. They are dark absorption lines, seen in the optical spectrum of the Sun, and are formed when atoms in the solar atmosphere absorb light being emitted by the solar photosphere. The lines are named after the German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer, who observed them in 1814. This image shows the solar spectral irradiance measured with a calibrated optical spectrometer, as viewed on a sunny day in Switzerland in 2022. Some of the characteristic Fraunhofer lines and their corresponding elements are indicated for the extended visible spectrum – the highlighted area of the graph.

Graph credit: Cyamahat


November 6

Mordançage

Mordançage is an alternative photographic technique developed in the 1960s that alters gelatin silver prints to give them a degraded effect. The mordançage solution works in two ways: it chemically bleaches the print so that it can be redeveloped, and it lifts the black areas of the emulsion away from the paper, giving the appearance of veils. Once the emulsion is lifted, it can then be removed or manipulated depending on the desired outcome. Areas where the emulsion was removed appear to be in relief. These prints can become oxidized during their creation, further altering the tonality of the image. This self-portrait shows an example of mordançage applied to a photographic print.

Artwork credit: Stacey Svendsen


Picture of the day archives and future dates

2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2006: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2007: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2008: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2009: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2010: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2011: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2012: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2013: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2014: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2015: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2016: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2017: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2018: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2019: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2020: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2021: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2022: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2023: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2024: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2025: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2026: January February March April May June July August September October November December