Wikipedia:Picture of the day/April 2008

The Grenville Diptych was a coat of arms produced between 1822 and 1839 for Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the son of the first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The diptych shows 719 quarterings of the family which include, among others, ten variations of the English Royal arms, the arms of Spencer, De Clare, Valence, Mowbray, Mortimer and De Grey.

Image credit: Unknown

An adult Eggfruit Caterpillar Moth (Sceliodes cordalis), one of the species of the Pyralidae family of moths.

Photo credit: Fir0002

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a 19th-century French sculptor and painter who sought to inject movement and spontaneity into his works. This engraving, done to commemorate him after his death, shows his sculpture Flore below him, and others of his works above. In his time, some of his works, particularly La Danse, were criticised as indecent, but today his sculptures are exhibited in major museums of art worldwide.

Image credit: The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

This false-color mosaic showing compositional variations in the geology of the Moon was constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by the imaging system of the Galileo spacecraft. Bright pinkish areas are highlands materials, such as those surrounding the oval lava-filled Mare Crisium impact basin toward the bottom. Blue to orange shades indicate volcanic lava flows. To the left of Crisium, the dark blue Mare Tranquillitatis is richer in titanium than the green and orange maria above it. Thin mineral-rich soils associated with relatively recent impacts are represented by light blue colors. The monochrome band on the right edge shows the unretouched surface of the moon.

Image credit: Galileo spacecraft

The anatomy of a common snail. Snails are extraordinarily diverse but all have coiled shells as adults to protect them and a strong foot coated in mucus for locomotion. All land snails are hermaphrodites and have two sets of tentacles which carry the eyes and olfactory organs.

Image credit: Al2/Jeff Dahl

The Great Blue Heron is a wading bird in the heron family, common over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. Great blue herons can be found in a range of habitats, in fresh and saltwater, but always near bodies of water. They feed by using their long legs to wade into the water and then catch fish or frogs with their long bill.

Photo credit: Alain Carpentier

A map of the major cities and regions of Ancient Egypt during the dynastic period (c. 3150 to 30 BC). Egypt is traditionally divided into two halves: Lower Egypt (from the Mediterranean Sea to Dahshur, just south of Cairo) and Upper Egypt (extending south to Aswan). Further south, Egypt was bounded by the land of Kush (modern Sudan), and to the northeast, the Levant. Surrounded by harsh deserts, the river Nile was the lifeline of this ancient civilization. Memphis and Thebes were the capitals of lower and upper Egypt respectively.

Map credit: Jeff Dahl

A lithograph for "William H. West's Big Minstrel Jubilee" from 1900, showing the blackface transformation of Billy Van, "the Monologue Comedian". Originating in the United States, blackface theatrical makeup was used to take on the appearance of an archetype of American racism—that of the darky or coon.

Image credit: Strobridge Litho. Co.

Notre-Dame de Paris at night. Known simply as Notre Dame in English, this is a Gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west. It is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris. Notre-Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. It was restored and saved from destruction by Viollet-le-Duc, one of France's most famous architects. Notre Dame translates as "Our Lady" from French.

Photo credit: Sanchezn

A Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) bush showing a panicle with multiple flowers in bloom, and typical leaf structure.

Photo credit: John O'Neill

A pair of rice grasshoppers (Oxya yezoensis), a pest of rice in Asia. The male is on the right, about 30 mm (1.2 in) in length, and the female is on the left, about 40 mm (1.6 in) long. This species is one of many species of grasshopper around the world which, in its swarming phase, is known as a locust. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory. They form bands as nymphs and swarms as adults—both of which can travel great distances, rapidly stripping fields and greatly damaging crops.

Photo credit: Laitche

The jaguar (Panthera onca), shown here at Edinburgh Zoo, is a New World mammal of the Felidae family and one of four "big cats". The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and on average the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere.

Photo credit: Pascal Blachier

This grand mosaic taken by the Cassini orbiter consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering all of Saturn and its rings from one end of the planet to the other. The images were taken while Cassini was approximately 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn.

Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

A Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) hanging on a bird feeder. This woodpecker species' breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the eastern-central United States. Adults are strikingly tri-colored, with a black back and tail and a red head and neck. Their underparts are mainly white. The wings are black with white secondary remiges. It is often confused with the Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Photo credit: Mdf

Gilbert and Sullivan created fourteen comic operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado, many of which are still frequently performed today. However, events around their 1889 collaboration, The Gondoliers, led to an argument and a lawsuit dividing the two. In 1891, after many failed attempts at reconciliation by the pair and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan's music publisher, Tom Chappell, stepped in to mediate between two of his most profitable artists, and within two weeks he had succeeded. This cartoon in The Entr'acte expresses the magazine's pleasure at the reuniting of D'Oyly Carte (left), Gilbert (centre), and Sullivan (right).

Image credit: Alfred Bryan

Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performing the first aerial refueling on June 27, 1923. The DH-4B biplane (right) remained aloft over the skies of Rockwell Field in San Diego, California, for 37 hours, using nine mid-air refuelings to transfer 687 US gallons (2,601 L) of aviation gasoline and 38 US gal (144 L) of engine oil.

Photo credit: United States Air Force

A cutaway diagram of a gun turret using the 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun. This gun is the main armament of the Iowa-class battleships and is often considered to be the best battleship gun ever designed, due to its power and efficiency.

Image credit: Voytek S/Jeff Dahl

The red lionfish (Pterois volitans) is a venomous coral reef fish from the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. It was also introduced to the east coast of the United States, and can be found from Florida to Long Island, New York. This specimen was found at Tasik Ria, Manado, Indonesia.

Photo credit: Jens Petersen

A Green Grass-Dart Skipper Butterfly (Ocybadistes walkeri), perched on a succulent plant. The family Hesperiidae contains the skippers, named after their quick, darting flight habits. Many species of skippers look frustratingly alike and cannot currently be distinguished in the field.

Photo credit: Fir0002

A Hairy Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta), one of the species of the Tricyrtis genus. They are perennial herbaceous plants that grow naturally at the edge of forests.

Photo credit: André Karwath

Champ de Mars (Paris, France), as seen from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. In the distance is Tour Montparnasse and the dome on the left is Les Invalides. The École Militaire is at the end of the Champ de Mars. In English the name means "Field of Mars", from Mars the Roman god of war, from its original use for military training. During the French Revolution, the Champ de Mars was the setting of the Fête de la Fédération, on 14 July 1790.

Photo credit: David Iliff

The Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina) is a species of American sparrow in the family Emberizidae. It is widespread, fairly tame, and generally common across much of its North American range.

Photo credit: Mdf

Pronounced sun dogs on both sides of a setting sun in New Ulm, Minnesota. Note the halo arcs passing through each. Sun dogs are an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two or more can be seen on opposite sides of the sun simultaneously.

Photo credit: Erik Axdahl

United States Army pilots in action during World War I. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, known as the U.S. "Ace of Aces", conducts a bombing run over German lines.

Film credit: United States Army

A horehound bug (Agonoscelis rutila) on a horehound bush. A. rutila sucks the sap of the horehound plant, causing wilting of new shoots. Although they usually attack horehound, they may also swarm on a variety of other trees and shrubs.

Photo credit: Fir0002

The night skyline of Frankfurt, showing the Commerzbank Tower (centre) and the Maintower (right of centre). Frankfurt is the fifth-largest city in Germany, and the surrounding Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region is Germany's second-largest metropolitan area.

Image credit: Nicolas17

The Flatirons, rock formations located near Boulder, Colorado, as seen on a winter morning. The most iconic of the formations are the five numbered Flatirons (seen here right to left, north to south), located along the east slope of Green Mountain (numerous smaller named Flatirons can be found on the southern slopes of the mountain and among the surrounding foothills).

Photo credit: Jesse Varner

A group of female Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga angustirostris) moulting on a beach near San Simeon, California. In the summer, elephant seals undergo a catastrophic moult, lasting about one month, during which they lose much of their fur and skin. They spend this time on beaches to preserve body heat, while they wait for the new fur to grow.

Photo credit: Helen Filatova

The rotor of a modern steam turbine , which converts steam (heat) energy into kinetic (mechanical) energy. The steam path is from the smallest blade, expanding through progressively larger blade elements. Steam turbines are used in power plants to extract mechanical work from pressurized steam and benefit from their high efficiency and high power-to-weight ratio compared to other technologies, leading to their widespread deployment from electricity generation to marine propulsion.

Photo credit: Christian Kuhna

The American Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) is a New World vulture which lives from the southeastern United States to South America. Despite the similar name and appearance, this species is unrelated to the Eurasian Black Vulture. With a wingspan of 1.5 m (5 ft) the American Black Vulture is a large bird but is relatively small for a vulture. It has black plumage, a featherless, grayish-black head and neck, and a short, hooked beak.

Photo credit: Mdf