Wikipedia:Picture of the day/June 2024

Jeremiah Gurney (1812–1895) was an American daguerreotype photographer. Initially working in the jewelry trade in Saratoga, New York, he took up photography after learning of daguerreotype from Samuel Morse, moving to New York City where he began selling photographs alongside jewelry. He was one of the earliest photographers in the city, and may have been the owner of the first photographic gallery in the United States. Gurney took this self-portrait photograph around 1869; it is now in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Photograph credit: Jeremiah Gurney; restored by Adam Cuerden

Moissac Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Moissac, Tarn-et-Garonne, in south-western France. A number of its medieval buildings survive, including the abbey church, which has a notable Romanesque sculpture around the entrance. This picture shows the abbey's cloisters.

Photograph credit: Benh Lieu Song

Laothoe populi, the poplar hawk-moth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species is found throughout the Palearctic realm and the Near East, and is one of the most common members of the family in the region. On first hatching, the larvae are pale green with small yellow tubercules and a cream-coloured tail horn, at which point they are known as hornworms. They later develop yellow diagonal stripes on the sides, and pink spiracles. This photograph, taken in Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont, France, shows a late instar of L. populi.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

HMS Malabar was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1818 at Bombay Dockyard. In 1838, Malabar ran aground off Prince Edward Island in British North America and was damaged, with the loss of two crew members. She was refloated later that year and towed into Three Rivers in Lower Canada. In August 1843, Malabar, under the command of Sir George Sartorius, assisted in fighting a fire that destroyed the United States Navy sidewheel frigate USS Missouri at Gibraltar, taking aboard about 200 of that ship's survivors. Malabar was converted to a hulk in 1848, eventually becoming a coal hulk, and was renamed Myrtle in 1883. The hulk was sold out of the navy in 1905. This lithograph from around 1843 shows the crew of Malabar watching as Missouri explodes and burns in the distance.

Lithograph credit: Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton, after Edward Duncan and George Pechell Mends; restored by Adam Cuerden

The Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae, which is native to western North America. The trees grow to a height of around 20 to 100 metres (70 to 330 feet) and commonly reach 2.4 metres (8 feet) in diameter. The largest coast Douglas firs regularly live for more than 500 years, with the oldest specimens more than 1,300 years old. The cones are pendulous and differ from true firs as they have persistent scales. The cones have distinctive long, trifid (three-pointed) bracts, which protrude prominently above each scale. The cones become tan when mature, measuring 6 to 10 centimetres (2+1⁄2 to 4 inches) long for coastal Douglas firs. This photograph shows a young female cone of the variety Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir), cultivated near Keila, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

The martial eagle (Polemaetus bellicosus) is a large eagle native to sub-Saharan Africa. A species of the booted eagle subfamily (Aquilinae), it has feathering over its tarsus. One of the largest and most powerful species of booted eagle, it is a fairly opportunistic predator that varies its prey selection between mammals, birds and reptiles. It is one of a few eagle species known to hunt primarily from a high soar, by stooping on its quarry. Currently, the species is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This martial eagle was photographed in the Matetsi safari area in Zimbabwe.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

Dimitri is an 1876 French-language grand opera in five acts by Victorin de Joncières. Set to a libretto by Henri de Bornier and Paul Armand Silvestre after Friedrich Schiller's incomplete play Demetrius, itself a story based on the life of the Russian pretender False Dmitry I (reigned 1605–1606), the opera was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre National Lyrique. Antonín Dvořák's 1881 opera Dimitrij was also based on Schiller's play. This picture shows the set design for Act V of Dimitri's première.

Art credit: Philippe Chaperon; restored by Adam Cuerden

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Located in the south-east of Scotland, it is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth estuary and to the south by the Pentland Hills. With a population of 506,520 in mid-2020, Edinburgh is the second-largest city in Scotland by population and the seventh largest in the United Kingdom. The royal burgh of Edinburgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, and has been capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century. This aerial photograph, with Edinburgh Castle in the foreground, was taken around 1920.

Photograph credit: Alfred Buckham; restored by Adam Cuerden

Euchloe penia, commonly known as the eastern greenish black-tip, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and northern Iraq. The habitat consists of dry and warm rocky areas. Adults are a bright greenish off-yellow, with a wingspan of 32 to 36 millimetres (1.3 to 1.4 inches). There are two generations per year, with adults on wing in April and from June to July. The larvae feed on plants of the genus Matthiola. This E. penia butterfly perching on a flower was photographed in Pletvar, North Macedonia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

An oblique shock is a shock wave that, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the direction of incoming air. It occurs when a supersonic flow encounters a corner that effectively turns the flow into itself and compresses. This photograph shows an oblique shock at the nose of a Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft, made visible through Schlieren photography.

Photograph credit: NASA & US Air Force (J.T. Heineck, Ed Schairer, Maj. Jonathan Orso, Maj. Jeremy Vanderhal)

Zhou Fang was a Chinese painter during the Tang dynasty, living in the capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an) during the 8th century. He came from a noble background and this was reflected in his works. He personally painted for the emperor and the themes of his artwork covered religious subjects and everyday life. This ink-and-color-on-silk painting, titled Court Ladies Playing Double-sixes, measures 30.5 cm × 69.1 cm (12.0 in × 27.2 in) and depicts members of the emperor's household playing the board game liubo. It now hangs in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting credit: Zhou Fang

The green kingfisher (Chloroceryle americana) is a species of bird in the kingfisher family, Alcedinidae. It is found from the southern United States, south through Central America, and in every mainland South American country except Chile. The green kingfisher is about 20 cm (7.9 in) long and weighs about 35 to 40 g (1.2 to 1.4 oz), with females being larger and heavier than males. It has various vocalisations, including one described as resembling "the striking of two pebbles together" and another as "a harsh, buzzy scold". This male green kingfisher, a member of the subspecies C. a. americana, was spotted close to the Cristalino River in the Pantanal, Brazil.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The Heart Nebula is an emission nebula, 7500 light years from Earth, located in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787. Spanning almost 2 degrees in the sky, its shape is driven by stellar winds from the hot stars in its core. The nebula displays glowing ionized hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes, and is also made up of ionised oxygen and sulfur gasses, which cause rich blue and orange colours to be seen in narrowband images. This photograph of the Heart Nebula, with the Fish Head Nebula also visible in the top right corner, is a narrowband image captured on a 70mm scope with a capture period of around 44 hours.

Photograph credit: Ram Samudrala

Al-Hajj is the 22nd chapter (surah) of the Quran, describing the pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj. This Chinese scroll in ink, watercolour and gold on paper was produced in the second half of the 19th century, contains the full text of the chapter in Arabic, and is now part of the Khalili Collection of Hajj and the Arts of Pilgrimage. Almost five metres (16 feet) in length, the scroll's illustrations include a map entitled "Routes of the Hajj", a view of the Great Wall of China, and views of Mecca and Medina, as well as diagrammatic depictions of the stations of pilgrimage and Jerusalem, including the Kaaba. The illustrations are captioned in Chinese.

Calligraphy credit: 'Abdallah; photographed by the Khalili Collections

Trithemis annulata, commonly known as the violet dropwing, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in most of Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe. Males of this species are violet-red with red veins in the wings, while females are yellow and brown. Both sexes have red eyes. This female violet dropwing was photographed near Kalopanagiotis in Cyprus.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The almond (Prunus amygdalus) is a species of tree in the family Rosaceae, the roses. It prospers in a moderate Mediterranean climate with cool winter weather, and is native to Iran and surrounding countries, although it is rarely now found wild in its original setting. The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed; botanically, it is not considered a true nut. It is used extensively as a culinary nut, however, and is cultivated worldwide. Around 80% of the world's almond supply is produced in the US state of California. This photograph shows an almond drupe in shell, shell cracked open, unshelled and blanched seed.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

Sugarloaf Mountain is a peak situated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a peninsula at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. Rising 396 m (1,299 ft) above the harbor, the peak is named for its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined sugarloaf. The mountain is one of several monolithic granite and quartz mountains that rise straight from the water's edge in the area, and is geologically part of a family of steep-sided rock outcroppings known as bornhardts. Sugarloaf Mountain also features the Sugarloaf Cable Car and is popular with tourists for its panoramic views of the city and beyond. This photograph shows Sugarloaf Mountain at sunrise viewed from Tijuca National Park, with the Rio neighborhood of Botafogo in the foreground.

Photograph credit: Donatas Dabravolskas

The copper sunbird (Cinnyris cupreus) is a species of passerine bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is native to tropical Africa, its range extending from Senegal and Guinea in the west to South Sudan and Kenya in the east, and southwards to Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It feeds on nectar that it extracts from selected flowers, such as Calliandra spp., Leonotis leonurus, Syzygium spp., and Senegalia polyacantha. It also takes fruits, spiders and insects, some of which are caught while in flight. This female copper sunbird of the subspecies C. c. cupreus was photographed in a Persian silk tree in Kakum National Park, Ghana.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The six-spot burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) is a moth of the family Zygaenidae. It is a common species throughout Europe, except the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, northern Scandinavia and the Great Russian North, and is also present in Asia Minor, through the Caucasus to Syria and Lebanon. It inhabits meadows, woodland clearings, sea-cliffs and area rich in grasses and flowers, up to 2,000 m altitude. The adults fly on hot, sunny days and are attracted to a wide variety of flowers such as knapweed and scabious, as well as the larval food plants bird's foot trefoil, Dorycnium, Coronilla and clover. This six-spot burnet was photographed in Kulna, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, stealth multirole combat aircraft designed for air superiority and strike missions; it also has electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The aircraft descends from the Lockheed Martin X-35, with development funded principally by the United States, with additional funding from program partner countries from NATO. Its first flight took place in 2006 and it entered service with the United States Air Force in 2015. Its first combat operation was in the 2018 Operation House of Cards by the Israeli Air Force. The F-35 Lightning II has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B, and the carrier-based F-35C. This photograph shows an F-35C conducting a test flight over Chesapeake Bay in 2011.

Photograph credit: Andy Wolfe

Venus Anadyomene is an oil-on-canvas painting by Titian, dating to around 1520. It depicts the Greek goddess Venus rising from the sea and wringing her hair, with a shell visible at the bottom left, taken from a description of Venus by the Greek poet Hesiod in which she was born fully-grown from a shell. The wringing of her hair is a direct imitation of Apelles's lost masterwork, also called Venus Anadyomene. The painting is in good condition and achieved public ownership in 2003 when it was purchased from Francis Egerton, 7th Duke of Sutherland. It is now in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.

Painting credit: Titian

Pinguicula vulgaris, the common butterwort, is a perennial carnivorous plant in the Lentibulariaceae family. It has a generally circumboreal distribution, being native to almost every country in Europe as well as Russia, Canada and the United States. Growing to a height of 3 to 16 centimetres (1.2 to 6.3 inches), it is topped with a purple and occasionally white funnel-shaped flower that is 15 millimetres (0.59 in) or longer. The plant, which is insectivorous, grows in damp environments such as bogs and swamps, in low or subalpine elevations. Its leaves have glands that excrete a sticky fluid that traps insects to its leaves; its glands also produce digestive enzymes that work to consume the insects externally. This P. vulgaris flower was photographed in Keila, Estonia.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

Long Tack Sam (1884–1961) was a Chinese-born American magician, acrobat, and vaudeville performer. Little is known about his early years, although he is known to have joined a group of acrobats around 1900 called the Tian-Kwai, with whom he toured the world. Several years later, amid unrest in China, he brought his troupe of entertainers to the United States, where he performed extensively for several decades. This colour lithograph poster featuring Long was printed in Hamburg, Germany, in 1919. It illustrates his conscious use of luxurious embroidered costumes and elaborate scenery to enhance his mystique and capitalize on Western notions of "the mysterious Orient".

Poster credit: Studio of Adolph Friedlander; restored by Adam Cuerden

The sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) is a passerine bird in the Acrocephalidae family, the reed warblers. It is a medium-sized warbler with a brown, streaked back and wings and a distinct pale supercilium. Sedge warblers are migratory, crossing the Sahara to get from their European and Asian breeding grounds to spend winter in Africa. The male's song is composed of chattering phrases and can include mimicry of other species. The species is mostly insectivorous. This sedge warbler was photographed in Otmoor RSPB reserve in Oxfordshire, England.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American silent film made by Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Manufacturing Company. It follows a gang of outlaws who hold up and rob a steam locomotive at a station in the American West, flee across mountainous terrain, and are finally defeated by a posse of locals. The short film draws on many sources, including a robust existing tradition of Western films, recent European innovations in film technique, the play of the same name by Scott Marble, the popularity of train-themed films, and possibly real-life incidents involving outlaws such as Butch Cassidy.

Film credit: Edwin S. Porter

Lord Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research, including on electricity and the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. He was also the first to determine the correct value of absolute zero, and the Kelvin scale of temperature is named in his honour. Kelvin received the Copley Medal in 1883, served as the president of the Royal Society from 1890 to 1895, and in 1892 became the first British scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. This photograph, taken circa 1900, shows Kelvin resting on a binnacle (the stand for a marine compass) of his invention, and holding a marine azimuth mirror.

Photograph credit: T. & R. Annan & Sons; restored by Adam Cuerden

Sabella spallanzanii is a species of marine polychaete worms in the family Sabellidae. It is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and North Sea, but has spread to various other parts of the world and is included on the Global Invasive Species Database. The species grows to a total length of 9 to 40 centimetres (4 to 16 inches) and is usually larger in deep water. It features stiff, sandy tubes formed from hardened mucus secreted by the worm that protrude from the sand, and a two-layered crown of feeding tentacles that can be retracted into the tube. This S. spallanzanii worm was photographed in Arrábida Natural Park, Portugal.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

Fumarole minerals are minerals that are deposited by fumarole exhalations. They form when gases and compounds desublimate or precipitate out of condensates, forming mineral deposits. They are mostly associated with volcanoes (as volcanic sublimate or fumarolic sublimate), following deposition from volcanic gas during an eruption or discharge from a volcanic vent or fumarole, but have been encountered on burning coal deposits as well. They can be black or multicoloured and are often unstable upon exposure to the atmosphere. This natural-color photomicrograph of fumarole minerals from Mutnovsky, a volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, was taken using a scanning electron microscope. Yellow and red crystals of thallium(I) iodide are visible, with a gradual transition between the two polymorphs. The crystals are located on a substrate of altered rock. This image is 700 micrometres (0.028 in) across on the long side.

Photograph credit: Mikhail Zelensky

The Battle of Inab, also called the Battle of Ard al-Hâtim or Fons Muratus, was fought on 29 June 1149 during the Second Crusade. The Zengid army of Nur al-Din Zengi destroyed the combined army of Raymond of Poitiers and the Assassins of Ali ibn-Wafa. The Principality of Antioch was subsequently pillaged and reduced in size as its eastern border was pushed west, and both Raymond and his ally ibn-Wafa were killed. This illustration by Jean Colombe was taken from the 14th-century manuscript Passages d'outremer and depicts the Battle of Inab in the main image above, with the recovery of Raymond's body depicted below. It is part of a volume of 66 such full-page miniatures.

Illustration credit: Jean Colombe

Gibson's albatross (Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni) is a large seabird in the albatross family, Diomedeidae, named after the Australian amateur ornithologist John Douglas Gibson. It is found principally in the Auckland Islands of New Zealand, foraging in the Tasman Sea, with most individuals nesting on Adams Island. Gibson's albatross is classified as part of the same species as the Antipodean albatross but is generally paler in colour. Adult birds are white on the back, with white plumage on the head and body and fine grey barring. The tail is white with black edges, except in older males, in which it may be completely white, while the bill is pale pink. This Gibson's albatross was photographed in flight off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia.

Photograph credit: John Harrison