Like just about everybody else on the planet with email access, I get my share of spam every day. I don’t even let it touch my computer because I use a program to delete it before it ever gets downloaded. But, I still scan the headers once in a while. The titles are pathetic attempts to get me to open a file, only occasionally showing any sense of creativity. Today’s bunch was no different, including a dozen variations on the theme, “Important! You must to open this immediately!” They reminded me of a bad Saturday Night Live sketch involving Dan Akroyd as a hapless foreigner trying to take on American pop culture.

So, I weeded out today’s unfortunate importunings about mail-order brides, junk stocks, products guaranteed to make me lose weight (or grow a certain part of my body “hugest” (as one claimed), and once those were gone, all that remained was a link to one of my favorite sites on the web, Gateway to Astronaut Photography.

This pic was taken by the crew of the International Space Station. The images are arranged by mission, but you can use the handy search tool to find images in just about any theme you can image. A few days ago I was looking for pictures of the Earth’s limb (its “edge” if you will) and ran across some truly lovely visions.

This one to the right was taken by one of the crew members of a shuttle mission. It is part of a sequence that follows “moonset” on orbit.

It doesn’t cost anything to use the site, but you do have to register to get high-resolution (large) copies of images. But, if you just want to browse some of the loveliest images of our planet you’ll ever see, this is the place to do it!