Freebies from Hubble

End of Summer Drawing for Cool Images

I’m a sucker for cool Hubble stuff. It’s probably because I wrote a lot about HST a few years ago (published a couple of books about it, did a couple of fulldome shows about it, you know, like that).  In Hubble Vision, both the book and the fulldome show, I tried to show people what great imagery and data were streaming from this venerable telescope.

Now, the cool thing about Hubble imagery is that it has always been available for download from the Hubble Site web pages. I’ve been active “image miner” there ever since I was working on the first of my two books (with John C. Brandt) about HST science.  And, I know a lot of people who do the same, downloading images as soon as they come up.

Wouldn’t it be cool to get some of those images in 16×20 print size?  I know I’d love it.  And, the folks at HubbleSite are having an End-of-Summer Hubble Picture Giveaway. It’s a random drawing that you can participate in on  HubbleSite’s Facebook page.

They’re planning on drawing three winners a day from Sept. 4-16 — and, here’s an important note:  the app for entering goes live on  the Hubblesite Facebook page on the 4th of September, so mark your calendar and get ready to enter! Each lucky person whose name is drawn will receive one 16 x 20 print of one of three images, selected randomly: Mystic Mountain, The Helix Nebula, or Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300. You can see them at the links below.

Mystic Mountain: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/pr2010013a/

Helix Nebula: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/pr2004032d/

NGC 1300: http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/pr2005001a/

This isn’t the first time that the HST folk have done these drawings, but this one’s special. This time, they’re offering an extra chance to win for users who enter a promo code in the appropriate field.  That promo code is:  SPCEWRITR

HubbleSite’s Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/HubbleTelescope, so head on over there, check out their page and on September 4th, you can start entering the drawing to get a free print image! And be sure and enter in the promo code above.  I don’t get anything out of it — it just gives your entry extra oomph to win an extra image!

Just think about how great a print of one of these three fabby images will look above your desk, or framed and hung in your living room. Or, how it would make a great gift for that space lover in your life.   You really don’t need a good reason to enter — if you like space and love cool space imagery, then here’s your chance to get some for your wall.