Caption: 这张图像是由信使号探测器（英文缩写：MESSENGER，意译为“水星表面、空间环境、环境化学与测距“）获取的水星表面拼接图像的合成图。信使号由美国宇航局于2004年发射，并在2011年至2015年间对水星进行了探索。
Credit: 美国国家航空航天局/约翰霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室/华盛顿卡内基研究所 credit link

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Still images of celestial patterns.   This photograph shows the young lunar crescent, some of the nine brightest stars of the Pleiades (with one behind a cloud) on the right, and the planet Mercury, looking slightly red, in the middle of the image. This picture is rather suggestive of the idea that the Pleiades might possibly consist of seven stars. However, the viewer is misled by the clouds; five of the stars form a tiny chariot, one is next to the handle, and three are at the other end of the quadrilateral. Eight stars would be clearly visible if there were no clouds. This configuration of the young Moon next to the Pleiades is visible only in the northern hemisphere spring. Thus it was used by the ancient Babylonians to determine the second month of their year and to judge whether or not an intercalary month was necessary. At least as early as the second millennium before the common era, the Babylonians used several asterisms for each month, with another one of them reappearing every five days after invisibility during daylight. To determine the necessity of intercalation in order to synchronise the solar and the lunar year, the Babylonians used several asterisms, not only the Pleiades. For instance, they also made use of the bright stars Arcturus and Sirius, and they observed a configuration with the Moon as well as heliacal phenomena. The modern Jewish and modern Islamic traditions still make use of some of the Babylonian astronomical rules. However, given that the constellations have shifted as a result of precession, and the fact that nowadays we also have computational means to calculate our calendars, this configuration of the small crescent Moon and the Pleiades is less useful, though it remains exceptionally beautiful. Thus the ancient Babylonian and middle Babylonian tradition survives only rudimentarily. Furthermore, it is unlikely that it is depicted in the Nebra Disc from Bronze Age Europe, as has long been claimed. This image was taken on Elba Island, Italy, in May 2022.
Credit: Giulio Colombo/ IAU OAE

Caption: 在这张合成图中，可以看到水星（左）和金星（右）都在向日落进发。水星和金星降落时的相位都被捕捉到了，非常漂亮。从地球上看，太阳系中并非所有行星或卫星都会出现相位。出现这种现象是因为金星和水星的轨道位于地球轨道和太阳之间，有时我们只能看到每颗行星某一部分受到光照。它们的相位与我们看到的月球相位相似。
Credit: 玛塞拉-朱利亚-佩斯 (CC BY 4.0)