Courtesy NASA

Mercury photographed by Mariner 10 - 1974

Courtesy NASA.

You may not have realised that the image of the Voyager record cover in my previous post was copyright free. Oh yes, I credited the image source - NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

At the turn of the century (I love that line) I was building a series of digital resources on astronomy. Where did I get my images from? NASA.

I remember getting a call from our copyright officer, way back in 2000. He wanted to check out some of the things I’d been building – for copyright clearance, etc. I bundled all the resources I’d had onto a CD. Some had already gone up on the web site.

I had my heart in my mouth, for I’d spent a lot of time creating these resources. But when I showed the pictures to our copyright officer, all he came up with was a beaming smile from ear to lug.

You see, I’d remembered to credit NASA on every photograph. Here’s a recent close up of Mercury. That’s right. The planet. It was taken by the Messenger spacecraft on its second sweep past the first rock from the sun. You can learn more about that mission at the Messenger site.

Mercury photographed by NASA's Messenger - 2008
Courtesy NASA.

NASA photographs of astronauts, or members of their family, are not quite the same though. It would be courteous to clear any such photographs with the people at NASA before publishing.

The pictures are fabulous - literally out of this world.

Thank you NASA! Thank you America! Thank you Obama!