star qulit

Isn’t it nice to sleep under the stars? How about sleeping under a quilt of stars instead? Judy Ross, a 68-year-old retired teacher and astronomy enthusiast, has produced this colorful quilt featuring some of her favorite images recorded by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.

Called, appropriately enough, What the Hubble Saw, the quilt features (starting clockwise from the lower right) the Red Rectangle Nebula, the Eskimo Nebula, the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy,V838 Monocerotis (a star in the Milky Way), and the supernova remnant N49 (the remains of an exploded star).

Ross says her love of astronomy is due to growing up in the high desert of southern Idaho, “when there was no light pollution and no television and every night was the best show you could ever imagine.” She’s made a dozen or so astronomy-themed quilts.

What the Hubble Saw is now hanging in Ross’s living room. Unfortunately, sized at only 41 by 38 inches, it’s just a little bit too small for her to sleep under.

For more on the Hubble Space Telescope and its spectacular images go to hubblesite.org

To see another Ross quilt go to antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031017.html

This article appeared in the April 2005 issue of the children’s science magazine Muse.
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