Wikipedia:Picture of the day/May 2016

Pisces is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is the Latin plural for fish. It lies between Aquarius to the west and Aries to the east. The ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect within this constellation and in Virgo. In Greek mythology, Pisces was associated with Aphrodite and Eros, who escaped from the monster Typhon by leaping into the sea and transforming themselves into fish.

Illustration: Sidney Hall; restoration: Adam Cuerden

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Crater Lake is situated in a 7,700-year-old caldera in the Cascades of south-central Oregon, United States. The focus of Crater Lake National Park, it is famous for its intense blue color and the clarity of its water. The lake is the deepest in the United States at 594 m (1,950 ft) and, though no rivers flow into or out of it, its waters are replaced every 250 years through rain and snowfall. A post-caldera cinder cone forms Wizard Island.

Photograph: WolfmanSF

The Kota Kinabalu City Mosque is the second main mosque in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, after State Mosque in Sembulan. Preparations for the mosque began in 1989, and after several delays it was officially opened in 2000 and nicknamed "The Floating Mosque" as it sits on a man-made lagoon. The Kota Kinabalu City Mosque has room for 12,000 worshipers.

Photograph: Uwe Aranas

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An Alaskan parchment scrip banknote in the denomination of 1 ruble, printed on vellum or parchment by the Russian-American Company. On the obverse, the horizontal text immediately beneath the double-headed eagle reads "Seal of the Russian American Company". The oval text reads "under august protection of His Imperial Majesty", and under the oval is the value of the note "one ruble".

Alaskan parchment scrip was used as a form of company scrip in Alaska when it was a possession of the Russian Empire. In circulation from 1816 to 1867, such scrip could be printed on vellum, parchment, or pinniped skin. Denominations of 10, 25, 50 kopecks and 1, 5, 10, and 25 rubles were issued.

Banknote: Russian-American Company; image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution

A comparison of plumage characteristics between

Photograph: Seán B. A. Kelly, David J. Kelly, Natalie Cooper, Andi Bahrun, Kangkuso Analuddin, Nicola M. Marples

A view (directly overhead) of the

Birdy (born 1996) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. She won the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12, and her debut single, a version of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love", charted all across Europe and Australia. Her self-titled debut album, Birdy, was released on 7 November 2011 to similar success. She has since released two further albums: Fire Within (2013) and Beautiful Lies (2016).

Photograph: Harald Krichel

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Video: NASA

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The Washington Family is a life-sized group portrait of U. S. President George Washington, First Lady Martha, two of her grandchildren (George and Eleanor Parke Custis), and an enslaved servant (probably Christopher Sheels) completed by Edward Savage. Based on life studies made early in Washington's presidency, Savage began the work in New York City in 1789–90, and completed it several years later in Philadelphia, 1795–96. The painting is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Painting: Edward Savage

A side-by-side comparison of the

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Photograph: Paolo Costa Baldi

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The effects of a month of forced

A map of the