Is the picture really today's?

Yes. The pipeline fetches NASA's official Astronomy Picture of the Day, so it matches what's published on NASA's site that day.

What if today's APOD is a video?

On video days the saver shows the title and date with a note to visit apod.nasa.gov, since it displays still images.

The pipeline uses NASA's public demo access, so there's nothing for you to obtain. The saver just reads the saved picture.

Why does it use a pipeline?

It keeps the saver simple and avoids any rate limits — the picture changes only once a day, so a daily fetch is plenty.

Yes — free, no download, in your browser.

NASA Picture of the Day Screensaver

The Picture of the Day screensaver shows NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day full-bleed, with a slow Ken Burns drift and its title, refreshed daily through the pipeline — a new window onto the cosmos every day. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.

How the Picture of the Day screensaver works

A background pipeline fetches NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day once a day and saves the image and its caption.

The saver loads that image and fills the screen with it, cropping gently so there are no bars.

A slow Ken Burns zoom and pan keeps the still image feeling alive.

The title and date are laid over a soft gradient at the bottom, and a new picture arrives each day.

A worked example

One day it's a glittering nebula, the next a comet or a galaxy — like today's AR 4478: Giant Sunspot Group — each filling the screen with a slow cinematic drift and captioned with NASA's title for the day.

Settings & tips

Ken Burns drift toggles the slow zoom and pan.
Show title toggles the caption bar.
Run automation/run.py apod on your pipeline machine to fetch the latest picture.

Frequently asked questions

Is the picture really today's?: Yes. The pipeline fetches NASA's official Astronomy Picture of the Day, so it matches what's published on NASA's site that day.
What if today's APOD is a video?: On video days the saver shows the title and date with a note to visit apod.nasa.gov, since it displays still images.
Does it need a key?: The pipeline uses NASA's public demo access, so there's nothing for you to obtain. The saver just reads the saved picture.
Why does it use a pipeline?: It keeps the saver simple and avoids any rate limits — the picture changes only once a day, so a daily fetch is plenty.
Is it free?: Yes — free, no download, in your browser.

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