I always feel a special connection to the Hubble telescope. And not just because I taught astronomy in an Earth science class. It is because I know one of the astronauts, Kathryn Thornton, who was a mission specialist EVA crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing and repair mission 1993 (this was the third of her four shuttle missions). Her stories about space travel made me yearn to be an astronaut. Alas, it was not to be (yet!).

James McGrath via Phil Plait first pointed out the Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar for 2009, which began today at The Big Picture. Below is today’s image (check the site every day for more amazing images). James has a nice montage of a few of last year’s photos here.

You can view the 2008 calendar here.

I never get tired of looking at these images.