Nature & little joys · Published 19 October 2026
Autumn’s colour chart looks rather good from space
A satellite view of Poland’s mountains turns a familiar autumn colour hunt into something wonderfully big.
NASA’s Image of the Day for 19 October shows autumn in Bieszczady National Park in south-eastern Poland. The Landsat 9 satellite captured the view on 8 October: forested ridges ripple across the image, interrupted by pale, grassy high meadows.
Beech trees bring reds and golds to the scene. With shorter days and cooler weather, leaves produce less chlorophyll; as the green fades, other colours become easier to see. The satellite perspective makes those seasonal changes look like a landscape-sized colour chart.
Our smaller-scale suggestion: spot three different leaf colours on your next local walk, then compare photographs over a cuppa. No satellite required — and the leaves can stay exactly where you found them.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory, published 19 October 2026. Our perspective and gift suggestions are separate from the source reporting.
