The Onion reports that the Hubble Space Kaleidoscope finally went online Tuesday, capturing the first images which prove beyond a doubt that the universe is utterly crazy looking.

According to the article, the HSK features three fine-guidance optical control sensors, a wide field and planetary camera, a faint object spectrograph, and three primary rectangular plane mirrors inside a rotating 30-meter titanium tube. The object chamber, located on the end that gathers and focuses incoming light from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the infrared and ultraviolet continua, is filled with 10,000 pounds of marbles, costume jewelry, beads, and the largest bits of colored glass ever produced.

Here’s a sample image of the crab nabula, taken with the space kaleidoscope.

And here’s an amateur photo of the same nebula I took with my backyard Dobsonian Teleidoscope.

Not nearly as nice, eh?

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