John Brecher / NBC News

Star trails light the night sky above observatories atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. In the distance is Haleakala on the island of Maui. Look at the image through red-blue glasses to see the 3-D effect.

What better way to start off the year than with a beautiful view of the heavens from one of the world's highest astronomical vantage points? Here's one way to make it better: Show it in 3-D!

This picture of the Mauna Kea Observatories was captured last month by NBC News' John Brecher during a visit to Hawaii's Big Island. The 13,796-foot-high (4,205-meter-high) facility is home to 13 telescopes, ranging from the University of Hawaii's 0.9-meter educational telescope to the 25-meter radio dish used as part of the Very Long Baseline Array.

Here you see, from left, Japan's Subaru Telescope; the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes, operated by Caltech and the University of California; and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. Maui's Haleakala volcano looms in the far background, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away. As my colleague Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy blog would say, "Holy Haleakala!"

The view is really worth exclaiming about when you see it in 3-D. If you can't make your way to Mauna Kea just now and see it in person, put on some red-blue glasses to look into the sky's depths. If you're in the market for 3-D spectacles, check out this list of online vendors. You can also keep an eye on the Cosmic Log Facebook page for our next 3-D glasses giveaway, and use your specs to see all the cosmic 3-D pictures we've pointed to over the past decade.

Here's to a delightful year of discoveries — from Mauna Kea and the rest of the world's great telescopes.

More astronomy for the new year:

• 'Comet of the Century' and other 2013 highlights
• Slideshow: The Year in Space Pictures
• 2013's first meteor shower nears peak
• This might be the year for first 'alien Earth'

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Stuart Atkinson

Image-processing whiz Stuart Atkinson produced this 3-D view of wheel tracks extending away from NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars, as captured by the rover's hazard avoidance cameras. On either side of the tracks, you can see bright spots, or "scours," that were created by the blast from the spacecraft's descent-stage thrusters. The curved horizon is due to the cameras' fisheye lens. Red-blue glasses are required to get the 3-D effect.

There's nothing like a pair of red-blue glasses to add some perspective to a cosmic scene like the Curiosity rover's surroundings on Mars. Now that the rover has left its mark on the reddish Martian gravel, these 3-D views give you a better idea what it'd be like to walk in Curiosity's footsteps ... er, wheel tracks.

The red-blue views were created by British educator-astronomer Stuart Atkinson. He's one of those people who have a knack for doing mighty things with NASA imagery, sometimes even before NASA gets the chance to do likewise. You'll find plenty of those people hanging out at UnmannedSpaceflight.com — but Atkinson also maintains his own visual gardens of delight, including The Road to Endeavour for imagery from the Opportunity rover, and The Gale Gazette for Curiosity's pictures.

Not all of Atkinson's pictures are served up in 3-D, but these are two gems from today's haul that take advantage of Curiosity's capability for stereo imagery. The six-wheeled rover has 17 onboard cameras, and 14 of them are grouped in pairs. That includes the two Mastcam cameras, which come in wide-angle and telephoto; the four navigation cameras, which come in two pairs, left and right; and the eight hazard avoidance cameras, which are doubled up on the left and right, front and rear.

When the left and right images from any of those camera systems are put together in just the right way, the result is a 3-D image that the Curiosity team's drivers and scientists can use to plot the rover's future course. Today, project scientist Joy Crisp said it was even possible to set up a long-range, high-resolution 3-D picture by snapping one picture with the telephoto Mastcam, then moving the rover just enough to snap the other image for the stereo view. Apollo moonwalkers used a similar strategy called the "stereo cha-cha" to snap most of the 3-D pictures that were taken on the moon: The photographer took one picture while putting his weight on the left leg, then shifted his weight over to the right leg and snapped the second picture.

Once Curiosity is fully up and running, it'll be able to send back HD stereo frames for 3-D movies from Mars. When Curiosity starts its climb up the 3-mile-high mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp, we could be in for some impressive stereo views of the Martian landscape. But it'll be a while before we get those 3-D thrills. For the next couple of months, Curiosity's course is expected to be pretty two-dimensional — and that's the way the mission managers like it.

"We should have smooth sailing ahead of us," lead rover driver Matt Heverly said today.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Stuart Atkinson

A stereo view from the Curiosity rover's navigation camera system shows wheel tracks going around a rock at the Mars landing site.

More imagery from Mars:

• Watch the rover fall to Mars ... in HD!
• Mars rover takes its first drive at Bradbury Landing
• Where's Curiosity going? Rover's arm points the way
• Watch the Curiosity rover wiggle its wheels
• Cosmic Log archive of 3-D imagery

Got 3-D? To get the stereo effect from these red-blue images, you need special glasses with red and blue lenses. You may be able to find 3-D glasses at your local novelty shop, or you can order them online. NASA offers this list of online providers, as well as instructions for making your own 3-D glasses. I've also set up a weekly "Where in the Cosmos" photo puzzle that offers free 3-D glasses as the grand prize. The next puzzle will be posted to the Cosmic Log Facebook page on Friday. Be sure to "like" the page so you don't miss out.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU

Three Martian whirlwinds, known as dust devils, whirl in this picture captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Feb. 11.

It's eerie enough to see one whirlwind swirling across the Martian surface, but three? Get out your 3-D glasses and spot the three dust devils rising from Amazonis Planitia, as seen by the high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

These mini-twisters are analogous to the dust devils that are whipped up on sunny afternoons on Earth, due to the rise of hot air through a low-pressure pocket of cooler air above it. In February, the Mars orbiter spotted a couple of prominent examples of the phenomenon that rose as high as 12 miles into the Red Planet's thin atmosphere. These three dust devils aren't nearly as big, but seeing them simultaneously in one 3-D picture gives you an idea just how active the wind patterns on Mars can get.

"The active dust devils seem to float above the surface," says Arizona State University's Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the camera, known as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment or HiRISE. "There are also some bright lines present ... those are the tracks of dust devils that passed through this region in the prior two weeks."

For more from Mars, check out the HiRISE website — and as long as you have your 3-D glasses out, take a look at HiRISE's 3-D image gallery. What? You don't have your 3-D glasses yet? This NASA webpage lists some online vendors. While you're at it, think about picking up some sun-viewing spectacles for the May 20 annular solar eclipse. On Friday, I'll be giving away a combo pack of 3-D glasses and eclipse glasses as the prize in our weekly "Where in the Cosmos" photo contest; watch for that on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.

More about Mars:

• NASA re-creates dust devil in 3-D
• Video: Watch a Martian twister spin
• Twisty dust devil captured on Mars
• Watch a dust devil spin in the Martian arctic
• Slideshow: Greatest hits from the Red Planet

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Nathanial Burton-Bradford / NASA

Nathanial Burton-Bradford put together this 3-D view of the shuttle Atlantis' launch on July 8. Use red-blue glasses to see the stereo effect.

NASA's last space shuttle mission and its next Mars mission both look twice as awesome in stereo — and you can look forward to more 3-D goodness to come.

The picture of Atlantis' launch on July 8 comes courtesy of Nathanial Burton-Bradford, a British aficionado of anaglyph imagery. Burton-Bradford's Flickr page offers views of the launch as well as a panorama of the shuttle docked to the International Space Station, plus a space station view of Atlantis' descent last week.

Even though Atlantis' 13-day mission and the 30-year space shuttle program have ended, there are lots of 3-D views yet to come. Several professional stereo camera rigs were set up at the launch site, and Panasonic provided 3-D camcorders for Atlantis' crew to use during their training and spaceflight. The 3-D cameras are to be used aboard the space station going forward.

Vertical Ascent Productions captured the launch as well as the landing in 3-D, for use in a 45-minute special due to air on Aug. 5 as part of inDemand's "In Deep" series. The show was commissioned by Comcast, and other inDemand affiliates will have access to the special as well, Multichannel News reported.

3-D on Mars
If film director James Cameron had his way, we'd be looking forward to even more exotic 3-D video next year. At one time, the man behind "Avatar," "Titanic" and other Hollywood blockbusters was working with NASA to put a high-resolution 3-D zoom camera aboard the car-sized Curiosity rover.

Alas, it was not to be: Mission planners determined that the camera couldn't be ready in time for the probe's scheduled launch on Nov. 25. NASA had to go with the fixed focal-length system that was originally planned for the rover.

NASA / JPL-Caltech

This stereo image of NASA's Curiosity rover was taken on May 26 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, about a month before the car-sized rover — also known as the Mars Science Laboratory — was shipped to Kennedy Space Center in preparation for its November launch to the Red Planet.

Even that dual-camera Mastcam system has stereo capability, so we'll still be seeing stereo views. In fact, both cameras are capable of taking high-resolution video at a rate of about 10 frames per second. But because the cameras have different focal lengths, 3-D imagery will not be "a major emphasis of the investigation," according to the camera's manufacturer, Malin Space Science Systems.

You don't have to wait until the Curiosity rover's landing next May to enjoy 3-D views from the Red Planet. Spirit and Opportunity, the twin rovers that landed on Mars in 2004, have sent back loads of stereo images — and the vistas are likely to get even more dramatic once Opportunity reaches the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is also taking stereo pictures of Mars, from high above. You can click through more than 2,000 3-D images from the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE.

As you graze through the nearly 19,000 pictures in HiRISE's catalog, you'll occasionally come across image pages that offer "anaglyph" versions of the scene — and that's a tip-off that 3-D goodness is available. 

This picture of the central mound at Gale Crater, the top target for Curiosity's $2.5 billion mission, is a good example:   

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Ariz.

This stereo image shows the northeast section of the central mound within Gale Crater on Mars, which appears to include layers of sulfate minerals. Gale Crater's mound rises 3 miles (5 kilometers) above the floor of the crater and has been selected as the target for NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover mission.

How to see in 3-D
By now you're probably wondering where to get the red-blue glasses you need to see the 3-D effect. Inexpensive cardboard spectacles are generally inserted in 3-D books or DVD packages — but for the pictures that you see on this page and on most other websites, you'll want to make sure you have the red-blue (or red-cyan) filters rather than amber-blue or green-magenta filters.

The red-blue glasses may be available at novelty shops, and you can also order them online. Here's a list of vendors from NASA. In addition to the outlets on NASA's list, there's Amazon.com and 3DGlasses.net. NASA even provides instructions for making your own 3-D glasses.

I've been known to give away 3-D glasses that are provided courtesy of Microsoft Research, which includes 3-D imagery in its WorldWide Telescope astronomy software. (Microsoft and NBC Universal are partners in the msnbc.com joint venture.) This week, I'm sending out more than 20 free sets of cardboard glasses to readers who asked for them on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. The giveaway glasses are already spoken for, so please click on the "like" button to become part of Cosmic Log's Facebook community and be ready for the next giveaway.

Once you have your glasses, click through these links to sample more 3-D goodies from outer space:

• See the asteroid Vesta in 3-D
• See the ultimate space shot in 3-D
• Explore the 3-D depths of Mars
• Get a fresh 3-D look at Phobos
• See a Martian crater in 3-D
• See a Martian milestone in 3-D
• See the Martian arctic in 3-D
• See more depths of Mars in 3-D
• 3-D delights from Mars
• Still more from Mars in 3-D
• Go on a space mission in 3-D
• See the moon's marvels in 3-D
• Saturn's moons in 3-D
• More from outer space in 3-D
• Fly through a nebula in 3-D
• Cosmic Log's 3-D-O-Rama

And while you're at it, check out the 2-D images in the latest installment of our "Month in Space Pictures" slideshow. Many of the pictures this month are from Atlantis' mission, but there are lots of other gems to enjoy. Click on these links for larger versions of the images, suitable for printing or turning into wallpaper for your display devices:

• Waiting for the last launch
• A wing and a prayer
• Liftoff!
• Look! Up in the sky!
• Final approach
• Moving man
• Back to Earth
• Night landing
• Mission accomplished
• Mystery with a twist
• Vesta in full view
• Shadow on the moon
• Galaxy-wide web
• Galactic get-together
• Great White Spot
• Soccer ball in space
• Houston, we have a pitcher

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. 

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image with its framing camera on July 17. It was taken from a distance of about 9,500 miles from the asteroid Vesta.

Today NASA unveiled the first pictures of the asteroid Vesta as seen from an orbiting spacecraft. The pictures of the not-quite-round, 330-mile-wide (530-kilometer-wide) world were sent across a distance of 117 million miles (188 million kilometers). after the Dawn orbiter's successful weekend rendezvous.

Dawn went into orbit around 1 a.m. ET Saturday, at a distance of about 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometers) from Vesta. The pockmarked space rock ranks as the asteroid belt's No. 1 object in brightness, No. 2 in mass (behind the dwarf planet Ceres) and No. 3 in diameter (behind Ceres and the asteroid Pallas).

Size isn't everything: Scientists are interested in Vesta largely because it's thought to be made of the stuff that dominated the early solar system. Once upon a time, before they snowballed into the big planets we see today, most of the objects in our celestial neighborhood may well have looked like Vesta.

"We are beginning the study of arguably the oldest extant primordial surface in the solar system," the $466 million Dawn mission's principal investigator, Christopher Russell of the University of California at Los Angeles, said in today's image advisory. "This region of space has been ignored for far too long. So far, the images received to date reveal a complex surface that seems to have preserved some of the earliest events in Vesta's history, as well as logging the onslaught that Vesta has suffered in the intervening eons."

To me, Vesta's most interesting scar is the huge crater that was left on its southern end by an ancient impact. The crater is roughly the width of Ohio — so big that it looks more like a dent than a crater. The shattering impact threw off a large amount of debris. Astronomers estimate that about 6 percent of the meteorites that fall to Earth have come from the asteroid.

This stereo view of Vesta looks at the south polar crater straight on, which explains why the picture looks so flat, even through red-blue glasses. The terrain seems to be smooshed in by Vesta's blast from the past:

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA

This anaglyph image of the south polar region of the asteroid Vesta was put together from two clear filter images, taken on July 9 by the framing camera instrument aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft.The anaglyph image shows the rough topography in the south polar area, including a large mountain, impact craters, grooves and steep scarps in three dimensions. Use red-blue glasses to view in 3-D.

Dawn's arrival at Vesta comes after nearly four years of cruising through deep space. "Dawn slipped gently into orbit with the same grace it has displayed during its years of ion thrusting through interplanetary space," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It is fantastically exciting that we will begin providing humankind its first detailed view of one of the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system."

During the next three weeks, the probe will settle into orbit, look around the asteroid to see if it has any moons, and get ready for a yearlong stretch of scientific observations. In 2012, Dawn will leave Vesta behind and start making its way toward a 2015 rendezvous with Ceres, a 590-mile-wide (950-kilometer-wide) world that has enough bigness and roundness to qualify as a dwarf planet. To find out where Ceres and other worlds stand nowadays, check out our interactive look at "the new solar system."

NASA / JPL-Caltech / JAXA / ESA

This composite shows the comparative sizes of eight asteroids that have been spotted by space probes.

More 3-D views from space:

• See the ultimate space shot in 3-D
• Explore the 3-D depths of Mars
• Get a fresh 3-D look at Phobos
• See a Martian crater in 3-D
• See a Martian milestone in 3-D
• See the Martian arctic in 3-D
• See more depths of Mars in 3-D
• 3-D delights from Mars
• Still more from Mars in 3-D
• Go on a space mission in 3-D
• See the moon's marvels in 3-D
• Saturn's moons in 3-D
• More from outer space in 3-D
• Fly through a nebula in 3-D
• Cosmic Log's 3-D-O-Rama

Got 3-D? NASA provides some suggestions for purchasing red-blue glasses via mail order, and you also may be able to find them at novelty stores. I've been known to send out 3-D glasses to Cosmic Log readers, and although I'm not quite ready for the next giveaway, you'll be the first to know if you "like" the Cosmic Log Facebook page. You can also connect with the Cosmic Log community by following @b0yle on Twitter. To learn even more about Ceres and other dwarf planets (including Pluto, my personal favorite), you can check out my book, "The Case for Pluto."  

The Library of Congress announced a fascinating glimpse of Civil War images to be viewed in 3-D.

Library of Congress Photography Curator Carol Johnson said on their blog that stereo photography first became popular around the time of the Civil War. In fact, many Civil War photographs were made specifically to be viewed in 3-D.

U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers via Library of Congress

A group of nine men pose in front of a tent with a surveying instrument at left. The two men seated center and right are most likely Frederick W. Door and John W. Donn. The officer seated to the left is William H. Paine who invented the steel tape reel worn by the man standing on the right. Standing second from right appears to be Allan Pinkerton. Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.

The Library of Congress is featuring images of original Civil War stereographs on Flickr along with recently acquired digital anaglyphs made from several of the stereo views. Anaglyphs are the blue and red tinted images you need those funny 3-D glasses for.

Library of Congress

General Ulysses S. Grant leans over a bench to examine a map held by General George G. Meade at a council of war in 1864.

Many stereograph cards like the one above are being digitized and made available online. There are already over 350 on display here.

Library of Congress

Stone church in Centreville, Va. during the Civil War.

Library of Congress

Anaglyph stereograph made from digital images of a pair of stereograph negatives (above) by George N. Barnard in March 1862.

In addition to anaglyphs, the Flickr set features rare stereographs printed on cards and some of the Library’s unique original glass negative stereo plates.

Library of Congress

Library of Congress

Anaglyph stereograph made from digital images of a pair of stereograph negatives (above) of the Petersburg railroad depot in Richmond, Va., during the Civil War.

Related content:
Civil War stereographs on Flickr
Library of Congress' 1600+ stereographs
Nightly News video: Faces of the Civil War
How Civil War photography changed war