It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since Carl Sagan died. As you know if you've been interested in astronomy for a long time, Sagan brought an enthusiasm for spreading his passion for astronomy to the public like no other astronomer in...

Spring officially arrived last week at the vernal equinox, when the Sun crossed the celestial equator heading north at 7:07 P.M. CDT March 20. (Unofficially, spring in Wisconsin began last weekend, when the temperature soared to 80° F (27° C)...

They say that Galileo dropped cannon balls and feathers off the Tower of Pisa to study gravity. It's not true, but the story remains in the collective memory as an example of how to do modern science: You go out and conduct an experiment yourself...

Why do people attend star parties? Reasons include taking advantage of a dark sky, hearing high-quality astronomy programs, trying new equipment, and interacting with like-minded individuals. The top reason, however, is to see stuff . In March, the Messier...

I'm a late boomer, born in 1963 at the tail end of the baby boom generation, which is generally cited as those born 1944-1964. My childhood coincided with the heyday of the U.S. space program, and along with it, a public-relations push we school kids...

MRO snapped this image of boulder-strewn terrain in the martian arctic. Originally, this area was the top candidate for the Phoenix spacecraft’s landing site. Mission planners have now shifted focus to less-rocky terrain. NASA/JPL/University of...

Backyard astronomers long for the next really bright comet. There's hardly anything to equal a brilliant comet's magnificence in the sky. For those who caught a glimpse of Comet McNaught in the January twilight sky, the view was great. But you...

Despite our best efforts to track down the northern lights, the weather didn't cooperate for us last night either: Wind gusts blew in clouds from over the ocean, blocking our view of the sky. While we're all a little disappointed, no one in our...

As a breed, Icelandic horses are virtually unchanged since Viking times. Laura Baird The northern lights have still eluded us, but the group has kept busy with other activities. Yesterday, part of our group set out to Thorsmork Valley, a nature preserve...

For 3 weeks, an angel and a devil have perched on my shoulders. The devil whispers in my left ear, "Blog about the global-warming-on-Mars thing! C'mon, it'll be fun!" The angel on my right shoulder says, "Don't do it! You can't...

The Skogar folk museum preserves these 19th- century homes. Laura Baird Today we traveled to the south shore, where we saw black-sand beaches, took close-up looks at the snow-covered volcanoes that dominate the view from our hotel room, and spied the...

The total lunar eclipse March 3 was a test. I'm sure of it. The question was, "How much do you love astronomy?" Or, maybe I could rephrase it to, "What are you willing to endure to observe a minor astronomical event?" For amateur...

The water plunging over the "golden falls," Gulfoss, is from one of Iceland's glaciers. Laura Baird I'm traveling on Astronomy and MWT Associates' Northern Lights and Lava Fields of Iceland Tour, in search of the aurora borealis...

This past week was a special one watching television at the Eicher household. Yeah, The Office was on again, the much-treasured Curb Your Enthusiasm reruns and travel shows on European destinations for next year. But something really special was also...

Yesterday was pi day. I knew because it was March 14, or 3/14, or 3.14 — the crudest approximation of ∏ (pi), the number that describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. As most of us learned in grade school, pi is...

State legislators in New Mexico vote today whether to declare March 13, 2007, "Pluto Planet Day." Up for consideration is a "joint memorial" sponsored by Representative Joni Marie Gutierrez, Democrat of Doña Ana County: "...

Since 1968, the Sidewalk Astronomers have literally brought astronomy to the people. Beginning in California, the group has set up equipment in public venues throughout the word, showing passersby night-sky delights. Now the group is organizing the International...

Experts met at the Planetary Defense Conference in Washington earlier this week (March 5–8) to discuss how to protect Earth from asteroid and comet impacts. The good news, according to Simon Worden, director of the NASA-Ames Research Center, is...

Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Joshua Valcarcel snapped a series of 15 eclipse portraits March 3/4 from the deck of the USS Boxer , which is conducting Maritime Security Operations in support of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. U.S. Navy/Joshua Valcarcel...

Hubert Curien (1924–2005) ESA Perhaps as long as humans have had language, we've been naming stuff after ourselves. It's a way of conferring immortality. This holds true for the solar system at large. Major craters on the Moon, deep valleys...

Nineteenth-century refractors employed high magnifications. Astronomers observing with the 40-inch telescope at Yerkes Observatory typically used in magnification higher than 400x. Ernie Mastroianni Last week, the University of Chicago announced the formation...

Amateur astronomy lost one of its ambassadors Sunday, January 28, 2007. Vic Winter, just about the friendliest person you'll ever meet on an observing field, passed away in his sleep. He was 53. I first met Vic January 28, 1989, 18 years to the day...

David J. Eicher Back in the day, I would go out to a cornfield astride the neighborhood where I grew up with my 8-inch scope, my dog Oscar, a box of cookies, a star atlas, and a pad of paper. We would explore the sky all night long, uncovering deep-sky...

BeppoSAX captured the X-ray afterglow of GRB 970228 just 8 hours after the burst triggered the satellite’s gamma-ray detector (left). The glow had faded considerably just 3 days later (right). ASI Last week marked the 20th anniversary of supernova...