Scott Roberts with the apochromatic refractor telescope presented to National Young Astronomer Award winner John Hodge. Explore Scientific, LLC Most amateur astronomers are familiar with Scott Roberts. During his days with Meade Instruments , he was a...

NASA’s lone gunmen say they have designed a better, safer, cheaper version of the Ares I crew launcher (above), one of the cornerstones of the post-Shuttle space program. NASA Remember the “ lone gunmen ,” the trio of militantly nonconformist Uber-geeks...

Bob Schneider, the administrator of the Astronomical League Webmaster Award, announced the winners of the group’s annual contest. First place goes to Del Gordon of the Huachuca Astronomy Club . Besides providing information about the club and its events...

For the past few months, the staff at Astronomy has been working on a special publication titled Extreme Weather . On newsstands now, the magazine covers the science of weather and its effects. Extreme Weather features articles on violent weather, weather...

NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin answers a girl’s question at the Experimental Aviation Association’s annual convention July 29. Dick McNally photo NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin says the United States will establish a base on the Moon...

Several astronomy clubs send us their newsletters covering group activities and upcoming sky events. I recently received “Desert Skies” from the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association . While perusing it, I came across the story concerning rattlesnake alerts...

I’ve never been a fan of Home Depot. My typical experience involves trying to locate an employee for assistance, only to find an apathetic teenager who doesn’t know a coupling from a chicken coop. I do my best to avoid Big Orange in favor for my local...

The Galileo spacecraft photographed the binary asteroid Ida (the big one at left) and its tiny satellite Dactyl in 1993. Galileo Project/JPL/NASA Spinning asteroids or skinning cats — there are so many ways to do it. Let’s look at three methods recently...