For months now, professional scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike have awaited the result of congressional negotiations over NASA’s 2012 fiscal year budget. The big question: Would the troubled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the space...

These are exciting times for skywatchers. First, we’ll have a celestial guest in the form of asteroid 2005 YU55 , which will slip in between Earth and the Moon tomorrow but presents no danger to us at all . It’ll be some 200,000 miles (320...

Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Tony Hallas joined me at The Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) in Santa Clara, California, November 3–6. This was the eighth annual meeting of this group. More than 300 imagers from around the world attended...

It seems Russia just can’t catch a break, at least as far as Mars is concerned. Its latest venture to the Red Planet, the Phobos-Grunt probe, has stalled out in Earth orbit almost certainly dead, and it’ll probably crash back to our planet...

It’s been a little while since our last update about Astronomy magazine’s Discover the Universe program, but Jim Wessel, educational outreach chairman of the Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society , remedies that with news on his group’s...

Day 2 at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC), in Santa Clara, California, started with a bang. The AIC Board of Directors presented its prestigious Hubble Award to Ron Wodaski. They bestow this honor on individuals who have demonstrated significant...

The eighth annual Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) promises to be the best one yet. The 2011 event is being held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California, November 4–6. For the third straight year, Astronomy magazine is proud to be...

Have you ever noticed how by the time most people use the phrase “Well, to make a long story short,” it’s usually too late? You know what I mean ... You’re standing there listening patiently to someone for like five minutes, hearing...

I’m at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC), which for the second straight year is being held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, California. The 2011 version is the conference’s eighth incarnation. November 4–6. For the third...

I have now experienced a full day at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC), in Santa Clara, California. Earlier, I blogged about only the first half of day 1 to keep the length of that entry manageable. Conference organizers scheduled two concurrent...

The second half of day 2 at the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC), in Santa Clara, California, included (for me) more talks and more talking with vendors. Alex Filippenko, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, presented...