The past few days have been busy for the Bucket List Astronomy Tour (BLAsT) Class , a group of 10 Sam Houston State University undergraduate students on a journey to witness some of the best astronomical events of a lifetime. The students finished up...

As I’m sure we all remember, International Astronomy Day this year was April 28, and I’ve been hearing from lots of clubs about how they spent this special day as part of Astronomy ’s Discover the Universe program . I especially enjoyed...

The Bucket List Astronomy Tour (BLAsT) Class continues for 10 Sam Houston State University students and their two professors, Dr. Scott Miller and Dr. C Renee James. And although the class gets to visit fantastic astronomical sites (and are hopefully...

The Bucket List Astronomy Tour (BLAsT) Class continues for 10 Sam Houston State University students and their two professors, Dr. Scott Miller and Dr. C Renee James. The group is still in Arizona soaking up the many astronomical sites that state has to...

The final day of the MWT Associates, Inc., tour to see the major astronomical sites of Arizona and New Mexico — and last Sunday’s annular solar eclipse, of course — was just as beautiful as the previous four. Sunny skies have been the...

Here are some further thoughts about the annular eclipse of May 20, 2012, which I viewed with a group of some 20 friends (if you haven't, read part 1 first ). 5) The eclipse itself was a spectacle. Granted, it was not a total eclipse, but there was...

Currently, 10 Sam Houston State University undergraduate students are traveling the world to witness some fantastic astronomical phenomena for the Bucket List Astronomy Tour (BLAsT) Class , led by astronomy professors Dr. Scott Miller and Dr. C. Renee...

One thing you learn when visiting Arizona and New Mexico: It takes a long time to get from one place to another. Fortunately, Monday’s long drive was worth it. The destination for our MWT Associates, Inc., tour was the Karl Jansky Very Large Array...

Astronomy ’s fantastic illustrator, Elisabeth Roen Kelly, traveled south from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over the weekend to witness her first solar eclipse. She, like Senior Editors Rich Talcott and Michael Bakich , had perfect skies for this awesome...

Here are some of my thoughts after Sunday's celestial spectacle: 1) The location was fantastic. We set up in a public park on grass as lush as I have ever seen. The feel of that turf, plus the fact that solar radiation wasn't baking us from below,...

The Sun is dead! Long live the Sun! According to Navaho tradition, the Sun “dies” during a solar eclipse. People are instructed to stay inside and keep quiet. They also may not eat, drink, work, or even sleep. Violating these beliefs can lead...

Yesterday was the day before the Moon crosses directly in front of the Sun. Unfortunately, our lone natural satellite lies too far from Earth to totally block it's light. The result? An annular eclipse , at whose peak a ring of the Sun's disk still surrounds...

The Bucket List Astronomy Tour (BLAsT) Class is officially off and running. Led by Sam Houston State University astronomy professors Dr. Scott Miller and Dr. C. Renee James, a frequent contributor to Astronomy magazine, the class is taking 10 undergraduate...

Approximately 50,000 years ago, a 150-foot-wide piece of an asteroid weighing some 300,000 tons slammed into northern Arizona at 26,000 mph. The impact released as much energy as 2.5 megatons of TNT — equivalent to 150 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs...

Nature has dealt a nasty blow to Arizona these past few days. Near-record heat (Phoenix hit 107° Fahrenheit a couple of days ago) and massive wildfires have plagued the state, with no signs of relief in sight. But nature will offer an olive branch...

On Sunday, May 20, observers along a narrow line throughout the western United States will be able to see the Sun, the Moon, and Earth line up. Unfortunately, the Moon will be near its farthest point from Earth, so it won’t totally cover the Sun’s...

Astronomy Day has passed, but it’s not the only time to introduce people to the skies. Astronomy magazine’s Discover the Universe program works with clubs all year to bring sidewalk astronomy to the astronomically challenged. Gerry Lyons,...