Local Group - Astronomy Magazine - Interactive Star Charts, Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

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The story of the (currently suspended) Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

On Friday, October 4, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) was forced to temporarily suspend all U.S. operations because of lack of funding due to the government shutdown. But before this organization (which is a facility of the National Science Foundation) shut its many doors throughout the country, it did release a new 24-minute film about its recently renovated Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, located west of Socorro, New Mexico.Fittingly, Beyond the Visible, ...

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Join the Target Asteroids! team

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Perhaps you live in a city or a blindingly bright suburb. Perhaps you have a 4-inch telescope that’s great for looking at lunar craters but not so hot for more distant objects. Perhaps you have to send your kid to college instead of buying a full-on astroimaging setup. We understand. And so does a professional-amateur collaboration that provides would-be astronomers with top-notch images of asteroids and access to analysis software. Using the data and tools from the International Astronomi...

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What does the government shutdown mean for NASA?

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

What has 18 arms, all of which are broken? Knock, knock.Who’s there?NASA.NASA who?Psych, NASA is shut down. An astronaut, an astronomer, and rocket scientist walk into a bar. Because their place of employment is not functional. All joking aside, the government shutdown is a serious matter, leaving millions without work, without pay, and without the ability to update their employers’ social media sites. NASA is among the organizations that the standstill in Congress has brought to...

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Help students develop a National Astronomy Olympiad

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

What were you doing with your free time in high school? Homework? Band practice? Listening to music loudly and telling people they just didn’t understand you? Forming a national network of science Olympians? Wait, what? Personally, I was doing a lot of the first three but not much of that last one. That makes me different from a group of American students who participated in the 2013 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) — the first astro-reps of the Unit...

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Discover the Universe (and art) in Charlottetown

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Science and art mesh well together, contrary to what you may have heard, and astronomy and art are particularly well-matched. After all, what’s more aesthetically pleasing or philosophically provocative than a look light-years into the distance? With this in mind, the Sidewalk Astronomers of Charlottetown took their skills and scopes to the Art in the Open festival on Prince Edward Island last month. The event in this Canadian province brings together local artists, artisans, and — ...

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Map the Sun's course through the year

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Astronomy can feel a bit abstract. You can’t feel the heat of a supernova, hover inside a star cluster, or set foot on an exoplanet. You can collect photons with your eyes or a camera, measure positions, do calculations — and that’s all great. But there’s something satisfying about getting your hands a little dirtier. Tor Arne Holm, a teacher from Skjetten, Norway, wrote to us about an astronomy project that produces the kind of concrete results that give students the phy...

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Pack your scope and head to Kansas City

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Actually, I should amend the title to “… 75 miles (121 kilometers) south of Kansas City.” That’s where the eighth annual Heart of America Star Party (HoASP) will occur October 3–6. And I’ll be speaking there. Twice. (Whether the second talk has an audience will, I guess, depend on how the first talk goes.) The host of HoASP is the Astronomical Society of Kansas City (ASKC), one of the most active astronomy clubs in North America. Early in 2005, the club acqu...

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The results of "Wave at Saturn"

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

On July 19, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which is currently exploring the Saturn system, was in a position to face Earth and capture an image of how our planet appeared from nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. The mission team hyped the event as “the first time that inhabitants of Earth knew in advance that their planet was being imaged” and decided to therefore encourage public participation. The result? The “Wave at Saturn” campaign, which ask...

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A "new star" appears in the sky

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

On August 14, Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki discovered an exploding star within the boundaries of the constellation Delphinus the Dolphin. Now known as Nova Delphini 2013, the object has brightened since its discovery. At that time, it was a little fainter than the dimmest star the human eye can see. Now, however, it lies within range of naked eyes from a dark site. And even from suburban locations, observers using binoculars or small telescopes can see the star easily. The word no...

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Partying with the Perseids

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

This year, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower occurs August 12/13. Conditions will be ideal because the Moon won’t be a factor. As happened last year, my wife, Holley, and I received a nice invitation from our friends Jim and Tammy Rufener, who live north of Milwaukee in Slinger, Wisconsin. And once again we took them up on their hospitality. Did I mention they also offered breakfast? For both my eyes and my stomach, this is quickly becoming an annual event. Rather than head to their ...

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Curiosity celebrates one year on Mars

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Happy anniversary, Curiosity! As of today (Tuesday, August 6), the most recent Mars rover will have spent a full Earth year on Mars (though it has already adjusted to martian time and thinks counting in Earth years is provincial). In those 365 days, it has drilled more holes, snapped more photos, and shot more lasers than most of us will in our lifetimes. And because of its hard work — and the hard work of the earthling scientists who guide it across the surface of a foreign planet &mdash...

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An interview with Comet ISON's co-discoverer

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

A few weeks ago, our friends at Levenhuk Telescopes conducted an interview with Artyom Novichonok, who, along with his colleague Vitaly Nevsky, discovered Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) in 2012. Levenhuk has graciously allowed us to reproduce the interview here.LT: Artyom, stargazers the world over are looking forward to the arrival of Comet ISON. However, we hardly know anything about the person behind this discovery, apart from the fact that, following your discovery, the University of Cambridge besto...

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Hubble captures Comet ISON with stars and galaxies

Posted 10 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) is making its way toward the inner solar system before its closest approach to the Sun on November 28. During this trek, professional observatories are occasionally photographing it. Researchers with the Hubble Space Telescope released a new image of Comet ISON on July 25. This composite includes photographs taken through two filters: three exposures through Hubble’s V-band filter (which transmits yellow/green light and was captured April 30 as Comet ISON was 363 mi...

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Look to the skies at Lake Tahoe

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you're looking for a place to observe in Utah, Tahoe Star Tours provides memorable stargazing experiences in the western United States. Operating out of the Ritz Carlton Lake Tahoe Resort, star guide Tony Berendsen’s Star Tours include a science talk, a quiz (with prizes), and poetry around the fire pits of the Lodge at Big Springs. Following this, Ryan Berendsen takes guests on a laser tour of the sky and provides views through Celestron telescopes. During “Space Jam Star Tours,...

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ComSciCon guest blog: Bringing distance education to the lab

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

Provided by Nathan Sanders, co-chair of the organizing committee for the 2013 Communicating Science Workshop The Communicating Science (ComSciCon) 2013 workshop brought together 50 graduate students in science and engineering from across the country, along with experts in communicating science from fields including journalism, education, and even theater. For three days, the students and professionals shared effective techniques for communicating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences....

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Get ready for “our” eclipse

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Mark your calendars. The total solar eclipse that people already are talking about — the one that will cross the United States on August 21, 2017 — is 1,500 days away. The media hype has begun. Or, rather, it begins with this blog. I say “hype,” but there’s no way any description can over-hype a total solar eclipse. It’s nature’s grandest spectacle, and anyone who has ever witnessed one comes away mesmerized. Appreciative. Changed. Already, I’ve ...

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Greg Scheiderer plants cosmic seed to interest young people in astronomy

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Greg Scheiderer is the author of the blog Seattle Astronomy and a member of the Seattle Astronomical Society. But he didn’t always lead such a cosmically active life. While he was always interested in astronomy, he only became action-oriented and committed to it in his mid-40s. When he was younger, he had several separate experiences — seeds — that made him think, “Astronomy is rad,” (to paraphrase). He retained that sentiment throughout his early adult years, and o...

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Hubble keeps an eye on Comet ISON

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

As Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) continues its trek toward the inner solar system, NASA and various professional observatories having been periodically observing it. The most recent images come from the Hubble Space Telescope, which captured Comet ISON on May 8 as the solar system interloper was 403 million miles (649 million kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Scientists made a time-lapse movie of the images, which are false-color, visible light photos taken with Hubble&rs...

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An editor’s life — the dark side

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Recently, I took two Advil, which polished off the bottle I had kept in my desk since I opened it 631 days (451 weekdays) ago. That’s how long it took me to go through 100 tablets — two at a time — each containing 200 milligrams of painkiller. At first, I viewed my rate of consumption of a pair of pills each 12.62 days as pretty good. That is, until I looked at the previous bottle. I had purchased that one, which was identical to the one I just depleted, April 9, 2009, and it ...

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Sarah experiences science on SOFIA

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

My previous blog post was an incomplete record of the evening (or, more accurately, the morning). I wrote it just before my Tuesday/Wednesday flight on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) ended — just before I was allowed to sit in the 747's cockpit, where I had a headset but kept my mouth shut and learned exactly how much back and forth happens between an aircraft and ground control. Seeing sunrise — and rapidly approaching mountaintops — through the p...

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Sarah experiences a SOFIA calibration flight

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. PDT last night (this morning), SOFIA, scientists, engineers, educators, and I took a trip over the Pacific and into both Canadian and Mexican airspace — no passport required, as if I had taken a step back in time. Hopping aboard SOFIA is also like jumping back in time, as the cut-open Pan Am jet that houses the telescope is from the 1970s and still has ashtrays in the lavatories. But as soon as the astronomical equipment is on, it becomes clear that this is...

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Sarah preps for flights on SOFIA

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Today, I arrived in Palmdale, California, for a week of staying up all night, sleeping all day (or trying to), and flying on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) — actions that are mostly foreign to me at this point in my life. Two other Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors and I toured the hangar at Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, out of which NASA flies five Earth- and space-science research planes, including SOFIA. We also received safet...

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Sarah takes a trip on SOFIA, the flying infrared observatory

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

If you’re going to decline an invitation, it’s best to have a good excuse. A few days ago, I was able to say, “You know what, I’d love to go see live music on Tuesday, but I’ll be on a plane in the stratosphere” — a response that I probably will never be able to top. Next week, I’ll be traveling to California to take flight on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) as an Airborne Astronomy Ambassador. SOFIA is a modifi...

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Visit MMT Observatory in new video

Posted 10 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Want to know what a night of observing at a major observatory is like? Jason Davis, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, has created a great video of a typical evening at the MMT Observatory, south of Tucson, Arizona. This 6.5-meter telescope sits 8,550 feet above sea level atop Mount Hopkins. If you don’t have the opportunity to spend a night observing at a major telescope facility, Davis’ great video gives you a sense of life as an astronomer and explains some of the r...

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Results from a big sidewalk astronomy event in Philadelphia

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute Science Museum, recently sent us a report on a large public event his facility participated in Saturday, April 20. He said that he and his staff set up just outside the institute on the main street in front of their building as part of the Philadelphia Science Festival’s kickoff event, Science Carnival. Amateur astronomers had four telescopes observing the Sun or Jupiter on the sidewalk for the whole time. Thousands of people showe...

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American Astronomical Society meeting: The last full day

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Today is the last full day of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) 222nd conference. Before you cry about that, remember that the discoveries will continue to roll out, even if the astronomers aren't having mid-morning coffee breaks with 500 of their closest friends. Their probing questions and productive collaborations will continue after the hotels' mandatory 11 a.m. check-out times. The first speaker of the day was Steve Howell, an astronomer with a ponytail, who is the Deputy...

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Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society conference

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

When you bring people from many different time zones together for a conference, it's a good idea to begin the day with a presentation about "the largest energy-release events in the solar system." These events are, of course, solar eruptions, and today at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, Tibor Török of Predictive Science, Inc., updated us on the latest questions and the models attempting to answer them. These models are computer simulations (not Heidi Klum), and they s...

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The American Astronomical Society and Indiana Astronomical Society co-sponsor a star party

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Last night, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Indiana Astronomical Society co-hosted a public star party. The event was BYOT (Bring Your Own Telescope), and people did! Astronomers set up shop and showed visitors double stars and Saturn. Three of the ringed planet's moons were visible, even from downtown Indianapolis. The International Space Station passed overhead just after 10 p.m. We waved from the steps of Indy's banking buildings. I think the astronauts probably saw. Right? H...

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The American Astronomical Society's 222nd conference: Dispatches from day 1

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

You know it's going to be a good conference when someone changes the desktop background of the opening presenter's computer from an image of the Milky Way to a photo of race cars. You also know, then, that you're in Indianapolis at the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) 222nd meeting, which I am. Today was the first day of talks, poster sessions, limited free coffee, and scientific results. The day began with former AAS President David Helfand's welcoming address, a hopeful commentary on th...

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"After Earth," the movie: Science meets science fiction in an interview with Joseph Levine

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

The summer apocalyptic action movie that comes out today — After Earth — may be science fiction, but its premise leans toward the former rather than the latter of those two words. This film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan and starring cutlass-wielding Will and Jaden Smith, begins 1,000 years after humans rocketed off planet Earth because air, water, tectonic activity, and temperatures (you know, pretty much everything) became dangerous or toxic. Humans built ark-like spaceships...

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