As first I described on Friday that a supernova discovered on Wednesday, August 24, in the nearby galaxy M101 in Ursa Major is the nearest type Ia supernova astronomers have found since 1972. The brightness of this exploding star is on the rise, and it...

As I first described on Friday , a supernova discovered August 24 in the nearby galaxy M101 in Ursa Major is the nearest type Ia supernova astronomers have found since 1972. The brightness of this exploding star is on the rise, and it could be visible...

As I described on Friday , a type Ia supernova discovered Wednesday, August 24, in the nearby galaxy M101 in Ursa Major is the nearest type Ia supernova astronomers have found since 1972. The brightness of this exploding star is on the rise, and it could...

A type Ia supernova discovered Wednesday, August 24 , in the nearby galaxy M101 in Ursa Major is the nearest type Ia supernova astronomers have found since 1986. The brightness of this exploding star is on the rise, and it could be visible in a 6-inch...

As East Coast residents prepare to be hammered by Hurricane Irene, check out this amazing video of the storm shot yesterday from 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth’s surface by the crew of the International Space Station. The movie shows the...

There’s a reasonably bright comet in the sky right now — Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd), discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Gordon Garradd. The comet is now visible through binoculars and small telescopes, an evening object glowing at...

Rarely do you get a look at a planetary nebula that’s this old. The endgame for Sun-like stars, planetary nebulae — so named because many years ago their disks appeared like planets in the eyepiece — are clouds of gas slowly dissipating...

Today I’m sharing part two of a guest story by 16-year-old Benjamin Palmer of Queensbury, New York ( you can find part one here ) . Benjamin is an active amateur astronomer, won this year’s Astronomy magazine Youth Essay Contest , and is chair...

Today I’m sharing part one of a guest story by 16-year-old Benjamin Palmer, of Queensbury, New York. Benjamin is an active amateur astronomer, won this year’s Astronomy magazine Youth Essay Contest , and is chair of a committee on Youth in...

I’m sure most of you are well aware of the danger the James Webb Space Telescope faces from Congressional budget cutting . Now is the time to rise to action to save JWST, which represents the next generation of our exploration of the distant universe...

A few days ago, I shared an image of some Perseid meteors captured by John Chumack at his observatory near Dayton, Ohio. Although the Moon was very close to Full and, therefore, the conditions hardly ideal this year, observers did catch quite a few Perseids...

Many of you are familiar with the telescope industry’s first trade association, the Astronomy Outreach Foundation, which was created in late 2009 to spread interest in astronomy, especially to younger folks. The group has recently undergone a reorganization...

I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming a new contributing editor to Astronomy magazine, Sheldon Reynolds, amateur astronomer, astroimager, and entertainer. Those who know the music business may be aware of Sheldon’s career as a member of the...

I hope you are looking forward to the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, which takes place Saturday, August 13, the same day as the Full Moon. Although the Moon phase stinks this year for the shower, you still may see as many as 20 decent meteors per...

You may have heard about the major breakout of lava at Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii that took place last week. On Thursday and Friday, crater walls collapsed and sent rivulets of lava trickling down to the ocean in a spectacular scene that...

If you haven’t looked at Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd) yet, you might want to check it out. Discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Gordon Garradd, the comet is currently a respectably bright binocular object, at magnitude 8.7, located in the late...

Astronomy contributors Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre were fortunate enough to be down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the launch of the now fabled last space shuttle mission, STS-135, this past month. Atlantis lifted off July 8,...

The August issue of Astronomy magazine contains two special articles. For those who have not seen or read them yet, I want to share them with you here — because they are important to the future of astronomy as an interest. The first was written...

OK, I know I've thrown lots of shuttle images at you over the last couple of weeks, but pretty soon there won't be any more to celebrate from recent history, so bear with me. I had to share the greatest image I've seen of Atlantis ' landing...