Dave's Universe - Astronomy Magazine - Interactive Star Charts, Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

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Join Astronomy for totality in the Faroe Islands!

Posted 3 hours ago by David Eicher

How time flies. Next month, it will be my privilege to join a group of Astronomy readers to see a total eclipse from the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. Our group will be led by Melita, Daniel, and Julie Thorpe of MWT Associates and will trek to Iceland, enjoying the geological wonders there, before seeing the eclipse itself March 20. The trip lasts from March 14 to the 23rd and will no doubt be a delight. Totality will last about 2-1/2 minutes.I’ll be sharing highlights from my adven...

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Is this the way life began?

Posted 6 hours ago by David Eicher

Here’s an unusual mineral specimen: Scientists believe it is likely life originated some 4.3+ billion years ago at hydrothermal vents, so-called black smokers. This is pyrite from a black smoker, 5.3 cm, Meso Zone, 69°24' E, 22°39' S, from a depth of 3,300 m (~10,800 ft), Rodriguez Triple Junction, Central Indian Ridge, Indian Ocean. Pyrite is iron sulfide, and it might be that some of the earliest life were primitive sulfur-eating bacteria.Follow David J. Eicher on Twitter: www.tw...

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Astronomy game show on WGN tomorrow!

Posted 4 days ago by David Eicher

Tomorrow morning, at about 9:40 CT, I’ll be appearing along with anchor Larry Potash on WGN-TV in Chicago. We will be discussing some cool facts from the March issue of Astronomy, which features “500 coolest things about space.” In fact, we will have several contestants and briefly conduct a “game show” in which the people who provide the right answers will garner prizes. You can stream WGN live at http://wgntv.com/on-air/live-streaming.It should be good f...

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Astronomy and Celestron Partner at NSTA National Conference on Science Education

Posted 4 days ago by David Eicher

I’m delighted to say that Celestron, the Los Angeles manufacturer of high-quality telescopes, will partner with Astronomy magazine at the upcoming 2015 National Conference of the National Science Teachers Association in Chicago. The event will take place at McCormick Place on March 12–15. On March 12, I’ll be hosting a workshop, “Digital Microscopes 101,” in which teachers will share their real-world experiences using Celestron digital microscopes in grades 4&n...

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Astronomy coming to Chicago TV this weekend

Posted 5 days ago by David Eicher

The details aren’t exactly set yet, but if you are in the Chicago market, you may see Astronomy magazine and me on TV Friday and Saturday. A couple of appearances are pending to discuss the very popular March issue, our 500th one, which contains that great collection of 500 coolest facts about the cosmos, on newsstands now. See you in Chicago! Follow David J. Eicher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/deicherstar...

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Astronomy's third annual Public Star Party!

Posted 7 days ago by David Eicher

A whirlwind of activity on my return from Tucson to Milwaukee has prevented me from staying up to date on blogs. But here goes:Astronomy magazine held its third annual Public Star Party in Tucson on Saturday, February 14, at the East Campus of Pima Community College, southeast of the center of the city. Senior Editor Michael Bakich did a great job as always coordinating the speakers and other activities of the star party, and we had several hundred people show up throughout the day. Members of t...

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Check out "A Quest for Shiny Purple Crystals"

Posted 11 days ago by David Eicher

What do rocks and minerals have to do with astronomy? I sometimes get that question from people who wonder why I collect and study mineral specimens. Well, in short, the universe assembles matter in an orderly way and builds solid planets by making minerals. Mineralogy is planetary science, and studying the minerals on Earth gives us a look at our own planet and also the possibilities of how countless other worlds in the universe are made. I have a friend who is a geologist and artist in O...

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Stephen Hawking gets a Celestron!

Posted 11 days ago by David Eicher

Our great friend Stephen Hawking got a visit from two Celestron employees recently who installed an 11-inch Celestron SCT for his use. Yesterday Stephen posted photos he made with the telescope, and Bryan Cogdell of Celestron has been quite excited after visiting the professor and installing the telescope. In Bryan’s words, “It’s a decked-out CPC Deluxe 1100 HD — I wanted something that could do it all, enough resolving power and focal length to reel in the planets, ...

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Superstars of Astronomy: Garik Israelian

Posted 11 days ago by David Eicher

The second Superstars of Astronomy podcast, an hourlong interview, is now posted on Astronomy’s website. It is a lively discussion with Garik Israelian, founder and director of the Starmus Festival. If you are not familiar with the Starmus Festival, you should be. It is a world-class gathering of astronomy and science enthusiasts, astronomers, astronaut-explorers, cosmologists, musicians, and artists who are celebrating and spreading our knowledge of the cosmos. The second Starmus Festival...

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A visit to Meteorite Man Geoff Notkin's secret lair

Posted 14 days ago by David Eicher

A couple days into the annual Tucson Gem Show, the mecca for meteorite collectors, I ran into my good friend Geoff Notkin. “What are you doing now?” he said. “Wandering around and photographing everything,” I said. “You have to come over and see my new meteorite headquarters,” said Geoff. And so off we went, a short distance away from the mineralogical district of the city, to see Geoff’s new Aerolite Meteorites house, which houses his meteorite dea...

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Meteorites at the Tucson Gem Show: The Aerolite Meteorites room

Posted 14 days ago by David Eicher

As someone who is interested in rocks from space, one of the great pleasures of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is to visit the Aerolite Meteorites room at the Hotel Tucson City Center (formerly the InnSuites). Each year, Geoff Notkin has a wide range of really interesting and incredible specimens, from rare historic pieces to entry-level common stones to exotic pieces from the Moon and Mars. You probably know of Geoff as one half of the Meteorite Men, along with his partner Steve Arnold, from t...

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Meteorites at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Posted 17 days ago by David Eicher

The biggest event of the year for meteorite collectors and enthusiasts has been raging through Tucson, Arizona, for a number of days now. Astronomy magazine is proud to have a presence in Tucson during this big week with our public star party that will be held at Pima Community College, East Campus, this Saturday, February 14. See this link for more.But we are also here to put together some big materials on the observatories in this U.S. capital of astronomy and also to cover meteorites at the...

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Astronomy enthusiast Tammy Plotner dies after struggle with MS

Posted 17 days ago by David Eicher

Sad news from the world of amateur astronomy: Ohio amateur astronomer Tammy Plotner, well known as an energetic observer and author, died on Wednesday after a long battle with multiple sclerosis.She was the author of several books, including Moonwalk with Your Eyes (Springer, 2010) and The Night Sky Companion (Create Space, 2012).You can read an article about Tammy by our good friend Fraser Cain, of Universe Today, for which Tammy contributed much writing.RIP Tammy. You will be missed by the ent...

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A visit to the U.S. Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station

Posted 18 days ago by David Eicher

February continues to be beautiful in Arizona. Astronomy Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I continued our tour of important astronomical institutions by swinging by the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff. There, astronomer Bob Zavala graciously played host to show us around the entire facility, beginning with the terrific 1.3-meter telescope, a workhorse on many astronomical projects. We then saw the largest and most famous instrument on the campus, the 61-inch Strand astrometric reflector, whi...

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A visit to the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology branch in Flagstaff

Posted 19 days ago by David Eicher

Winter in Flagstaff, Arizona, has been incredibly nice, with temperatures in the 60s (F). What a time it has been coming from frozen Milwaukee to be in a summerlike afternoon with the Sun shining brightly and the mountains and pine forest spreading over the landscape!Following our visit to Lowell Observatory on Monday, Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I traveled to another erstwhile institution in Flagsaff — the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its Astrogeology branch. There, we met ...

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Meteorite expert Dorothy Norton in Tucson

Posted 19 days ago by David Eicher

Wandering the meteorite dealers at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I was fortunate to be hanging around in Anne Black’s room, Impactika Meteorites, when in walked a legend in the meteorite world. Dorothy Norton, herself a celebrated author on meteorites, is also the widow of O. Richard Norton, the famous meteorite researcher and author who died in 2009. For more on Richard, see this link.It was wonderful to meet Dorothy after all these years. She, Senior Editor Michael Bakich, and I had a...

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Washington Post on Astronomy's 500th Coolest Things

Posted 19 days ago by David Eicher

Yesterday, the Washington Post ran a nice story by Nancy Szokan, “Everything You Wanted to Know about the Stars — and More, from Astronomy magazine,” with some interesting facts from our March issue. This was, as you may know, the 500th issue of the magazine, and we offered up a special package of 500 coolest facts about the universe.You can read the Washington Post story here, and be sure to check out the March issue, on newsstands now....

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Visiting historic Lowell Observatory

Posted 20 days ago by David Eicher

What a day! On Monday, February 9, Astronomy Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I started incredibly early and headed north from Tucson to Flagstaff, Arizona, another key town in the history of astronomy. We conducted a whirlwind tour of several astronomical institutions, beginning with one of my favorite observatories on the planet. Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill in Flagstaff holds a unique position in the history of astronomy. Here, the wealthy Boston astronomy enthusiast Percival Lowell founde...

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Heading to Tucson for star party, observatories, meteorites, and minerals

Posted 24 days ago by David Eicher

Tomorrow I’ll be delighted to be heading west to Tucson for the annual foray into astronomy’s capital in the United States. On Saturday, February 14, Astronomy will be hosting a big public star party, featuring me and Senior Editor Michael Bakich, at the East Campus of Pima Community College. You can read more about the star party here.Michael and I also will be visiting observatories and institutions in Flagstaff — Lowell Observatory, the U.S. Naval Observatory, and the U...

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New Michael Bakich, Mike Reynolds astronomy lab manual

Posted 26 days ago by David Eicher

Here’s a heads-up on the publishing front: The first copies are just out of Astronomy Senior Editor Michael Bakich’s new astronomy lab manual. If you are teaching a course, in school, or are simply interested in astronomy, this is a dynamic new book you should know about. Written by Bakich and Astronomy Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds, the book is Exploring the Universe: A Laboratory Guide for Astronomy (452 pp., paper, Morton Publishing Co., Englewood, Colo., 2015; $79.95, ISBN 97...

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Astronomy's 500th issue on Fox TV Chicago Thursday

Posted 26 days ago by David Eicher

Heads-up for Chicagoland readers: I’ll be appearing on WFLD, Fox TV Chicago, tomorrow at 12:45 p.m. CT, talking about Astronomy magazine’s 500th anniversary issue. We’ll discuss some of those great 500 amazing facts and a little about what’s going on in astronomy and cosmology these days. See you on Thursday! Follow David J. Eicher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/deicherstar...

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Watch Astronomy's 500th issue on The Morning Blend

Posted 27 days ago by David Eicher

Two TV tapings done, one in Chicago on Thursday to go. Today, I had a blast with Tiffany Ogle and Molly Fay on The Morning Blend, at TMJ4 , NBC TV in Milwaukee. You can watch the interview here. I also did a longer interview for Fox News Edge that will be seen on many Fox TV affiliates throughout the United States. What fun! Follow David J. Eicher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/deicherstar...

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TV appearances set for 500th issue of Astronomy

Posted 28 days ago by David Eicher

After a whirlwind Los Angeles trip to visit telescope manufacturers Celestron and Meade last week, this week has turned crazy because of TV appearances to discuss the already very popular 500th issue of the magazine. Our March 2015 edition, packed with “500 coolest things about space,” is really pleasing readers, grabbing the attention of youngsters, and creating a bit of a splash. I will be delighted to be discussing it on several TV shows this week:• Tues., Feb. 3: WISN T...