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CURRENT ISSUE

    Dave's Universe
    Dave Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine and science popularizer, brings you thoughts about astronomy, cosmology, nature, the hobby of astronomy, the sometimes disturbingly pseudoscientific culture we live in, and more.
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    Guest Blog: Introducing Nicole Kiefert!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    I’m delighted to say that last week at Astronomy magazine, Nicole Kiefert started as our new editorial assistant. Nicole will be very familiar to many of you who contribute to the magazine as you correspond with us in the coming weeks and months. But she will also become known to all readers of the magazine and website as she produces some news, blogs, and other content. We are delighted to welcome Nicole, and want to introduce her to you. So without further ado, here is a guest blog writt...
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    Book review: A Global Warming Primer by Jeffrey Bennett

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The world continues to astonish me at nearly every turn. Not only do many science writers and bloggers immediately push the wrong buttons — “Proxima Centauri b is an earthlike planet!” — “The signal received by the Russians signals a probable alien detection!” — but much of the public is far behind the scientific curve. People, global warming as a real phenomenon that is caused and/or made far worse by human industrialization is a done de...
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    Dave Eicher to speak at Lowell Observatory

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Please join me at historic Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, for a talk and book signing on Saturday, November 19, 2016. My topic will be “The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions,” based on the book of the same name published this year by Cambridge University Press. I’ll be delighted to revisit Lowell, which has a special place in my heart. I spent 10 days “working” at Lowell in the 1980s, assisting my friend Brian Skiff with res...
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    Astronomy magazine has jobs open!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Our loss could be your gain. We are losing two valuable employees this week. Our Associate Editor Korey Haynes is moving to the Twin Cities where her husband has accepted a job. And our longtime Editorial Associate Val Penton is retiring. So we are looking for an Associate Editor and for an Editorial Assistant to join our team on the world’s most read magazine about astronomy. Please check out the jobs. We hope to hear from you soon! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his ...
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    A great new eclipse book

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich has just authored a book that you will want to have for next year’s big solar eclipse. Your Guide to the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse (395 pp., paper, Springer, New York, 2016, $35; ISBN 978–3–319–27630–4) is a treasure trove of materials you will find highly valuable for next year’s big event. The book contains 25 chapters and voluminous appendices that will leave you saturated with everything you need to know to ge...
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    Starmus Sonic Universe Concert blows minds

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Maybe you read some of the first few blogs I wrote about the Starmus Festival last week. Truth be told, after the first three days, things became so incredibly busy I didn’t have any time at all to process photos or write posts. So I will begin to conclude the Starmus story here. On Friday, July 1, we all prepared for the Sonic Universe Concert, which was held at the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín, a beautiful facility practically on the oceanfront in Santa Cruz de Tenerif...
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    Third day at Starmus brings historic moments

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    OK, this conference, which started out magnificently, becomes dreamily better each day. Some 1,000 people are here on Tenerife for the third Starmus Festival, the unique gathering that celebrates science, music, and art. The speakers this time are truly mind-blowing. We have numerous astronauts, 10 Nobel Prize winners, rock stars, cosmologists, and planetary scientists sharing the latest words on many subfields of our interests. It is truly a meeting like no other.On Wednesday, June 29, the conf...
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    A spectacular second day at Starmus

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Well, we all were blown away by the explosive and amazing events of the first day at the Starmus Festival. More than 1,000 people are gathered here to celebrate astronomy, science, music, and art, on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The third Starmus, this event started off with a bang, with incredible presentations, thanks to the organization of founder and director Garik Israelian. But the second day carried right on with presentations that were simply mind-blowing. This was Tuesday, June 28, ...
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    Starmus starts with a bang in Tenerife!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The third Starmus Festival, the unique gathering celebrating astronomy, science, music, and art, got underway in Tenerife, Canary Islands, on Monday, June 27, 2016. Under the direction of Garik Israelian, astronomer and founder of the festival, an all-star cast assembled to discuss the state of the universe along with a crowd of 1,000 attendees. It was an absolutely incredible day, setting a new milestone for the Starmus experience. This year the gathering honors Professor Stephen Hawking, who w...
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    Starmus set to commence with unprecedented, all-star lineup

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    On Saturday my wife Lynda and I will fly to Chicago, then to London, and then to Tenerife, in preparation for the third Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands. This unique science festival celebrates stars and music (thus, Starmus), and is the brainchild of good friend Garik Israelian, an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy in Tenerife. This year’s Starmus Festival (June 27–July 2, 2016) will pay tribute to the great Stephen Hawking, who is already on the island. The career tri...
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    Watch Starmus LIVE via streaming online!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Can’t come to Starmus? Watch it LIVE via streaming online!!Join us as history happens in the Canary Islands! You can stream Starmus on your computer or phone from June 27 through July 2, 2016, with an incredible, all-star lineup:• All speaker presentations in real time• Select performances in the Sonic Universe Concert! • The Stephen Hawking Award presentations• The GTC Round Table at the world’s largest telescope• And much more! • All the excitemen...
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    Astronomy magazine Associate Editor job opening

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Our loss could be your gain. Our wonderful Associate Editor Korey Haynes has given her notice at Astronomy magazine, as her better half (husband) has accepted a job in the Twin Cities. So we regretfully will let her go, and will lose Korey as a staff member in mid July. (She will continue as an active contributor to the magazine, though — so you will continue to see her byline.)This means the magazine is seeking an associate editor right away. Please see the press release below, and g...
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    Hundreds of events worldwide scheduled for Asteroid Day 2016

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    SAN FRANCISCO, CA USA (June 20, 2016) – What began as a passion of a handful of individuals, a musician, filmmaker, technologist, scientist and astronaut, has become a global movement by thousands to increase awareness and education about asteroids. Supported by 22 global partners, scores of international agencies, 72 space travelers from 12 nations, leaders in business and finance, parents and youth, Asteroid Day 2016 will include hundreds of events on and around June 30, 2016. Profe...
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    Cool new book: Andrew Fazekas’ Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    My friend Andrew Fazekas has just published a really wonderful new book that I know you will enjoy. Andrew’s Star Trek: The Official Guide to Our Universe, just out, blends two things most all of us love — the cosmos and Star Trek! How can you lose? The book was published by National Geographic Books (237 pp., hardcover, Washington, 2016, $25, ISBN 978–1–4262–1652–7). The book is a cool book — and I will describe it in a moment. But here’...
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    Guest blog: Ben Palmer on outreach astronomy

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    You may recall a young friend of Astronomy magazine, Ben Palmer of Queensbury, New York, who won Astronomy’s 2011 Youth Essay Contest. Ben has subsequently become an active part of the Astronomy Foundation. He is a great young man and full of energy and enthusiasm for sharing the excitement of astronomy. I’d like to share his blog here . . . From Sky to Screen: Outreach Astronomy in the Digital AgeBy Benjamin Palmer Virtual. Simulated. Instantaneous. The consummate keywords of the 21...
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    Stephen Hawking medal recognizes Jim Al-Khalili, Hans Zimmer and the documentary film Particle Fever to be a model for disclosure of science in their respective areas

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    •    2016 is the first edition of these awards which recognizes the contribution to science communication across different media, whether in writing, broadcasting, music, film, or fine art•    In the Science category, the medal has been awarded to Jim Al-Khalili, physicist, writer and broadcaster, for his treatment of complex physics concepts through science documentaries•    The medal of Arts has been awarded to Hans Zimmer, film and t...
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    Stephen Hawking medal for science communication

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    STEPHEN HAWKING STATEMENTIn collaboration with the Starmus festival here in Tenerife, I am pleased to announce the first recipients of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. In this special inaugural year of the awards, I have been invited to personally select the awardees. The winners have made outstanding contributions in the articulation and portrayal of science to the public, within the three categories of science, art, and film. The winners are.Professor Jim Al-Khalili, in the...
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    Dr. John H. Eicher, 1921–2016

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The world has lost a great and a good man with the passing on Tuesday, June 7, of Dr. John H. Eicher, organic chemist, Manhattan Project scientist, mineralogist, historian, philosopher of science, and promoter of sharing the joy of knowledge with his fellow human beings. Eicher was the father of Astronomy Editor David Eicher and served as the original publisher of Deep Sky Monthly magazine, started by his son as a high school project. That magazine grew into Deep Sky magazine, and John Eicher wa...
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    Starmus seats available — last chance for superstar extravaganza!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The greatest science festival of them all is rapidly approaching: Starmus 3, to be held June 27–July 2, 2016. Never before has an all-star lineup like this existed!! You will see and meet: Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sarah Brightman, Alexei Leonov, Hans Zimmer, Adam Riess, May-Britt Moser, Kip Thorne, Carol Greider, Chris Hadfield, Brian Greene, Brian Cox, Brian Eno, Martin Rees, Rusty Schweickart, and many oth...
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    Starmus seats still available — last chance for superstar extravaganza!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The greatest science festival of them all is rapidly approaching: Starmus 3, to be held June 27–July 2, 2016. Never before has an all-star lineup like this existed!! You will see and meet: Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sarah Brightman, Alexei Leonov, Hans Zimmer, Adam Riess, May-Britt Moser, Kip Thorne, Carol Greider, Chris Hadfield, Brian Greene, Brian Cox, Brian Eno, Martin Rees, Rusty Schweickart, and many oth...
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    Watch Dave Eicher’s Harvard talk online

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Many thanks to all of you who came to my talk last week at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It was a wonderful experience, with great crowd participation and terrific questions. Thanks also to the Harvard Coop Bookstore for bringing along copies of The New Cosmos — I think I signed nearly 50 of them. Altogether, we had 250 people in Phillips Auditorium and in the two overflow rooms, and I have rarely seen such enthusiasm. What a great night. I spoke on my new book and the m...
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    Starmus 3 full schedule announced!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The third Starmus Festival is fast approaching, just six weeks away now. It will take place again in the Canary Islands, on Tenerife and La Palma, and will bring together a spectacular assortment of scientists, musicians, and artists to celebrate the cosmos. The tribute this year will honor the magnificent career of Stephen Hawking. I will be there and will look forward to seeing many of you. Please see the following for the program announcement . . . STARMUS III PRESENTS:  BEYOND THE HORIZ...
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    Jordan Rice to become Astronomy’s first student science writer

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    This summer the Astronomy staff will be aided by our first ever student fellow, Jordan Rice of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Jordan is a junior at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where she is studying astrophysics and math. The program enabling Jordan to join the Astronomy staff for 10 weeks this summer resulted from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, based at Carthage College. Jordan is a teaching assistant at Carthage and president of the Society of Physics Students. She is also tea...
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    AstroCATS meeting set for London, Ontario

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    If you’re in the area of Toronto next week, you’ll definitely want to attend the AstroCATS astronomy meeting. This meeting has grown over the past several years to become a significant telescope show, much like the Northeast Astronomy Forum in New York. (The CATS part of the name stands for Canadian Astronomy Telescope Show.) The meeting will be held May 21–22, 2016, at Fanshawe College, in London, Ontario, in conjunction with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada General As...
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    Dave Eicher to speak next week at Harvard

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Join David Eicher for a lecture, book signing, and celebration of the stars at Harvard University’s Phillips Auditorium, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thurs., May 19, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Monthly Observatory Night Thursday, May 19, 20167:30 p.m.: Author’s Night. The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big QuestionsDavid Eicher, Astronomy magazineOver the past decade, astronomers have answered — or are closing in on the answers to &md...
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    Follow Max Alexander in Chicxulub

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    You can follow Asteroid Day’s Max Alexander as he travels around the Yucatán Peninsula this week during a particularly exciting time. Scientists are drilling into the Chicxulub Crater, some 200 kilometers wide, to gain information about its nature in the most detailed way yet. Some 66 million years ago, a 10km asteroid plunged into the Yucatán, forming the crater, and causing a prolonged nuclear winter that killed much of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. Discover magaz...
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    Starmus in the New York Times!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Please read this story just out a few days ago in the New York Times, written by Nina Burleigh. It describes the great evolution of the Canary Islands into a stargazer’s paradise, and specially talks about our friend Garik Israelian and the Starmus Festival. What a wonderful story! And I do hope that you will be coming to the Starmus Festival, June 27–July 2, 2016, in Tenerife. It will be a magnificent time.Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebo...
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    RIP Harry Kroto, 1939 - 2016

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    The world of science lost a great man this weekend with the death of Sir Harold Kroto, FRS, an exceptional professor of chemistry and an amazing thinker. Harry was a Nobel Prize laureate for his 1985 co-discovery of carbon-60, which he named buckminsterfullerene, after the molecule’s shape, which resembled a geodesic dome. You may know the molecules as a buckyball. Laboratory research leading to the discovery that such molecules could form spontaneously from carbon vapor followed simulatio...
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    Uwingu says - Make an impact on mom with an Uwingu Mother's Day gift!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    We have a new campaign to honor moms for Mother’s Day 2016 with place names on its Mars map or subscriptions to its daily emailed space image service.Today through Mother’s Day on May 8th, Uwingu is offering decorative Mother’s Day certificates for anyone choosing to honor a mom with a named crater on our Mars map. Two certificate options are available: an electronic downloadable version and a beautifully printed and framed keepsake version. Uwingu’s Mars Map will be...
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    Win a copy of THE NEW COSMOS!

    Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher
    Here’s your chance to pick up an autographed copy of my latest book, The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions. You can visit (and like!) my official Facebook page between April 18 and May 2, 2016, for your chance to win! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebook....
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