Head outside this evening, and you can't help but notice a Full Moon rising in the southeast. Nothing unusual about that — Full Moons occur, on average, every 29.5306 days. But if you look at your calendar for May, you'll see the previous Full Moon fell May 2, making tonight's the second Full Moon of the month. Can everyone say "Blue Moon"? Modern folklore holds that the second Full Moon in a given calendar month should...

On Tuesday morning, May 29, I sat in one of many of the week's paper sessions at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. Not all of them turn out to be unusually interesting; this one did. "I'm going to talk about cosmic WMDs," said Brian Fields, an astronomer at the University of Illinois. His target was supernovae, nearby supernovae in particular, and gauging how dangerous they could be — and have been —...

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a Local Group dwarf galaxy, designated Andromeda XII, that formed far out on the edge of the group and is falling into our system for the first time in its history. Jorge Peñarrubia of the University of Victoria made the announcement Monday morning at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, representing a team that included Scott C. Chapman of the University of Cambridge and others. The Local...

This week, beginning Monday morning, the American Astronomical Society will meet in Honolulu, Hawaii. Vast numbers of scientific papers, press conferences, oral presentations, poster sessions, and commitee meetings will fill the next few days. No doubt some significant news will be made public, and I'll be here to bring it all to you. On the eve of the meeting, astronomers checked into hotels, stood around at a reception, and talked about exoplanets...

The door of your observatory will get plenty of use. I suggest a solid-core door with good hinges, a tough lock, and a good seal. To improve security, add a dead-bolt. Some amateur astronomers who live in cold climates have attached a "warm room" to their observatories. This idea is more practical when the observatory is far from home. For a backyard observatory, you can always dart into your (darkened) house to warm up. If you are planning...

Saturn’s rings tell a story regardless of their color. This image, created from Cassini spacecraft observations of stellar occultations, reveals ring particles clump together far more than astronomers previously thought. NASA/JPL/University of Colorado Most of the time, Saturn's splendor appears to us in pastel shades of yellow and tan. But beauty knows no color boundaries. Even when converted to garish shades of blue and yellow, Saturn's...

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), with a planned light-gathering surface 24.5 meters (80.3 feet) across, has a rival to the title of "biggest proposed telescope in Chile." Pieces of the GMT are under construction, and it's generally assumed the telescope will be constructed at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. Now, a consortium led by Cornell University and Caltech says it will build a 25-meter instrument in the...

Realistically, you have two options for flooring: wood or cement. A poured-cement floor is virtually maintenance free. Make certain you use (or demand) a high-quality grade of cement and a proper mix. I wish I had. The only complaint I had about my observatory was that the contractor who poured the cement floor used far too much sand. If you use wood for your floor, choose pressure-treated lumber. Elevate the floor to allow sufficient air circulation...

The Personal Spaceflight Federation — space tourism's trade group — wants its customers to enjoy the thrill of a lifetime: a joyride into suborbital space. But if something goes wrong, no lawyers allowed. The Federation is currently advocating legislation to give space tourism companies immunity from being sued by the families of passengers injured or killed in accidents. One such piece of legislation is making its way through the...

In 1959, British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow suggested that what slowed progress in solving the world's problems was a communications breakdown: scientists and artists no longer talked to one another. The title of his University of Cambridge Rede Lecture, " The Two Cultures ," has become a shorthand for the problem. Some rankled at Snow's extreme characterization of scientists — and most notably, physical scientists —...