Senior Editor Michael Bakich’s last blog post, “ Party in Pluto Park ,” details his experiences at an event in New Mexico to commemorate Clyde Tombaugh’s 16-inch telescope. To be clear, Tombaugh discovered Pluto while he worked in Arizona, but he spent most of his life in New Mexico. Bakich’s post from Wednesday, “ Working on a classic ,” received a passionate comment from a reader requesting that Michael not refer to Pluto as an “ex-planet.” It’s...

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see Heavenly G, NGC 2112, and the Double Bubble Nebula . Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS. Each week, I highlight three different night-sky targets for you to see: One object you can find...

On Wednesday I participated in a ceremony at Pluto Park in Animas, New Mexico, to dedicate the telescope of Clyde Tombaugh , the man who discovered Pluto. Tombaugh, who passed away in 1997, had set up the 16-inch telescope (he could also use an 18-inch mirror in it) in his backyard. The scope now sits in on an astronomical and equestrian development run by Gene Turner. Turner acquired the scope from Patsy Tombaugh (standing with me in the picture...

Today, at Rancho Hidalgo, I had a rare opportunity. I helped reassemble Clyde Tombaugh's 16-inch reflecting telescope. Yes, it's that Clyde Tombaugh — the person who discovered ex-planet Pluto. Developer Gene Turner purchased the telescope from Tombaugh's widow, Patsy, several years ago. He disassembled it, moved it from Las Cruces to Animas, New Mexico, and I arrived just in time to help put the finishing touches on it. Specifically,...

Tuesday night, I arrived at Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico, to find developer Gene Turner setting up the 30-inch Starmaster reflecting telescope. As I pounded down the magnificent steak dinner Gene had prepared, my continual thought was, "Has the mirror cooled down yet?" The night was cold, about 25° F. That's a temperature you might not associate with Arizona. The site, however, sits 4,600 feet above sea level, so it's not...

“Wow. This is freakin’ cool,” said the e-mail to me from Online Editor Matt Quandt. And indeed it is. Check out this interactive super-humongous panoramic image of President Obama’s inaugural address, courtesy of NASA’s Pancam. Photographer David Bergman captured the image. You can read about it at his blog, DavidBergman.net . The magic of the image reveals itself when you access the zoom-and-pan version, " President Barack Obama's Inaugural...

This year is packed with special events celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), which commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning the telescope to the heavens. To help us keep track of all the important dates and activities, Andy Fraknoi, executive secretary of the U.S. Program Committee for the International Year of Astronomy, and colleagues have created a calendar for Astronomy to share with you. During the last...

Back in the August 2008 issue, I wrote about 10 “rising stars” in astronomy — a group of investigators whose work we thought you should know about. I’m happy to say two of the picks have already hit the bright lights. Rising star Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University just won the prestigious Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy for his “significant and broad theoretical contributions to the field of exoplanet research, particularly in the area of microlensing...

Tuesday the 27th is a big day for me. I’m headed once again to observe from the pristine skies of Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico. During the three nights I’m there, I’ll be using developer Gene Turner’s magnificent 30-inch Starmaster reflector (pictured at right with Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher). I have compiled an observing list of challenging winter deep-sky objects that would make most observers’ mouths water. I also created lists of...

Travelers with Astronomy ’s solar eclipse expedition to Russia last summer saw a spectacular range of Russian churches and museums. The grandest of them all was St. Petersburg’s Hermitage, one of the greatest museums in the world. One of the nearly endless rooms in the Hermitage is the Malachite Room, world famous as one of the most richly decorated mineral rooms in existence. Designed by the architect Alexander Briullov in 1830, the space was the...