Celestron’s C8-NGT Newtonian reflecting telescope has always been one of the company’s seminal scopes, with the modern version living up to even higher standards than the original. Celestron Surely most of our readers here are familiar with Celestron , one of (if not the) most famous telescope makers in the world. But how many of you also know that 2010 marks the company’s 50th anniversary? In writing a news story detailing Celestron’s anniversary...

A few weeks ago, Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher visited the astronomy and equestrian village at Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, New Mexico. While Dave was there, developer Gene Turner surprised him by unveiling a second Astronomy Magazine Observatory , just to the east of the first one. The goal is to stream images from the observatory (or observatories!) to our web site. As fiber-optic Internet lines become operational and as Rancho Hidalgo acquires...

Readers of this site (and magazine) may be accustomed to using magnification to look at the very big, very far away. But, apart from any biology or chemistry enthusiasts out there, what about using magnification to look at the very, very small? When’s the last time you looked at that not-so-distant alien world? The ASPEX Corporation is running a campaign specifically to help you do that. If you send in a sample of something and a form, they’ll run...

Three weeks ago during my stay at Rancho Hidalgo, Gene Turner’s astronomy village near Animas, New Mexico, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Glynn Burke by our mutual friend Gene. Gene explained that Glynn is a brilliant engineer who is setting up a network of computer controlled telescopes that can be used for educational purposes remotely, by amateur astronomers situated anywhere on the planet. Glynn operates a network of computer controlled...

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, which caused controversy with how it categorized the solar system into three groups, placing Pluto not with the other planets but with the Kuiper Belt objects at the outskirts of our solar system. Dan Deitch photo Last night, PBS debuted a new NOVA episode dedicated to NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson’s now somewhat infamous book, The Pluto Files . Having read the book...

Earlier this week, I received this short note from Enrico Sacchetti, a commercial photographer based in South Florida: Dear Michael, I wanted to show you a few images I recently shot at the European Northern Observatory’s Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma, Spain. One of the telescopes there, the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC), is currently the world’s largest optical telescope. Along with the note, he sent the superb pictures on this page. Thanks...

The fourth video I shot during my trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show features Mike Farmer of Michael Farmer Meteorites ( meteoriteguy.com or meteoritehunter.com ). Note: When you click the link to the video , you'll find it below the three-part interview with the Meteorite Men. At the show, Mike showed me an extensive collection of beautiful specimens. He began by pulling out some spectacular pallasites, the most beautiful of all meteorites...

The third video I shot during my trip to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show features Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold of Aerolite Meteorites in Tucson . If you’re into meteorites, you know Geoff and Steve (pictured at right) well as the Meteorite Men from the popular TV series currently running on the Science Channel. If you’re into astronomy and you don’t watch Meteorite Men religiously, maybe it’s time to re-examine your life. It‘s a great show, entertainingly...

In January, crew members of the International Space Station gained access to the Internet for personal use, and NASA encouraged them to tweet anything that interests them. Well, Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi of Japan (pictured at right), in my opinion, is really putting Twitter to good use. For the past three weeks, he has been posting Twitpics of different Earth locations that are absolutely breathtaking. If I can’t get to the ISS myself, I think...

Last week at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I shot a number of videos with prominent meteorite dealers who were set up at the Tucson Hotel City Center (formerly the InnSuites). The second one I shot features Anne Black of Impactika Meteorites in Denver, whose video is posted here . Anne specializes in affordable meteorites for collectors and has an amazing collection of historical falls, i.e., important meteorites from well-known impacts throughout...