Official Galilean Nights poster Another International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project kicks off tomorrow night around the globe. The goal of Galilean Nights , October 22-24, is to allow hundreds of thousands of people all around the world to experience their own “Galileo moment” when they look up at the sky through a telescope for the first time. Currently there are more than 1,000 public observing events in more than 70 countries to help...

Last night our homeland at Astronomy magazine had the good fortune to receive a visit from a friend of the magazine, Dava Sobel. Dava is an award-winning science writer whose books, Longitude , Galileo’s Daughter , and The Planets , have graced the New York Times bestseller lists. She has contributed to the magazine in the past and has traveled with several editors on trips around the globe in the past to see solar eclipses. Last night, September...

Here’s something of a shout-out to some of our Wisconsin neighbors: Ray Setzer has created virtual tours of the grounds of the Modine-Benstead Observatory in Union Grove. Part of the surprisingly sophisticated Racine Astronomical Society , the observatory features a 16-inch Newtonian Cassegrain reflecting telescope and a 14-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, both domed. Editor's note: When visiting WIVirtual.com to see the virtual tours...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m working on Astronomy ’s article ranking the top 10 space stories of the past year . One of those stories is that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. The year has had so many events marking this celebration that it’s hard to narrow down what I should write about. So what events did you find the most impressive? 100 Hours of Astronomy, which occurred back in April? The Earth to the Universe exhibit that could...

Each year Astronomy magazine publishes an article highlighting what we consider the top 10 astronomy stories of the previous year. I’ve started working on the article for 2009 and thought I’d share a few of our ideas for the big stories. We also want your feedback. So if there’s a story you feel strongly should be on our list, let us know! Of course, the mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope has to be on this list. Reviving the aging telescope...

An interesting story on Slate.com takes this, the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei ’s first telescope, to wonder why we call him by his first name . After all, its subhead points out, “We don’t go around saying ‘Albert’ discovered relativity.” (Briefly, it’s “because that's how he referred to himself.”) But reading it, I wondered if we’d ever have another Galileo. Or, for that matter, if we’d ever see another Albert (Einstein) or even another...

I’m a big fan of anything that brings people face to face with amazing science, and it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening in The World At Night (TWAN) , an international program to display beautiful images of the night sky in American malls. Exhibiting these pictures in 24 shopping malls across the United States, in cities big and small, is part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 , which celebrates astronomy and its greatness on the...

“Now therefore, we, the Board of Trustees and its President, do hereby proclaim the dark sky over the village of Barrington Hills a fitting attribute for the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009.” So states the proclamation dated December 15, 2008, and originating from Village Hall, Barrington Hills, Illinois. Just before the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) began, the village’s board of trustees took up the cause against...

Tomorrow I’ll travel to my old home grounds in southern Ohio to attend the 2009 Apollo Rendezvous meeting in Dayton. I’ll give a talk about Galileo’s telescopes and observations in this 400th anniversary year . Apollo Rendezvous is a nice meeting, held at Dayton’s Boonshoft Museum of Discovery and sponsored by the Miami Valley Astronomical Society. It’s a special event for me; the very first astronomy convention I ever attended was the 1976 Apollo...

During the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), there’s no shortage of events and activities revolving around astronomy. Another opened in south-central Wisconsin on Monday, May 4. The Planet Trek Dane County (PTDC) scale-model solar system begins in Madison and extends some 23.5 miles along hiking and biking trails. For those of you in the area who want to get outdoors and appreciate the scale of the solar system, this is a good way to do it. When...