Despite our best efforts to track down the northern lights, the weather didn't cooperate for us last night either: Wind gusts blew in clouds from over the ocean, blocking our view of the sky. While we're all a little disappointed, no one in our group is terribly saddened. This morning, before heading to the airport, some group members are taking a final art tour of the city. Reykjavik is filled with sculptures, both in designated gardens and...

As a breed, Icelandic horses are virtually unchanged since Viking times. Laura Baird The northern lights have still eluded us, but the group has kept busy with other activities. Yesterday, part of our group set out to Thorsmork Valley, a nature preserve, but had to turn back due to heavy snow and white-out conditions. Others in the group, myself included, used the day to explore downtown Reykjavik, which is within walking distance of our hotel. We...

The Skogar folk museum preserves these 19th- century homes. Laura Baird Today we traveled to the south shore, where we saw black-sand beaches, took close-up looks at the snow-covered volcanoes that dominate the view from our hotel room, and spied the Westman Islands, which lie some 5 miles off the coast in the Atlantic. We also stopped at the Skogar folk museum and learned what life was like 2 centuries ago. The curator has single-handedly amassed...

The water plunging over the "golden falls," Gulfoss, is from one of Iceland's glaciers. Laura Baird I'm traveling on Astronomy and MWT Associates' Northern Lights and Lava Fields of Iceland Tour, in search of the aurora borealis. We haven't seen any northern lights yet, but we'll be out the next 3 nights, traveling in the countryside, away from city lights, to track them down. So far, we've enjoyed 2 days of fantastic...

For me, the best kind of observing is naked eye — and before bedtime. This week, Mercury and Venus fit that bill. Before dinner tonight, check out the planetary pairing in the west-southwest. Even a sub-zero wind chill tonight won't dissuade me from tracking down these inner planets — in fact, it's certain to keep me awake.

A historic telescope is now very modern: the 200-inch (5.1 meters) Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain in California has a web cam . The Hale was the world's largest telescope for 45 years (1948–1993), and it still performs science. This morning, around 9 PST, engineers will lift off the top of the telescope and bring it down to the observing floor in order to aluminize the secondary mirror. Check it out. If you miss it, don't worry —...

I haven't seen many dark skies. I guess I'm just a city girl. It's easy to forget to look up when there's not much to see except Orion and the Moon. I've seen them before. But I've been to Kitt Peak in Arizona, where I marveled at the number of stars. And I spent a summer living in the Greek countryside, where the Milky Way was bright overhead. The " Online extra " for February's " Simple steps to save the...

When I first visited Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2004, I was afforded a behind-the-scenes tour of the 24-inch Alvan Clark & Sons refractor. It’s a gigantic telescope housed in its original 1896 dome. I was graciously allowed to move the beast around and climb the ladder at the tube’s front end to peer inside. The lens I saw there is a masterpiece of craftsmanship — made even more remarkable because it’s...