Astronomy magazine columnist Stephen James O’Meara ’s sent us two blogs from the 2009 Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show. Many thanks to Steve for sending these reports! Day One Arrived in Pasadena Saturday morning and immediately immersed myself in the telescope fever at the Pacific Astronomy Telescope Show (PATS), organized by the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference. This is not a telescope-making convention. It's a telescope expo with more...

A guest blog from Lynne Hillenbrand, Caltech’s executive officer of astronomy The Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on the campus of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California, is home to many of the world's pioneers in astronomical discovery, experiment, and theory. Our new building, opened in January, was designed to incorporate groups from across the campus into a single space and to foster their interactions...

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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...

Whew! Talk about kicking the year off with a bang ... The American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting is underway in Long Beach, California, and we are awash in astronomy bulletins. We’re doing our best here at Astronomy.com to keep you informed of each major announcement. Here’s a recap of some of the headlines to make it out of the AAS meeting so far: Fermi Telescope unveils a dozen new pulsars Brown dwarfs don't hang out with stars NASA...

Michael Carroll, renowned illustrator and a frequent art contributor to Astronomy magazine, sent us his musings on the Phoenix Lander’s fate. Because his father worked at the Martin Marietta (now Lockheed/Martin) facility in Littleton, Colorado, Michael enjoyed unique access to the early stages of the Viking missions. His two latest books are Space Art: drawing and painting planets, moons and landscapes of alien worlds and Alien Volcanoes (Johns Hopkins...

One of our friends from Canada, Richard Huziak, sent us these pictures of meteorites from the November 20 fireball . Here's the message he sent along with the images: First picture: Approx 1.5Kg, ~8cm in diameter Second picture: Approx 100g, ~ 5cm in diameter (piece of the inside, ablated in flight slightly after fracturing) Third picture: 38.6g, 5cm x 3cm x 1.5cm (my very first find ) The first two were found by a local farmer in the past few...

Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe filed this report from the inauguration of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory in Malargue, Argentina. Ratcliffe sent us this update and images while the event was underway ! Thanks, Martin! November 14 is an exciting day for cosmic-ray astronomy. The inauguration of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory’s (PACRO) southern site took place this afternoon in Malargue, Argentina. Nestled beneath...

Paul Atkinson filed his third report from the 2008 Chiefland Star Party. Take it away, Paul! Monday night was pretty cold for Florida, and an unexpected cold front pushed through. The sky was clear, and the humidity all but disappeared. The seeing degraded from the front blowing through, and it caused the stars to dance quite a bit. On the field, the die-hard imagers continued while others decided to use the night to observe visually. A tripod with...

Paul Atkinson sent us another report from the 2008 Chiefland Star Party. Thanks, Paul! Live from Chiefland Star Party 2008, here is the on-field report for Sunday night’s observing and Monday’s activities. Sunday night was an awesome observing experience. The site was abuzz with lots of activity right from dusk with reports of multiple attendees going until 5 a.m. or later! The seeing just seemed to get better as the night progressed. Estimations...