Special guest blog from Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe President Barack Obama and his family joined 150 school children, dozens of amateur astronomers, professional scientists, and education and public outreach professionals Wednesday night during the Star Party at the White House. And how cool was this? “Cool” doesn’t even come close. I was lucky to be a part of the exciting events running one of the planetarium domes set up on the South Lawn...

May starts out with a bang and continues with two much-anticipated space exploration launches. In addition, more and more local events are being added to the United States’ International Year of Astronomy calendar , so be sure to keep checking in for activities in your city. Here’s what’s in store for you internationally: May 2009 NASA Theme: Our Sun (this month Galileo first wrote up his observations on sunspots in 1612) Featured object in the sky...

On Friday, April 24, the first Dark Sky Party at Sierra la Rana will take place. Activities will begin at 7:30 P.M. and continue until 11 P.M. Organizers’ goals are to expose the public to the marvels of astronomy and the importance of protecting dark skies, not just for astronomy, but also for area wildlife. Sierra la Rana is a dark-sky friendly community (as evidenced by the dark-sky map at right) with an Astronomy Village and a common area with...

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...

In addition to Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher's reports from his trip to Arizona Sky Village with Senior Editor Michael Bakich, we're also privileged to have updates from the 2008 Chiefland Star Party , in Chiefland, Florida. Chiefland Astronomy Village (CAV) hosts this star party. Like Arizona Sky Village, CAV is an astronomy-friendly community. According to its web site, "The Chiefland Astronomy Village is basically an astronomical...

Senior Editor Michael Bakich's video footage from the 2008 Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show , September 13-14, is up on Astronomy.com. Michael used his digital camera to record his walk-through of the show floor inside the Pasadena Convention Center. There's no audio, so when you don't hear anything, don't worry. Video: On the road: Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show 2008 Image gallery: Pacific Astronomy and Telscope Show 2008

My fellow editors and I are reading through entries for Astronomy ’s annual Out-of-this-world award for outstanding astronomy programming. I’m impressed with how helpful you amateur astronomers are to your community. I’ve been to a few star parties (one at the Grand Canyon and another outside Austin, Texas), and both times everyone I encountered was more than willing to help me around the sky and let me look through their telescopes. I’m one of those...

The third night at the Great Lakes Star Gaze (GLSG) started out clear but turned cloudy around 11 p.m. That’s too bad, because lots of observers were waiting for some great objects to climb high in the sky. Editor's note: Visit the online photo album, " Astronomy on the road: Great Lakes Star Gaze 2008" for images from Michael's trip. During the day, I spent several fun hours chatting lots of attendees, including well-known amateur...

The day after we had a wonderful night of observing at El Camino Real, the Enchanted Skies Star Party slowed down a bit. Attendees spread out doing a variety of things during the day. Editor's note: View the photo album, Enchanted Skies Star party 2008 , to see images from Dave's time in and around Socorro. I checked out the New Mexico Tech Mineral Museum on the campus, with its spectacular collection of minerals. Thursday, I wrote about the...