On Friday, Dallas got about a foot of snow, which meant our connecting flight to Tucson was cancelled. After a bit of airline shuffling, I got into Tucson Saturday night. On Sunday, I picked up Senior Editor Rich Talcott and his wife Evelyn from the airport, and we headed to Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, New Mexico. We arrived at Rancho Hidalgo, home to the Astronomy Magazine Observatory, Sunday afternoon. The sky was clear and calm, promising a good...

Saturday, January 9, I arrived at Rancho Hidalgo, the astronomy and equestrian community in Animas, New Mexico, to find developer Gene Turner working on his magnificent 30-inch Starmaster reflecting telescope. “I need to replace the friction strip for the azimuth gear drive,” he explained, “so we may be using the electronic setting circles tonight rather than the go-to drive.” Fine with me. I’ll jump at any chance to look through that scope. Before...

Following the dedication of Astronomy magazine’s observatory , and of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh’s telescope at Rancho Hidalgo, New Mexico, desert adventure awaited us. Astronomy ’s publisher Kevin Keefe had joined me to trek out to visit developer Gene Turner and Loy Guzman, our hosts at Rancho Hidalgo. With the many guests from the night before now departed, we set about exploring nearby attractions surrounding the Hidalgo site — Portal, Arizona...

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich , a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky. In each episode, Michael highlights: One object you can see without any optical aid One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope Targets for August 28-September 4, 2009 Binoculars: Thuban Small telescope: The Hercules...

Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com . If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication in the Ask Astro section of Astronomy magazine. If your question is selected, we will forward it to an expert for his or her response. Then, the...

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich , a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky. In each episode, Michael highlights: One object you can see without any optical aid One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope Targets for June 26-July 3, 2009 Naked eye: The Keystone Small telescope: Globular cluster...

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich , a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky. In each episode, Michael highlights: One object you can see without any optical aid One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope Targets for June 5-12, 2009 Naked eye: Variable star R Coronae Borealis Small telescope...

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see open cluster M41, the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster, and Thor’s Helmet this week. Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS. Each week, I highlight three different night-sky targets for you to see...