My wife and I attended a friend’s wedding this past weekend. When I told the groom’s mother what I did, she let forth the following: “Oh, you work for Astronomy magazine?! My husband is totally hooked on the Galaxy Zoo Project !” Turns out “totally hooked” is an understatement. Her husband told me he has cranked out thousands of galaxy classifications in the last 6 weeks. Each night, he sits at his computer, turns on some music, and gets crankin’...

Today is Friday, the second day of the 2008 Northeast Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC) at Rockland Community College , in Suffern, New York. Because the college’s classes are still in session, NEAIC annually asks one of the participants to lecture to one or two classes about an astronomical subject. This year, conference organizers asked Astronomy Contributing Editor Mike D. Reynolds to give one of the lectures. And what a great choice it was! In...