One thing's for sure about being a reporter: You can go out of your mind trying to get to the heart of the most complex issue and, in the end, trip over the simplest facts. Eyepiece pioneer Al Nagler, CEO of Tele Vue Optics, Inc. , pointed that out to me today. My article about the pros and cons...

Astronomers meet this week in Washington to discuss the future of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the largest radio telescope in the world. The leading item on the agenda is how to prevent the telescope — 1,000 feet wide (300 meters) — from going to the scrap yard. In November 2006, the National...

Here’s some interesting news sent to us from Warren Westura, an amateur astronomer and member of the United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey (UACNJ). Seems they’ve got themselves a truly magnificent new telescope, a 48-inch reflector donated by the U.S. Air Force! Get this: It’s surplus equipment from the...

For a couple of years, the giant Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been under threat of closure because of budget cuts proposed by the National Science Foundation. It appears the budget axe will not fall on Arecibo’s valley-spanning disk just yet. Here is some communication we just received from...