Blogs

In April, Canada's Ottawa Valley Astronomy and Observer’s Group (OAOG) participated in the Astronomical League-sponsored Astronomy Day. On a specified day (April 20 this year), astronomical societies, planetariums, museums, and observatories host...

Longtime readers of Astronomy magazine undoubtedly know of our great friend and colleague Sun Kwok of the University of Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading experts on astrochemistry and stellar evolution. I’m delighted to say that Sun’s...

A few weeks ago, I attended the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2). The 2013 version of C2E2 ran April 26–28, and the venue was the North Building of Chicago’s McCormick Place. Like most “comic” conventions these days...

My book, Comets: Visitors from Deep Space , will be published this fall by Cambridge University Press. Here’s a taste of an introductory chapter that describes the impact dangers from near-Earth objects, and specifically, in this chunk, the famous...

If you enjoy astronomy, convention centers, and knocking elbows with top-notch scientists, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is inviting you — yes, you — to attend its 222nd meeting. The conference...

Zooniverse, which is home to 14 online citizen science projects and more than 830,000 users, just launched another program aimed at armchair astronomers: Space Warps . In this project, you’ll hunt for gravitational lenses. These are the optical...

Have you ever looked through a telescope while the Washington Monument towered over you? If not (or if you have and would like to do so again), you’ll have your chance in just over a month. On June 14 (or June 15 if the sky is not cooperating...

Some 60 people will attend an event next month in Los Angeles that is the first of its kind. Telescope manufacturer Celestron will put on an event called Perspective in which they host an invitation-only audience of telescope dealers and astroimagers...

Today’s annular eclipse was visible widely across Australia and other areas of the South Pacific, and early reports have it as a big success. I take pleasure in sharing the report sent by Jay Pasachoff, astronomer at Williams College and a longtime...

Yesterday, I shared a cool 3-D image of Comet PANSTARRS sent by Ph.D. astronomer, Queen guitarist, and Astronomy Editorial Advisory Board member Brian May. Today, I have the good fortune to share another image Brian sent me. You may know that Brian is...

NASA’s newest venture around Mars, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN), will launch in November. It will carry the usual spectrometers and magnetometers, but it also will have cargo of a more literary sort: poetry, stored...

Ph.D. astronomer, Queen guitarist, and Astronomy Editorial Advisory Board member Brian May sent some 3-D images of Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) the other day. These are absolutely incredible and will blow your mind when you see them in the right way. You...

I think most of you are familiar with Uwingu, the company started by planetary scientist Alan Stern and friends that are raising grant money to fund astronomical research. Astronomy magazine is a partner in this project and strongly supports Uwingu’s...

My book, Comets: Visitors From Deep Space , will be published this fall by Cambridge University Press. Here’s a taste of a historical chapter centering on observations by the Roman philosopher Seneca . . . Enjoy! The Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus...

The Astronomy Foundation, the nonprofit entity started as a telescope industry association to promote the astronomy hobby, seeks a volunteer person to help with corporate fundraising. The position would involve seeking and building funds for the group...

The International Starry Night celebration will take place August 10, 2013, coinciding with the Perseid meteor shower.[/caption]Amateur astronomer and activist Audrey Fischer of Chicago is well known as an influential friend who combats light pollution...

When I was at NEAF in New York last weekend, Astronomical League Vice President John Goss asked me about young people in amateur astronomy. He showed me a copy of the March issue of Reflector , the league’s monthly publication, with the theme of...

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) starts Friday, April 26, and for the second straight year I’ll be there. I guess the convention organizers liked what I did last year because they’ve issued me press credentials again. The...

Our good friends who work with Sony Pictures, Warren Betts and Brian Boothe, yesterday sent word of a new contest called the XPRIZE After Earth Challenge. This contest will engage students in science, mathematics, and technology to enter a robotics competition...

Over the past three weeks, I’ve taken a vacation down the Mississippi River, speaking about the Civil War on the American Queen riverboat, and also gone to the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF), the biggest astronomy expo in the United States, in...

During the month of March, the Sussex County Astronomy Society and the Delmarva Space Sciences Foundation held three events — one at the seashore, one at a rocket launch complex, and one on a boardwalk — a s part of Astronomy magazine’s...

Sunday always starts a little later at the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF), the largest telescope trade show in the United States. But by 10 a.m., the show cranked up after a successful day Saturday , and 100 exhibitors showed off their wares —...

Following on the heels of the very successful two-day Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference , the world’s largest telescope show and expo — the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) — got off with a bang Saturday, April 20. As usual, the event...

The second day of the Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC), held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Suffern, New York, kicked off early on April 19, 2013, and brought more than 150 astroimagers together for many amazing talks and presentations. Among the...

The 8th annual Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC), one of the premier events for astrophotographers, kicked off Thursday morning, April 18, 2013, at the Crowne Plaza Conference Center in Suffern, New York. NEAIC precedes the major telescope show...