Local Group - Astronomy Magazine - Interactive Star Charts, Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

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Top honors for an "Astronomy" editor

Posted 11 years ago by Ron Kovach

Astronomy magazine is pleased to announce that Associate Editor Liz Kruesi has won one of the top awards in astronomical science journalism from the American Astronomical Society. The society’s High Energy Astrophysics Division honored Kruesi with the 2013 David N. Schramm Award for  High Energy Astrophysics Science Journalism for her April 2012 article, “How we know black holes exist.” The Schramm Award recognizes distinguished writing on high-energy astrophysics and is judg...

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Uwingu update: Nominate names for planets around faraway stars

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

Posted on behalf of the Uwingu team; Astronomy magazine is a proud partner of this effort to raise funding for space science Commercial space start-up Uwingu announced Wednesday the launch of its fully commercial website at www.uwingu.com. The site allows the public to enter names for planets around other stars into a registry that astronomers and others can select from to name faraway planets. Much of the proceeds from these name nominations will be used generate a source of grants to fund spa...

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Virtually attend a star party

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

In this digital age, when you can easily access 3-D panoramas of offshore real-estate investment opportunities and comment on pictures of your high school class president’s second honeymoon to Fiji, doesn’t it make sense that you should be able to look through a telescope online, too? Many people who love space and love to look at it don’t have clear, dark skies or telescopes to point at the sky even if it is clear and dark. Frasier Cain, the publisher of the website Universe ...

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A successful astronomy day in Tucson

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

On Saturday, February 16, 2013, Astronomy magazine hosted an all-day skywatching party at the East Campus Observatory of Pima Community College (PCC) in Tucson. Activities started at 10 a.m. and continued through 9 p.m. And what a day it was! Several groups set up tables and staffed them throughout the day. Among them were the Girl Scouts, the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, the International Dark Sky Association, and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. Astronomy magazine also had a table, where ...

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On the road: Prepping for the 2013 Tucson Star Party

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

What a week it has been in Tucson. I’ve visited the site of our upcoming star party twice. The first time, last Sunday, was to just do a general checkout. I got the lay of the land, and a nice security guard let me check out the Community Room in the Pima Community College Library. That’s where we’ll be doing our talks. The second visit, on Thursday, was to meet with Pima Community College’s representative and astronomy professor David Iadevaia. He showed us the observat...

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Help name Pluto’s two tiny moons

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

Pluto might have been “demoted” in 2006 to dwarf-planet status, but that doesn’t mean this Kuiper Belt object is any less important in the eyes of astronomers. In fact, as NASA’s New Horizons continues its 9.5-year trek to reach Pluto in July 2015, the distant world has received even more scrutiny. This extensive study has led to the discovery of two new plutonian moons since 2011, generically called P4 and P5. But those boring monikers won’t last much longer. The ...

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A key art partnership powers “Astronomy” magazine

Posted 11 years ago by Ron Kovach

Even if you skim casually through the pages of Astronomy, you can’t help but notice the crucial role the art staff plays in the design, illustrations, and overall feel of the magazine. A lot of work, planning, and talent go into their effort. I’m not an artist, but I’d imagine that our subject matter at Astronomy is really challenging stuff for an art staff. Yet our crew seems to take it completely in stride. If readers could sit in on the illustration meetings built into our...

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Help save the movie "Saving Hubble"

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

You may have seen a lot of documentaries in your quest for enlightenment, and you may have funded a few sci-tech projects on Kickstarter in your attempt at philanthropy, but you’ve probably never seen the film Saving Hubble, and it’s even more likely you haven’t helped it reach a wider audience (an audience that includes you). David Gaynes spent nine years making this documentary, which follows the struggles and triumphs involved in keeping everyone’s favorite image-make...

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Watch an asteroid move through space

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

On December 11, 2012, astroimager Mauro Broggi from Cucciago, Italy, took a series of images of the asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which at the time shone at magnitude 10.9. On that date, Toutatis was in the constellation Pisces the Fish. Mauro imaged it from 10:18 p.m. until 12:39 a.m. local time. In that span, the asteroid moved 1°, or twice the apparent diameter of the Full Moon. Mauro sent two versions of the movie he made, and I thought both were equally interesting, so here they are. The fir...

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Hubble’s hidden treasures are yours to find

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Be an astronomy archaeologist. Dig up images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) that only a few scientists have ever seen (and about which they never wrote press releases). I dare you. While many beautiful pictures from the HST have made it into the public eye, thousands have not. Scientists are calling these images “Hubble’s hidden treasures.” While they search the archive for sparkly astronomical gems and publish them as the Hubble Pictures of the Week, they say “th...

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Swap or sell your astro-gear in eastern Wisconsin

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

On Saturday, March 23, 2013, the Sheboygan Astronomical Society is hosting its sixth annual Swap ’N’ Sell. This year’s event will take place at the Aviation Heritage Center of the Sheboygan Airport in Wisconsin from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. For those of you who own a GPS or like to use Google Maps or MapQuest, the address is N6191 Resource Drive, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin 53085. Maybe you have some astronomy stuff like telescopes, eyepieces, accessories, cameras, or books you no long...

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Telescopes to Tanzania brings science and math to East Africa

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

Back in October, Associate Editor Bill Andrews introduced us to Chuck and Susan Ruehle and Telescopes to Tanzania, a program that aims to build instructor and student capacity in many of the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math. At that time, the pair was just preparing to depart Wisconsin for a trip to Tanzania, one of the poorest countries in the world, as part of the project. And last week, I received an update from Chuck and Susan on their workshops in East Africa: Have...

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NASA’s universe literally at your fingertips

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Now that you’ve relegated all those weird books you received over the holidays to the shelf for dust collection, it’s time to pick up a book — or two — of your own choosing. For your consideration, I present the latest in NASA’s line of e-books: Hubble Space Telescope: Discoveries and Webb Space Telescope: Science Guide. Both are available for free and can be purchased either as interactive e-books for the iPad or as static PDFs for e-readers, tablets, and computer...

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On the road: AAS January 2013 meeting — supernovae and dark energy

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

It’s the end of the third full day, and my last, at the American Astronomical Society meeting. In addition to attending press conferences about exploding massive stars and cosmology, I spent time checking out some of the poster presentations and attending science sessions about imaging exoplanets and also stellar astrophysics projects from the Kepler mission (it doesn’t just detect worlds around other stars). The first press conference grouped recent supernovae discoveries with the ...

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On the road: AAS January 2013 meeting — more exoplanets and a donated telescope

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

As the second full day of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting comes to an end, exoplanets yet again were a major focus. The first press conference of the day included announcements of surprising planetary systems. First, we learned of evidence of a planetary system in the Hyades star cluster. This cluster is just 150 light-years from Earth and provides a laboratory to study stellar evolution. Ben Zuckerman of UCLA and colleagues used the HIRES instrument on the Keck Telescope to obse...

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On the road: AAS January 2013 meeting — exoplanets and high-energy astrophysics

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

It’s no secret that the search for extrasolar planets leads to big news. This field seems to be taking the American Astronomical Society meeting by storm, as evidenced by the number of press conferences and how packed the exoplanet science sessions are — standing room only. The first press conference highlighted five different announcements about worlds orbiting other stars. First, Christopher Burke of the Kepler mission team announced that it has found another 461 candidate planets...

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American Astronomical Society January 2013 meeting preview

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) holds two meetings each year, and the January one is the largest. This year, Long Beach, California, plays host to the society’s 221st meeting from January 6 through 10, where some 2,800 astronomers, educators, students, and journalists are expected to attend. The meeting includes 10 press conferences, and more than 1,900 science talks and poster presentations, plus a few “town hall” meetings that touch on the future of astronomy. It&rsq...

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Join the GLOBE at Night 2013 campaign

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

How bright is your night sky? A sky full of light pollution increases energy consumption and has deleterious effects on human health and wildlife. You can be part of the solution by measuring the brightness of your night sky to help scientists. Join one of five GLOBE at Night campaigns in 2013. The first started January 3 and runs through January 12. GLOBE at Night is a worldwide, hands-on science and education program to encourage people (citizen scientists) worldwide to record the brightness ...

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Deadline approaching: Your astronomy club could win $2,500

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

With just a couple of weeks until the closing date for Astronomy magazine’s 2012 Out-of-this-world Award, I wanted to post a reminder about this great opportunity. If you’re part of a nonprofit group anywhere in the world that presents the wonders of astronomy to the public, you’re eligible for this $2,500 award. Based on when proposals arrived in the past few years, I’m sure there are still organizations out there that are eligible for this prize but simply haven’...

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Join us in Tucson for a day filled with astronomy

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

On Saturday, February 16, 2013, Astronomy magazine and the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) will host an all-day skywatching party at the East Campus Observatory of Pima Community College (PCC). Activities start at 10 a.m. and continue through 9 p.m. This event will feature astronomy-based talks, displays, and handouts (including Astronomy magazine). But the highlight will occur throughout the day as members of the TAAA will have telescopes set up with the proper filters to con...

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A Kickstarter for science

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Many of you are probably familiar with Kickstarter, the funding platform for creative projects. If you want to produce a music album but don’t have the money, you can put your idea on Kickstarter; if people like it enough, they will send you money.Well, now science projects have their own crowd-funded initiative. It’s called PetriDish, probably because scientific ideas incubate there like virulent bacteria in the lab. Matt Papas and Ilia Salzburg began this company, in their own word...

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Uwingu for the holidays

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

Posted on behalf of the Uwingu team; Astronomy magazine is a proud partner of this effort to raise funding for space science At Uwingu, we want to find new ways to connect people to space and the sky, and to use that interest to fuel a new way to fund space research and space education. Back in the late summer and fall, we raised $80,000 via a crowd-funding campaign at IndieGoGo; after we completed that campaign, we learned we were one of IndieGoGo’s 25 biggest success stories in 44,000+...

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NASA looking for a few good space telescope ideas

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

In June of this year, news broke that NASA had received two space telescopes from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Both instruments hold mirrors 2.4 meters across, the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope. However, both have shorter focal lengths than Hubble, which means they can observe a much wider field of view. In fact, these scopes could observe a field about 1.8° wide (some 100 times larger than what Hubble sees). Neither of the NRO-donated scopes has additional instruments...

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NASA makes Earth become art

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

If you a) have recently lamented the arts-sciences disconnect,b) would like to make your coffee table look smarter,c) enjoy thinking about all the satellites staring down at us, and/ord) think Earth is a cool place to live, consider checking out NASA’s new book Earth as Art, which showcases 75 satellite images of our planet. Taken by the Terra, Landsat 5, Landsat 7, EO-1, and Aqua satellites, they leave no doubt about “aesthetic beauty in the patterns, shapes, colors, and textures ...

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Seeking a few good titles from our readers …

Posted 11 years ago by Ron Kovach

Care to take part in the astronomical education of an editor? I recently joined the Astronomy staff as the managing editor, helping to guide and manage the ship but not bringing any formal astronomy background along with me. Being a lifelong lover of learning, albeit mostly in history and literature, I’m planning to educate myself as best I can about astronomy, given my time and energy, and I’d love to hear your suggestions. Are there books, websites, videos, or films that really con...

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On the road: Australia eclipse trip, days 6-8

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

Now that I'm back from Australia and stuffed with turkey, I can share the details of the end of my trip. On the day after the total solar eclipse, the Astronomical Tours group was on cruise control. We'd seen the eclipse, so it was time to visit Australia's interior. That morning, we all boarded two flights (only 30 minutes apart) headed to Uluru, the country's colossal natural wonder formerly known as Ayers Rock. After an easy 2.5-hour flight, we arrived at a small airport with a long runway.Ou...

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ESO hits 50

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

In 1962, astronomers from five European countries decided to build a telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, where there were not yet any large observatories but there was an abundance of interesting sky objects, like the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way's galactic center, high in the sky. This group of astronomers called its project idea the European Southern Observatory (ESO). While these scientists surely hoped their venture would be successful and long-lived, they couldn’t ...

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Missed the eclipse? NASA saves the day

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

If you, like me and many others across the globe, weren't able to travel Down Under to witness the November 13/14 total solar eclipse, worry not. NASA has saved the day. Check out this two-minute video the space agency captured of totality from the northern tip of Australia, where Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich also experienced the event. If you were lucky enough to see the eclipse in person, we'd love to see your photos. You can share them in the Sun and Moon area at www.Astronomy.com/readerg...

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On the road: Australia eclipse trip, eclipse day

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

The big day arrived for the Astronomical Tours group with the same tension that grips a rookie NFL player in his first Super Bowl. In four days of touring Australia, we'd seen lots of clouds and numerous short but soaking rain showers. Such events tend to dishearten eclipse-chasers. But I maintained a positive attitude, and I think it helped our group's outlook. Between you and me, I never doubted that we'd see it.We left our hotel at 3:30 a.m., headed for Bramston Beach. The night before, Jen W...

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On the road: Australia eclipse trip, days 3 and 4

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

On November 12, we enjoyed a natural Australian attraction as famous as the Grand Canyon is in the United States: the Great Barrier Reef. We took a boat that held more than 200 people out to a part of the giant wonder. It was a long ride (about two hours) that stopped briefly at Green Island to drop off dozens of tourists. This location is the chosen eclipse viewing site for the group Astronomy Editor Dave Eicher is leading.Luckily, and unlike a lot of people on the boat, I didn't get seasick. T...

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