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

0

Kudos to Astronomy’s “rising stars”

Posted 15 years ago by Daniel Pendick

Back in the August 2008 issue, I wrote about 10 “rising stars” in astronomy — a group of investigators whose work we thought you should know about. I’m happy to say two of the picks have already hit the bright lights. Rising star Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University just won the prestigious Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy for his “significant and broad theoretical contributions to the field of exoplanet research, particularly in the area of microlensing detection and characterization of ...

1

On the road preview: Into the night once again

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Tuesday the 27th is a big day for me. I’m headed once again to observe from the pristine skies of Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico. During the three nights I’m there, I’ll be using developer Gene Turner’s magnificent 30-inch Starmaster reflector (pictured at right with Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher). I have compiled an observing list of challenging winter deep-sky objects that would make most observers’ mouths water. I also created lists of galaxies to target in Cancer, Leo, and Ursa M...

0

Inside the Hermitage’s Malachite Room

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

Travelers with Astronomy’s solar eclipse expedition to Russia last summer saw a spectacular range of Russian churches and museums. The grandest of them all was St. Petersburg’s Hermitage, one of the greatest museums in the world. One of the nearly endless rooms in the Hermitage is the Malachite Room, world famous as one of the most richly decorated mineral rooms in existence. Designed by the architect Alexander Briullov in 1830, the space was the official drawing room of Empress Alexandra Feodor...

2

January 23-30, 2009: Constellation Lepus, the Crab Nebula, and the Raspberry Nebula

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see constellation Lepus, the Crab Nebula, and the Raspberry Nebula . 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: One object you can find with your naked eyes o...

0

Bail to the chief

Posted 15 years ago by Daniel Pendick

With all the talk of financial bailouts in these, shall we say, fiscally distressed times, I can’t be the only one wondering how NASA will fare in the new administration. When I saw the photo of the lunar rover rolling past the Presidential bandstand in the inaugural parade, I couldn’t help but wonder if the driver was sitting there with his fingers crossed, fervently mumbling, “Oh, please please please keep those NASA greenbacks flowing, Mr. President.” It seems unlikely President Obama will...

2

Early human settlements and the stars

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

When I was in the British Museum this summer I again stumbled across an object that fascinates me every time I see it — the Jericho Skull. In 1953 in the city of Jericho, in what’s now the West Bank, Palestinian territories, archaeologists discovered 10 skulls in several caches, including this one. Jericho is fascinating in that it has been inhabited continuously for more than 11,000 years, since 9,000 B.C. Therefore, it’s the oldest continuously lived-in city on Earth. At an elevation below sea...

0

The Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Did you know that there are 878 World Heritage Sites, each designating a place of outstanding universal value? And protecting each is the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Among the sites are Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Persepolis in Iran, and the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacán in Mexico. Unfortunately, as author Clive Ruggles points out in his commentary "Why we must save our astronomical heritage" for New Scientist magazine, astronomic...

1

What’s it like to be an astronomer?

Posted 15 years ago by Karri Ferron

From checking in on our forums every day, I realize that many young people who frequent Astronomy.com (and even those who already have an established career) wonder what it’s like to be an astronomer. What do their day-to-day lives entail? What are they studying right now? What challenges do they face? What do they enjoy doing with their free time? Well, this year the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is designed to answer some of those questions with one of its Cornerstone Proje...

3

Announcing the 2009 Astronomy Astroimaging Contest

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you love imaging celestial objects, Astronomy magazine is giving you the chance to show off your work in the 2009 Astronomy Astroimaging Contest. The competition offers three categories: Deep-sky, Solar system, and General. In addition to these winners, we’ll choose one image as the grand prize winner — the best of the best. We offer some great prizes to encourage your participation, we rounded up some great prizes from Astrodon Filters, Lumicon, and Tele Vue Optics. The grand prize is ...

0

Astronomy editor to be regular guest on new radio program

Posted 15 years ago by Matt Quandt

Senior Editor Michael Bakich will be a monthly guest on “Overnight America with Jon Grayson,” a new radio program that originates from KMOX (AM 1120) in St. Louis. Michael used to be a monthly guest on Jon’s previous show, “Reality Check.” “Overnight America” airs weeknights starting at midnight. The program is broadcast on a few CBS Radio stations throughout the country. Specifically: WBZ, 1030 in Boston WCCO, 830 in Minneapolis KDKA, 1020 in Pittsburgh KMOX, 1120 in St. Louis ...

0

The Astronomer, and that other painting

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

Last summer I did the daring: spent a month on a military history trip to Europe with my dad John and son Chris and tramped all over World War II battlefields and historic sites. But we also got in some quality time in pure culture, too, as with several days spent in Paris. At the Louvre, one of the highlights for us was seeing Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting “The Astronomer,” completed by the Dutch master about 1668. Not only is the painting one of the most famous of its time and terrific fo...

0

January 16-23, 2009: Castor and Pollux, the 9–12 Geminorum Cluster, and the Eskimo Nebula

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the twin stars Castor and Pollux, the 9–12 Geminorum Cluster, and the Eskimo Nebula . 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: One object you can find wi...

6

Pioneering tourist spaceship installed in museum

Posted 15 years ago by Daniel Pendick

It’s been a busy couple of months for Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism venture. WhiteKnightTwo — the mothership that will launch Virgin Galactic’s tourist spaceship, SpaceShipTwo — made its maiden flight from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port December 21. On December 17, 2003, the jet-powered WhiteKnightOne lifted SpaceShipOne to 50,000 feet, where it then rocketed into suborbital space. SpaceShipOne received the Ansari X Prize in 2004 as the first civilian low-cost sp...

0

Everyone loves an eclipse book

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

Eclipses draw amateur astronomers like magnets to exotic places to see the biggest observing events of the year. The occasional eclipse book is a relatively rare item and a treasured keepsake — memories for those who went along and a dream book for those who didn’t but aspire to next time around. I recently received a beautiful book of eclipse stories from last year titled Eclipse 2008, produced by Aram Kaprielian of TravelQuest International. The 99-page book is loaded with color photos and...

4

Deep Sky and Telescope Making magazine issues available

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

There was a time, long ago, when the publishers of Astronomy brought you two smaller quarterly magazines as well: Deep Sky and Telescope Making. These sister publications were extremely popular with amateur astronomers in the boom days of the Dobsonian revolution, when large telescopes were first available to amateurs and an explosion of knowledge about what could be seen in the sky was first happening. I started Deep Sky as a monthly publication when I was a sophomore in high school in Ohio...

0

Wisconsin and the International Year of Astronomy

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

I know what you’re thinking: People do astronomy in Wisconsin? Yes, indeed, and despite the usually miserable weather, astronomy continues to thrive as much as when Yerkes Observatory opened its dome in Lake Geneva more than 100 years ago. If you live in Wisconsin, or may visit here in 2009, planetaria, observatories, and astronomy clubs are planning many activities for the International Year of Astronomy. Check out what’s happening at Wisconsin Astronomy’s newly launched web site, www.wiscon...

4

Galileo’s big day

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

Once a week I’ll pick an image from a recent trip of mine that will cast some light on an astronomical subject — or maybe sometimes it’ll just be a cool image that will stray a little from astronomy. To start things off, here’s an important place: St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy. The tower shown at right is the Campanile of St. Mark’s, the (reconstructed) tower where Galileo first demonstrated his brand-new telescope. It’s an amazing story: Stunned by news of a freshly invented telesc...

0

AAS meeting, Wednesday recap

Posted 15 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Well, Wednesday was my shortened day. I was at the meeting for only the morning. In that time I went to three press conferences and wandered around some of the posters … all before 1:15 p.m. Then I had to bug off to grab my shuttle to the airport. Today was a lot of high-energy and cosmology — the really cool stuff, in my opinion. The first press conference covered an interesting black-hole observation. For years astronomers have had their own “chicken-and-egg” problem: What came first, super...

1

Our man in Cape Town: Benne Holwerda wants to build the biggest radio telescope in history

Posted 15 years ago by Daniel Pendick

I was pleased to see an e-mail in my inbox Wednesday morning from Benne Holwerda, a post-doctoral fellow in astronomy at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I wrote about his research on galaxies in the January issue of Astronomy. Benne used the Hubble Space Telescope to study a galaxy silhouetted against a more distant galaxy (image at right). It revealed some previously invisible structure at the dark outer edges of the close-by galaxy. Anyway, I instantly responded to Benne’s openne...

0

January 9-16, 2009: Musca Borealis the Northern Fly, Collinder 464, and NGC 2403

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the extinct constellation Musca Borealis the Northern Fly, open cluster Collinder 464, and spiral galaxy NGC 2403. 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: ...

0

Quadrantid meteor shower video

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Wanna see a meteor shower? I know it’s cold, but you don’t have to go anywhere for this one — just check out this video. Long-time imager and Astronomy contributor John Chumack, who lives in Dayton, Ohio, had one of his wide-field video cameras (Northeast SkyCam #2) pointed at the sky during the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower January 3. He then condensed nearly 7.5 hours of time into a 4-second movie (6 seconds, counting the title). In that short time, John’s camera caught dozens of met...

0

AAS meeting, Tuesday

Posted 15 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Just like Monday, Tuesday started with a press conference. This one concerned a 3D view of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. That conference went long, and unfortunately I had to miss a science session on future wide-field surveys that I was looking forward to attending. The next conference I attended was about eclipsing binaries (or lack thereof). After a 20-minute break it was time for … take a guess … another press conference! This one interested me — it was high-energy related. After that,...

0

Drowning in astronomy headlines

Posted 15 years ago by Matt Quandt

Whew! Talk about kicking the year off with a bang ... The American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting is underway in Long Beach, California, and we are awash in astronomy bulletins. We’re doing our best here at Astronomy.com to keep you informed of each major announcement. Here’s a recap of some of the headlines to make it out of the AAS meeting so far: Fermi Telescope unveils a dozen new pulsars Brown dwarfs don't hang out with stars NASA satellite reveals active galaxies are...

0

AAS meeting, Monday

Posted 15 years ago by Liz Kruesi

I started out Monday with a press conference on exoplanets, and then followed it with a science session on the Milky Way. After that I attended a press conference about brown dwarfs, one about new observations of the Milky Way, and another about the International Year of Astronomy. I took more notes than any of you probably want to read, so I’ll just pick and choose some of the news stories that interested me. Brown dwarfs — those odd spheres that don’t really fit in anywhere. They’re too col...

1

The importance of smart lighting

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

I usually don't read “science” opinion pieces written by non-scientists. An e-mail from subscriber Gardner Howe, however, contained a link to an article I find difficult to ignore. Gardner sent some nice comments about my article “Can we win the war against light pollution?” which appears in the February 2009 issue of Astronomy. He also sent a link to the online article “Let There Be Dark?” posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008. In the article, columnist Steven Milloy wrote the following. I se...

0

February 2009 issue Web extras

Posted 15 years ago by Karri Ferron

Now that the February 2009 issue should be in-hand, we’ve updated Astronomy.com with our newest Web extras that give subscribers exclusive access to supplementary information to the magazine articles. This month, we offer insight into planet formation, dark energy, weird cosmic explosions, and more.If you subscribe to Astronomy, make sure you’re registered with Astronomy.com so you can access these great extras.Here are the highlights:Associate Editor Daniel Pendick shares a video of Hubble Spac...

2

New details on Columbia crew’s final moments

Posted 15 years ago by Daniel Pendick

A NASA panel has just released a detailed report revealing the last moments of the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew, lost February 1, 2003, on reentry. You can download the 400-page report, “Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report." The cause of the accident has been clear since soon after the disaster: A piece of insulating foam struck the leading edge of one of the orbiter’s wings. During reentry, searing hot gases entered the breach, ultimately causing the breakup ...

0

January 1-9, 2009: Mercury, Rigel, M79

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see Mercury, Rigel, and globular cluster M79. 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: One object you can find with your naked eyes or through binoculars On...

0

American Astronomical Society meeting preview

Posted 15 years ago by Liz Kruesi

On January 4, I’ll leave the cold, snowy Midwest for the sunny (and mid-60s) Southern California (Long Beach, to be exact). Just that alone sounds great, but I’m not heading out there for a vacation. Instead I’ll be in California for the 213th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting. The January AAS meeting is the largest astronomy-related conference each year. About 2,300 astronomers are expected, and they will present more than 1,800 scientific papers. I’ll be there to report on it. In...

0

Reader insights

Posted 15 years ago by Karri Ferron

Over the past few months, I have been in charge of selecting the weekly poll we put up on the main page of Astronomy.com, and it has given me some insight into our readers and those who visit our site. Here are five things I’ve learned so far: 1) Readers have high hopes for a jovian moon. When asked where they thought we might find extraterrestrial microbial life, voters thought we’ll have the most luck on Europa (37.5 percent of the votes). Mars came in second (24 percent). 2) Carl Sagan is ...

ABOUT THE MAGAZINE

SUBSCRIBER EXTRAS

IN EVERY ISSUE

COLUMNISTS

FEATURES

RECENT HEADLINES

TOPICS

RECENT HEADLINES

TOPICS

RECENT HEADLINES

TOPICS

PICTURE OF THE DAY

RECENT GALLERIES

TOPICS

RECENT POSTS

TOPICS

READER GALLERIES

TOPICS

NEW PRODUCTS

IN OUR STORE

CURRENT ISSUE