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Exoplanets in the spotlight at the American Astronomical Society conference

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

“Welcome to the American Astronomical Society conference, one of the largest gatherings of astronomers in the history of the planet. Although there are so many planets, it's no longer impressive,” said David Helfand, the president of the society, greeting the more than 3,000 astronomers attending the conference, which is taking place from January 5-9 in Washington, D.C. Because there's so much information at this conference, I'm providing recaps of the major stories in 140 or fewer ...

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Join us in Tucson for a day of Sun and stars

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

On Saturday, February 8, 2014, Astronomy magazine will host its second annual all-day skywatching party at the East Campus Observatory of Pima Community College (PCC). The event also will feature illustrated talks on a variety of subjects. Activities begin at 10 a.m. and continue all the way through 9 p.m.Some of the speakers include Keith Schlottman, past-president of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA); Scott Kardel, president of the International Dark Sky Association; Mike Reynold...

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Discover the Universe in Kabul

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Doug Kaupa is a U.S. soldier currently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, with a passion for sharing the night sky. As part of the Discover the Universe program, he distributed star charts and images to local schoolchildren. On top of that, he and his colleagues pooled their resources to purchase inexpensive binoculars so the students would be able to put their new astronomical knowledge to use. He wrote about the experience at Anna’s Educational Center, where students continue to learn about...

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One month left to win $2,500 for your astronomy outreach efforts!

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

With just a month to go before the closing date for Astronomy magazine’s 2013 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’t a...

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Astronomy wins national award for editorial excellence

Posted 10 years ago by Ron Kovach

We are pleased to announce that Astronomy magazine has won a top award for editorial excellence in FOLIO: magazine’s prestigious annual competition. The results were announced this week for FOLIO:’s Eddie and Ozzie Awards competition, the largest of its kind for magazine publishers. A panel of media executives and FOLIO: staff judge the entries, evaluating them based on creativity, innovation, and “proven success in aligning [a magazine] brand’s mission with the end prod...

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World Egg: Jonathan Feldschuh's artistic interpretation of Planck satellite data

Posted 10 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Some artists create images based on bowls of fruit, some on groups of people picnicking, and some on images that only exist in their heads. And then there are others, like Jonathan Feldschuh, who create art from scientific data. Feldschuh’s current exhibition, called The World Egg, takes the Planck telescope’s observations — which show the universe as it was in its earliest epoch — and turns the cosmic microwave background into a source not just of knowledge but also of i...

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Comet ISON comes into solar observatory's view

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

As promised, as Comet ISON nears its closest approach to the Sun (called perihelion) on November 28, it is gaining the attention of NASA's solar observatories. First up is the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), which captured ISON and periodic comet 2P/Encke in its HI-1 camera November 21. In the time-lapse video below, dark ripples coming from the right side are more dense areas in the solar wind, causing ripples in Comet Encke's tail. The most intriguing solar observatory image...

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A spicy island

Posted 11 years ago by Rich Talcott

After leaving the Masai Mara on November 6, our MWT Associates, Inc. group split into two. Eight people decided to extend their game viewing with a trip to Tanzania to see Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti; the rest of us opted for rest and relaxation on Zanzibar, an island in the Indian Ocean not far off the African mainland. Friday, November 7, promised to be our first day of rest and relaxation on the whole trip. Unfortunately, the skies opened up in the early afternoon, putting a damper o...

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Animals for as far as the eye can see

Posted 11 years ago by Rich Talcott

On the morning of November 4, our eclipse group took a short flight from Nairobi to the Masai Mara — a vast expanse on Kenya’s southern border famous for its rich variety of wildlife. Located just north of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, the Masai Mara features the same abundance of wildlife as its better-known southern neighbor. The 30 or so members of our MWT Associates, Inc. tour took three long game rides on Monday and Tuesday and saw sights none of us would soon forget...

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Sand, Sun, and storms — but no totality

Posted 11 years ago by Rich Talcott

For fans of odd weather or anti-crepuscular rays, it would be hard to beat the sky’s performance November 3. For fans of total solar eclipses, however, the day proved less charming. The day started with promise at the Mt. Kenya Safari Club, where partly cloudy skies ruled and the forecast looked good for our eclipse site. After breakfast, the 30-odd members of our MWT Associates, Inc. tour group traveled to a small airstrip and boarded three chartered planes for a nearly two-hour flight t...

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Into Africa

Posted 11 years ago by Rich Talcott

Darkness had fallen by the time we touched down in Nairobi on October 30 following a nine-hour plane flight from London. Along with about 30 other eclipse enthusiasts, I had traveled to Kenya with MWT Associates, Inc. to witness the November 3 total eclipse of the Sun at a site that, climatologically speaking, had the best chances for clear skies of any land-based observing site. Although we would be in the Moon’s umbral shadow for just 14 seconds, we all thought it was worth traveling nea...

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Wicked weather and northern lights in Norway

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

Between spouts of crazy weather during the night, the passengers aboard the MS Midnatsol traveling along the coast of Norway, some of us with the group hosted by Astronomy magazine's travel partner, MWT Associates, had the chance to seem some beautiful displays of northern lights. Friday night saw a combination of music and lights. After some sporadic activity above us, the ship made her way into Tromsø, the "capital" of Arctic Norway. A large group of us headed to the Arctic Cathedral f...

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Searching for fossils in Morocco

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

My travel companions and I spent yesterday and today exploring the fossil-rich region of Morocco. The now-arid land was covered by a sea millions of years ago, and the preserved remains of the animals that lived within it are embedded in rock formations near the Saharan desert. The 30 of us on the MWT Associates Gabon & Morocco tour traveled from Ouarzazate to Erfoud yesterday, and on the way we stopped at an ancient rock formation. After we exited the bus to walk around the rocks, our guide...

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Urban Starfest in Central Park draws hundreds of stargazers

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Despite the unseasonable chill, the clouds, and the thousands of other worthy events going on in New York City, hundreds of people filed into Sheep's Meadow in Central Park last night for the Urban Starfest. They were greeted by Susan Andreoli, a member of the Manhattan-based Amateur Astronomers Association (AAA) board, who handed each start party-goer a bag of astro-swag and sent them down the hill toward a line of impressive telescopes and telescope operators. The Urban Starfest takes place o...

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The desert and oasis of Morocco

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

During the past couple days, I’ve explored some of the desert oasis area in Morocco. I’m traveling with a group from Astronomy’s travel partner, MWT Associates. Yesterday we drove to the Todra Gorge, a canyon carved by the Todra and Dades rivers. The walls on either side of the gorge are some 500 feet (150 meters) tall, but the opening itself is closer to one-tenth that. We saw beautiful vegetation in the region, due to the generous amount of water (which is hard to come by el...

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A peek at aurorae from northern Norway

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

The aurora-hunting group I'm traveling with thanks to Astronomy magazine's tour partner, MWT Associates, had a bit of success on our first night looking for the northern lights aboard the MS Midnatsol off the shores of far northern Norway. We've been battling lots of clouds but received a break a few hours before dinner after our stop in ‪Vardø‬. I unfortunately missed the first spectacle, as I had foolishly gone inside to warm up, but my travel companions graciously shared pictures and d...

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Exploring the Moroccan west and southwest

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Since the eclipse, our group has traveled out of Gabon and back to Morocco — a welcome change of pace from the adventure in Gabon. We spent about 36 hours in Marrakech and drove across the High Atlas Mountains into the northern Sahara desert. While in Marrakech we toured La Bahia Palace, the Saadien tombs, the main market (called a “souk”), an apothecary, and other sites. Although touristy, the city’s sites gave the 30 of us on the Gabon & Morocco tour insight into th...

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A quest for aurorae in Norway

Posted 11 years ago by Karri Ferron

After four flights in 24 hours, I'm finally in Oslo, Norway, along with 17 other astronomy enthusiasts, to start a northern lights adventure with Astronomy's tour partner, MWT Associates. Of course, my travel isn't over — we still have one more flight early tomorrow morning to Kirkenes — but it's finally hit me that I'm on a trip I've been waiting for basically since I started at the magazine. You see, the last (and only) time I've ever seen an aurora was when I was in grade school ...

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A tribute to comet hunters

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

Recently, Amar A. Sharma, who works at the Nikaya Observatory in Bangalore, India, sent in some material we thought would be perfect for a guest blog — especially with the perihelion of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) right around the corner. The author describes himself as someone who has long possessed an unquenched aspiration to discover comets, and he envisions someday narrating his own discovery stories. He prepared this blog using excerpts from his upcoming large compilation — a biogra...

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Clear skies in Gabon to view the total solar eclipse

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

I’m thrilled to report that luck was on our sides today. Even though the day began with dense gray clouds, about one-third through the partial eclipse blue skies started to peek through. And it remained clear for us to see the total eclipse! Screams of excitement and amazement echoed through our observing location. As for my father and I — this was our first eclipse, and all we could say was how amazing the site was. After totality, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Just before...

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Preparing for the Gabon total solar eclipse

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

While my half of the Gabon & Morocco group has remained in Libreville since we arrived yesterday, the other half had arrived a few days earlier and went on a safari in Lope National Park. They rejoined us at the hotel today, just before my lecture in preparation for the total eclipse. Out of the 30 people I’m traveling with, only four of us have never seen a total eclipse. I’ve heard from many of those that I’ve spoken to that this trip is for the true eclipse chaser. (The...

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Total solar eclipse in Gabon, plus a day in Casablanca

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

After a crazy two days of traveling — followed by 10 hours of sleep — it’s finally hit me that I’m in Africa to see the November 3 total solar eclipse. I’m here with a group from MWT, Astronomy’s travel partner. We’re staying in the city of Libreville, Gabon, along the west coast of Africa. For eclipse day we’ll head to a site some 130 miles (200 kilometers) southeast, and we’re hoping for clear skies during totality. (This will be my first t...

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ESA releases a video of Mars Express' best images

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

If Mars had a Division of Tourism, that organization would be plastering the European Space Agency’s new video all over the Internet. The film is a compilation of high-res images from the Mars Express mission — in orbit around the Red Planet — the quality of which should make the National Security Agency jealous. The four minutes of footage that make up “Mars Showcase” show a planet pocked by craters and smoothed by rivers and lava flows. The mission, launched in J...

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The Astronomy Legacy Project preserves photographic plates

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Terabyte hard drives were not always $75 and the size of Post-it notes. Storage devices have been cumbersome for most of history, but that does not mean people didn’t have data that needed storing. In modern, but not ultra-modern, astronomy — before CCD cameras but after the first big telescopes — scientists took observations on photographic plates. Hundreds of thousands of these exist, preserving the cosmos as it looked from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. More than 40 c...

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Watch Comet ISON move

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

Longtime Astronomy contributor Terry Hancock sent in a video he and fellow amateur astronomer Cliff Spohn created. Here’s Terry’s report.“We captured Comet ISON on Monday, October 21, 2013, from Cliff’s remote amateur observatory in Marion, Ohio. It was the first time in almost two weeks that we had a break in the clouds and rain, and we could not miss this rare opportunity to image the comet using Cliff’s QHYCCD QHY9 monochrome CCD camera hooked up to his...

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Making Nepal a dark-sky destination

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Kiran Adhikari, a young astronomer and astronomy popularizer in Nepal, has noticed (as one would expect) a few things about his country: It’s high, it’s dry, it’s dark, and it’s populated in some pockets and not in others. That all bodes well for natural beauty in general, but it’s especially helpful for the natural beauty that’s above our heads. He’s also noticed that high, dry, and dark aren’t the global norm. Ask anyone on the American East Coas...

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Distant Suns releases Comet Watch app

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember where constellations are. After all, their positions in the sky change every season. It’s even harder to remember where a comet is — its location changes even faster, putting it in different constellations on different nights. How are you supposed to keep track? Luckily for you, this is the 21st century, and you don’t have to calculate your own ephemeris for every night-sky object of interest. You can look it up. There is, in fact, an app...

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How does Comet ISON look through the telescope?

Posted 11 years ago by Michael Bakich

We get a lot of images here at the magazine, but not as many observing reports as you might think. The following one (which describes three separate viewing sessions) came from Wayne Johnson, aka “Mr. Galaxy,” who lives near Benson, Arizona.I have not seen many decent visual observations of Comet ISON, so I thought I would share a few observations I made of the object a couple weeks ago when it was just becoming bright enough to see in a telescope.First observation from my backyard n...

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A visit to Yerkes Observatory

Posted 11 years ago by Sarah Scoles

Yerkes Observatory looks like it belongs in Rome (or at the very least, an era in which support of science was as strong as classical columns), though it is in fact located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. It has three large telescopes — a 40-inch refractor, a 40-inch reflector, and a 24-inch reflector. The refractor lives under a dome on one side of the complex, while the reflectors live in separate domes on the opposite side. Some smaller telescopes are used for educational purposes. I was fo...

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Why the Higgs theorists won the Nobel Prize five decades later

Posted 11 years ago by Liz Kruesi

Sometimes it takes five decades to prove a theory as fact. That’s what happened in 2012 when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) confirmed the discovery of the Higgs boson. And then this week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in physics to Peter Higgs and François Englert “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particl...

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