Astronomy magazine editors share their unique insight from behind the scenes of the science, hobby, and magazine.
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Is the Earth’s magnetic field due for a pole reversal?

Posted 6 years ago by Jake Parks
Guest blog by Sharmila Kuthunur We take for granted Earth’s reliable magnetic field, which unceasingly protects us from calamitous radiation. Without it, life as we know it would most certainly not have been possible. Lately, however, the intensity of our magnetic field has been decreasing at an alarming rate. And given its history, a pole reversal may well be brewing deep within our planet. Magnetic pole reversals are a relatively common occurrence on Earth, where one occurs every few t...
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ACEAP 2018 applications now being accepted

Posted 6 years ago by Alison Klesman
This June, I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Chile as media liaison for the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program, or ACEAP. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this program represents the collaborative effort of several major organizations and observatories that you likely know about if you check our news feed regularly: Associated Universities, Inc., the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the N...
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Guest Blog: Sailing through space

Posted 6 years ago by Alison Klesman
By William Zhu A history of space sailing You cannot exactly describe Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer born in the year 1571, as a handsome man. His premature birth contributed to his sickly childhood and smallpox weakened his vision. Yet he was a visionary. Mathematics set him free from his restrictive physical conditions to model and explain the universe. When his Italian colleague Galileo first published news of his discoveries of jovian moons using his telescope, Kepler responded ent...
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Check out a great new book about stargazing

Posted 6 years ago by Michael Bakich
I just received a new book that I think will appeal to beginners who want to observe the sky.  100 Things to See in the Night Sky by Dean Regas (222 pp., softcover, Adams Media, New York, 2017, ISBN 978–1–5072–0505–1) is an easy-to-understand book that will serve as a great first guide to the heavens.  Regas has been the astronomer for the Cincinnati Observatory since 2000, and the cohost of the syndicated astronomy program Star Gazers since 2010. He’s w...
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Eclipse Megamovie Project launches two new citizen science projects

Posted 6 years ago by Michael Bakich
The Eclipse Megamovie Project, a first-of-its-kind citizen science effort that brought together thousands of volunteers across the United States to capture the August 2017 total solar eclipse, received over 60,000 images! We've been pouring through them and thinking about all the different ways we can take this project to the next level. As a result, we've launched two new opportunities for the public to get involved in our on-going scientific investigation. These brand new online citizen scien...
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A guide to the seven major meteor showers of 2018

Posted 6 years ago by Amber Jorgenson
Which meteor showers in the upcoming year are worth viewing? We’ve created a guide to help you decide.  Glowing pieces of galactic material falling into Earth’s atmosphere can be a sight to see for those making strategic astronomical observations, or those just hoping to wish on a shooting star. If you’re lucky, you might catch sight of a meteor on a whim, as they can occur at any time, but keeping an eye on the celestial calendar could save you from observing ordinary ...
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An astronomer's name you should know, but probably don't: Hisako Koyama

Posted 6 years ago by Amber Jorgenson
Small-scale astronomers had recognized her work for quite some time, but it took many years for Hisako Koyama’s name to become renowned in the profession science community. A recently published paper outlines how her work impacted the documentation of sunspots over the last century. Koyama’s name lingered in the back of Delores Knipp’s mind for years before she decided to conduct a detailed study on her work, outlined in the American Geophysical Union journal, Space Weather....
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2017's only supermoon to occur on Sunday, December 3. Is it really that super?

Posted 6 years ago by Jake Parks
Guest blog by Amber Jorgenson If you check your celestial calendar, you’ll notice a pretty stellar galactic event is coming up this weekend. The only supermoon of 2017 is scheduled to descend upon the sky on Sunday, December 3. Though they have been non-existent in 2017 thus far, two more supermoons are set to follow in January 2018. With the surge of supermoons in the coming months, people may be wondering what’s so super about them anyway, and if they’re worth keeping an e...
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CuriosityStream now paired with VRV

Posted 6 years ago by Alison Klesman
I’ve had the opportunity to review several CuriosityStream series in the past; each one has been engaging, fun, and left me wanting more. Some are straightforward documentaries, exploring what we do — and don’t — know about our universe. And some are more playful adventures, imagining what it’s like to stand on a distant planet or what the solar system’s giant planets would look like hanging in our sky. Currently offering more than 1,500 documentaries on de...
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What is so interesting about TRAPPIST-1?

Posted 7 years ago by Jake Parks
Guest blog by Sharmila Kuthunur The TRAPPIST-1 system crams seven planets into less than the distance at which Mercury orbits the Sun. // NASA/JPL-Caltech Back in 1999, when astronomers first discovered an ultra-cool red dwarf star safely tucked away in the constellation Aquarius (the Water-bearer), they simply catalogued it under the name 2MASS J23062928-0502285 and quickly forgot about it. Stars this small were not considered important to the hunt for extraterrestrial life. It wasn’...
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"Are we alone in the universe?" Find out this weekend!

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
We have entered an exciting time in the field of astronomy — and, indeed, in the history of humankind. Every week, it seems, we read new announcements increasing the number of known extrasolar planets circling other stars. And as our instruments and observing techniques allow us to probe ever-smaller ranges of mass and size, we’re now discovering planets that could potentially provide suitable environments for life — Earth-like and otherwise. Which, of course, begs the quest...
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Vintage NASA photographs set for sale

Posted 7 years ago by Jake Parks
On November 2, nearly 500 vintage NASA prints taken from 1961 to 1972 (including the three pictured above) will be auctioned off. On February 20, 1962, John Glenn achieved two huge milestones for humankind within just a few short hours. First (and maybe most impressively), he became the first American to orbit the Earth by circling it three times aboard his Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft, reaching speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour. Second (and maybe most importantly), he snapped ...
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Where are the extraterrestrials?

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
By Richard Talcott While discussing the possibility of intelligent life in the universe over lunch with his fellow scientists, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi asked the simple question: “Where are they?” The line came to be known as the “Fermi Paradox,” and the argument boils down to this: If the universe is teeming with life, and some reasonable percentage of that life has developed advanced technology, then these civilizations should have populated our cor...
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How the Sun creates asteroids

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
By Richard Talcott From its position at the center of the solar system, the Sun spews harsh radiation and energetic particles whose effects are felt well beyond the realm of the planets. In most cases, these emissions are forces of destruction, but not always. On Wednesday at the 49th annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Provo, Utah, Apostolos Christou of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium in Northern Ireland showed how sunlight can be creative. Christou and his team ...
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Small bodies loom large

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
By Richard Talcott As their name implies, planetary scientists spend much of their time studying the biggest bodies in the Sun’s family: the planets and their large moons. But on Tuesday at the 49th annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Provo, Utah, researchers turned some of their attention to the smaller bodies in our solar system. Vishnu Reddy of the University of Arizona reported on his team’s observations of Earth’s quasi-satellite, 2016 HO3. Althoug...
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Saturn takes center stage

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
By Richard Talcott While most of the astronomical world spent Monday celebrating the incredible discovery of two neutron stars merging, planetary scientists held their own celebration. On the first day of the 49th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Provo, Utah, scientists with the Cassini mission to Saturn reported on the latest discoveries to come from the spacecraft before it plunged into the ringed planet’s atmosphere a month ago. During Cassini’s “Grand Finale,&...
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Could Planet Nine really exist?

Posted 7 years ago by Jake Parks
All right, I know. I was extremely skeptical too. And I’m still not completely sold. But I have to admit that the evidence is mounting. There just may be a so-called Planet Nine lingering in the dark, icy graveyard that is our outer solar system.  And if it’s there, its subtle influence could help explain some of our solar system’s most mysterious characteristics — like the highly elliptical orbits of comets and asteroids, or the slight tilt of the plane of our sol...
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Guest blog: What is the International Planetarium Society up to?

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
By Ruth Coalson  International Planetarium Society, Inc. Organization Profile  The International Planetarium Society, Inc. (IPS) is the global members association of planetarium professionals. We currently have 700 members from 51 countries around the world.  The primary goal of the Society is to encourage the sharing of ideas among its members through conferences, publications, and networking. By sharing their insights and creative work, IPS members become better planetarium...
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Day 1 of the Advanced Imaging Conference featured VENDORS

Posted 7 years ago by Michael Bakich
The 2017 incarnation of the Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) is now in full swing at the San Jose Convention Center in California. Bob Fera, one of the event’s organizers, told me that more than 350 people are attending. [br] “We wondered if we’d have good attendance because the recent total solar eclipse was somewhat of a drain on people’s time and money,” Fera said. “So we’re happy that so many imagers are joining us. In fact, 25 or so of them signe...
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Previewing the Advanced Imaging Conference 2017

Posted 7 years ago by Michael Bakich
The tenth annual Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) promises to be the best one yet. The 2017 event is being held at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California, September 29–October 1. For the eighth straight year, Astronomy magazine is proud to be an editorial sponsor. And I will be there. AIC for 2017 will feature more than two dozen workshops and general session presentations, all to help attendees master the art of astroimaging. This year’s speakers include regular As...
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One asteroid at a time? Nah.

Posted 7 years ago by Jake Parks
Asteroids are some of the oldest and most undisturbed objects in our solar system. These miniaturized, rocky worlds have been—for the most part—peacefully orbiting the Sun since the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. It’s estimated that over a million of the floating boulders are crowded together in the main asteroid belt, located about halfway between Mars and Jupiter. And every once in a while, one of them gets bumped out of orbit. But, over the cour...
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Astronomy’s Mars globe brings our celestial neighbor to your desk

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
Explore more than 200 of the Red Planet’s amazing features By Leah Froats Our human fascination with the Red Planet traces back to the 19th century, carrying on unwavering to the modern day. Of course, when the first Mariner spacecraft visited Mars in the 1960s, it found a desolate world. Ideas about martians faded away. But numerous spacecraft over the past 50-plus years, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have uncovered an amazing planet that tells us a lot about the solar syst...
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Guest Blog: The ExoLife Finder: A next-generation telescope for imaging exoplanets

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
By Jake Parks A few years back, a group of astronomers put forth a proposal for a beast of a telescope—The Colossus. At 77 meters in diameter, the Colossus telescope would have been nearly eight times the diameter of Hawaii’s Keck Observatory, currently one of the largest ground-based observatories in the world. And since a telescope’s light-gathering power increases by the square of its diameter, the Colossus telescope would have also had a whopping 60 times the resolution...
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Creating contagious STEM interest: The Adler Planetarium's Celestial Ball

Posted 7 years ago by Alison Klesman
Fundraising galas are a great opportunity to pull out your best formalwear, meet amazing people, and support a fantastic cause — like inspiring future scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. That’s exactly what took place this past weekend at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, the oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and, to me, the very model of modern and engaging public science programming. I grew up in a south suburb of Chicago and went there often when I was younge...
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Guest blog: Observe the Moon in Augmented Reality

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
You’ve Got the Whole Moon in Your Hands By Leah Froats Ever wanted to hold the Moon in the palm of your hand? Well, now you can … sort of. AstroReality, a branch of Quantum Technologies, now offers an augmented reality (AR), 3D printed lunar model that allows for exploration of the Moon’s notable features and landing sites. Astronomy received the LUNAR Pro model, AstroReality’s most advanced Moon model, for review — here are our thoughts. The model Accordin...
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Guest blog: Portrait of the Milky Way Galaxy poster

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
by Sharona Lomberg The One Earth Message Project announces that in cooperation with Astronomy magazine, we are offering FOR THE FIRST TIME ANYWHERE a new poster of a famous work of space art: a revised version of Jon Lomberg’s classic Portrait of the Milky Way mural commissioned by the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Since its creation in 1992, this has been considered one of the most accurate depictions of our Milky Way Galaxy ever made—and now there i...
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Talks Announced for the Darkest Sky Star Party

Posted 7 years ago by Michael Bakich
On Friday and Saturday, October 13 and 14, Dark Sky New Mexico (DSNM) and The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) will host a star party in southwestern New Mexico. The second America’s Darkest Sky Star Party will occur in Animas, New Mexico, a lovely area dominated by antique silver mining that now boasts one of the best skies in the world for stargazing. Along with a clear dark sky, one of the highlights of any star party is the lectures that attendees hear. And this star party will...
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The OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft will Slingshot Past Earth

Posted 7 years ago by Michael Bakich
I just received an email from Dolores Hill, Senior Research Specialist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson about an important date in OSIRIS-REx’s life. She reminded me that tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the OSIRIS-REx launch from Cape Canaveral. And she thought I might like to post the following. Thanks, Dolores, I would. In preparation for the spacecraft’s Earth Gravity Assist Maneuver on September 22, the mission invites amateur astronomers and the public...
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Donate your used eclipse glasses!

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
Maybe you were one of the people scrambling at the last minute to find eclipse glasses for the Great American Eclipse on August 21, or maybe you were prepared and preordered your glasses.  But now that the eclipse has come and gone, are you wondering what to do with that coveted protective eyewear? An eclipse is coming to South America and Asia in 2019 and now Astronomers Without Borders, along with their corporate partner Explore Scientific, is collecting those used eclipse glasses to ...
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Guest blog: 9 Reasons to Reserve Your Southern Skies Party Spot Today

Posted 7 years ago by Nicole Kiefert
By Leah Froats Do you need something to look forward to in 2018? Or maybe you’re in search of exciting plans for next March? Perhaps you’d be interested in the inviting tropical climate, spectacular natural scenery, and abundant wildlife of Costa Rica? And, of course, the opportunity to attend our 15th annual Southern Skies Party at Astronomy’s private star lodge on the Gulf of Nicoya, just a 2.5-hour flight from Miami, Florida.  If that’s not enough to tempt yo...
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