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On the road: Editor witnesses spectacular solar eclipse from Kenya

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

They told us we would be up early for the eclipse, with first contact beginning a short time after seven in the morning. But some of us had had no sleep for more than two days, and unfortunately it took a major effort to get me up — your editor almost caused one of the buses to be late setting off for Lion Hill, but I scrambled into repair and we set off for a 20-minute journey to a high ridge running along the hill, overlooking Lake Nakuru, where perhaps 75 people from the Astronomy group and s...

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Kenya Annular Eclipse 2010 trip, Thursday

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

Oh, it feels good to be in Kenya. As I mentioned in a previous blog, several of us bound for the Astronomy annular eclipse 2010 trip had our journeys truncated due to bad weather in London, and got off to a late start. Thus, instead of leaving on Saturday, January 9, we flew from Chicago to London on Tuesday the 12th. We then had the good fortune of finding our London to Nairobi flight canceled. For whatever reason, about an inch of icy snow on the runways or the inability to clear it quic...

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We find the Blue Oyster, stare into Cleopatra’s Eye, and go face to face with a Monkey

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

In my previous blog, I mentioned only two objects out of the several dozen we observed at Rancho Hidalgo two nights ago. We saw the following short list of highlights through Gene Turner’s 30-inch Starmaster reflector.One of the first objects we viewed was the Blue Oyster Nebula (NGC 1501) in Camelopardalis. This magnitude 11.5 planetary nebula appeared ever-so-slightly oval, and its magnitude 14 central star easily shone through the gas cloud.Next, we whipped the scope all the way around and ob...

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Senior Editor enjoys his best view of the Orion Nebula ... ever

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

I have never seen the Orion Nebula (M42) as well as I saw it last night. If that statement doesn’t surprise you, a little background is in order. I have observed for nearly 5 decades. During that time, I’ve looked at M42 more than a thousand times through more than a hundred different scopes with some of the world’s top observers. But Gene Turner, the developer who created the Rancho Hidalgo astronomy and equestrian village near Animas, New Mexico, just acquired a Pentax SMC-XW 40mm eyepiece. An...

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Astronomy contributor recaps his visit to the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show

Posted 14 years ago by Matt Quandt

Guest post from Raymond Shubinski, contributing editorJump’n Jupiter’s moons! If you love things electronic, this show is the place to be. For the past 23 years, Las Vegas has hosted the Consumer Electronics Show — an event that has become the world’s largest venue for new and spectacular gadgets. This was my first visit, and the experience was exciting and exhausting at the same time. I went with a colleague, Joe, who has 8 years of experience dealing with the crowds, which was a big help....

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Some astronomical New Year’s resolutions

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

On January 1, I put up one of my favorite polls on Astronomy.com: “What is your astronomy-related New Year’s resolution?” I like it because I think it’s very telling about the interests of the people who frequent our web site. It’s also fun to see if the results changed from previous years. Well, the results are in, and they’re definitely interesting.Just as it did in January 2009, a resolution of “get out of the armchair and observe more” took the top spot for 2010. In fact, it received the sam...

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First light for Astronomy Magazine Observatory

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

First-light solar image taken at the Astronomy Magazine Observatory.Yesterday was a clear day at Rancho Hidalgo, and developer Gene Turner just acquired the first solar image at the Astronomy Magazine Observatory here. The observatory houses a 14-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope we’ll use for future deep-sky imaging.Sitting atop the 14-inch scope, however, is a 4-inch Tele Vue NP-101 apochromatic refractor with a SolarScope Hydrogen-alpha filter and a Pictor CCD camera attached to it. Act...

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Winter observing at Rancho Hidalgo

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

Saturday, January 9, I arrived at Rancho Hidalgo, the astronomy and equestrian community in Animas, New Mexico, to find developer Gene Turner working on his magnificent 30-inch Starmaster reflecting telescope. “I need to replace the friction strip for the azimuth gear drive,” he explained, “so we may be using the electronic setting circles tonight rather than the go-to drive.” Fine with me. I’ll jump at any chance to look through that scope.Before the Sun set, Gene gave me a tour of the new Astr...

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On the road: Eclipse trip to Kenya delayed momentarily

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

It’s Monday, January 11, I’m sitting in my office outside Milwaukee, and it’s still cold outside. No, the Kenyan annular eclipse trip I was supposed to start on Saturday hasn’t happened yet — for me. Our group’s flights were canceled due to the terrible ice and snow problems at Heathrow Airport in London, and so tomorrow morning I will start off for Nairobi, 3 days late. Look for a blog a couple of days from now. The solar annulus, the lions, the warmth — it’s all coming, just a few days la...

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On the road: In deepest, darkest Africa to watch the January 15 solar eclipse

Posted 14 years ago by David Eicher

On Saturday, I’ll head to Kenya with a group of about 30 Astronomy readers to experience the January 15, 2010, annular solar eclipse. The eclipse will last an amazing 8 minutes, 25 seconds. Our tour partner, and its superbly organized leader, is Melita Thorpe of MWT Associates. I’ll travel along to cover the event for the magazine and to speak to the group, and noted astroimager Dennis Mammana will be along with us, too. Aside from the eclipse, the journey (which lasts from January 9 through the...

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215th AAS meeting update: Firsthand view of the cradle that held Hubble for the final time

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

The cradle used to hold Hubble in the shuttle’s cargo bay during the last servicing mission now resides in a clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center. Richard Talcott photo Over the past 2 decades at Astronomy magazine, I’ve had the pleasure to report on the Hubble Space Telescope and its findings in dozens of feature articles and news stories. So imagine my thrill when I was invited to see some of the final equipment used to service Hubble this past May. The space gear resides at NASA’s Godd...

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215th AAS meeting update: One for the record books

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

It’s official: The 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C., is the largest astronomical meeting in history. The number of attendees has reached 3,400, several hundred more than the previous record crowd. All of the astronomers here consist entirely of normal matter — the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up all that we see in the cosmos. But this morning’s press conference shied away from normal stuff and concentrated on the invisible dark matter that...

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215th AAS meeting update: NASA unveils latest Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

If you weren’t convinced NASA made the right decision to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009, the latest Hubble Ultra Deep Field may change your mind. The new image, dubbed HUDF09, made its debut Tuesday morning at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held in Washington, D.C. The image targeted a tiny part of the southern sky with observations through 10 filters ranging from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths. It includes visible-light data grabbed ...

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215th AAS meeting update: Kepler discoveries the talk of the town

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered five new planets orbiting stars beyond the Sun in its first 6 weeks of science observations. The planets — designated Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b — orbit their host stars in periods ranging from 3.2 to 4.9 days. All are significantly larger than Earth and have surface temperatures hotter than molten lava. The smallest planet, Kepler 4b, is about the size of Neptune. But Kepler 7b is the strangest: It has a density just 17 percent that of water, as l...

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On the road: 215th American Astronomical Society meeting update

Posted 14 years ago by Rich Talcott

For something so dark it could define the word, black holes sure seem to be generating a lot of light at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. At a press conference yesterday morning, several scientists spoke about their recent research into these objects, whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape them. Fortunately for astronomers, a black hole can radiate lots of energy when surrounding matter gets heated to millions of degrees. Jimmy Ir...

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Thinking of a stellar name for a new car

Posted 14 years ago by Liz Kruesi

The past week has been pretty busy for me. In addition to the Christmas holiday, I was in a car accident and had to look into purchasing another vehicle. In the end I settled on a Subaru. So now I’m trying to think of what to name her. Because I named my previous car (a silver Toyota) Vega, I’d like to come up with another star name for my new car. As many of you might know, Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades. So it seems logical to name my new blue Subaru after a star in the Pleiades ...

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About the spectacular stony-iron meteorite Imilac

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

This Imilac meteorite the author is about to slice has a coating to protect the meteorite. Michael D. Reynolds photoEnjoy another installment of Michael Reynolds' series on meteorite: When I think of beautiful meteorites, the first one that comes to mind is the spectacular stony-iron meteorite Imilac. Prospectors first found this meteorite in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile in 1822. Imilac exteriors look rough; some describe uncut Imilac specimens as ugly or hellish in appearance. Bu...

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Avatar's Pandora made possible

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

Distant exoplanets can easily have habitable moons, as this illustration shows, and soon we’ll be able to find them in real life! David A. Aguilar, CfA photoAt the risk of being pegged as Astronomy’s entertainment reporter, I wonder what you all think about James Cameron’s latest sci-fi epic, Avatar. To those of a certain age, Cameron may be best-known as Mr. Titanic, but he’s also the guy who brought us Aliens, the Terminator movies, and The Abyss. Clearly, the guy knows how to make a movie. An...

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Who really wants to be an astronaut?

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

Apparently, this really could be you! Enter via web site (or even text your way in) to the reality show Starwalker, and if you win you’ll find yourself in space. Make sure not to forget your camera. NASA photoAlmost a month ago now, I wrote about the upcoming reality show Starwalker, in which the winners would become real-life, space-faring astronauts. If, that was, the show was legit, and it really would happen. As you may recall, I was somewhat skeptical that it would ever take place, and that...

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Tony Hallas brings everything you ever wanted to know about imaging

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

California amateur astronomer Tony Hallas is one of the top celestial photographers on Earth. Starting with Astronomy’s September 2010 issue, he’ll share his expertise with our readers in a monthly column called “Astroimaging with Tony Hallas.”Tony, a self-taught photographer, has captured celestial objects, first on film and then with CCD cameras, since 1987. Along the way, he’s maintained a successful business selling prints of his deep-sky images. In 1992, Tony formed Astro Photo, a small pri...

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Happy Hubble Holidays!

Posted 14 years ago by Bill Andrews

This festive image of one of the most active star-forming regions in our region of the galaxy (in the 30 Doradus Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud) combines ultraviolet, visible, and red light captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3. NASA, ESA, and F. Paresce (INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee photoJust in case you were looking for an excuse to gaze upon some Hubb...

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Polar-orbit launches require more powerful boosters

Posted 14 years ago by Dick McNally

NASA celebrated the successful launch of its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, yesterday morning. But why launch from a base in California rather than the old standby, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida?The main reason is that the WISE telescope requires a polar orbit so it can benefit from constant sunlight and the power it provides.Vandenberg works well for such missions because a launch track to polar orbit from that site ...

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NASA begins new scholars program for 2-year college students

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

If you’re a community or junior college student with an interest in science, technology, engineering, or math, NASA is offering you a great opportunity with a new semester-long scholars program. Students who apply and are chosen for the National Community College Aerospace Scholars program will interact with NASA engineers and each other as they learn more about careers in science and engineering. Program participants will form teams and establish fictitious companies interested in Mars explorat...

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Learn more about the meteorite Northwest Africa 869

Posted 14 years ago by Michael Bakich

This NWA 869 specimen’s surface shows signs of weathering. Mike Reynolds photoAnother installment of Michael Reynolds' series on meteorite: This month I will focus on a stone meteorite that is readily available — even though we are seeing less and less of it and the prices are steadily increasing (more on meteorite pricing later!). Morocco and the Sahara Desert are rich areas for meteorite recovery. Most such objects recovered in the Sahara Desert are stony meteorites; there have been a fe...

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Cincinnati honors pioneer in amateur astronomy

Posted 14 years ago by Matt Quandt

John Ventre accepts the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge award from the Cincinnati Observatory. Marsie Newbold photoGuest blog post from Dean Regas, Outreach Astronomer for the Cincinnati ObservatoryThe Cincinnati Observatory presented former director and full-time volunteer John Ventre with the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge award November 22. Ventre has been instrumental in inspiring a generation of visitors to the Cincinnati Observatory and led the effort to save the facility from the wrecking ba...

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Help NASA map Mars

Posted 14 years ago by Karri Ferron

NASA and Microsoft have collaborated to create a web site where citizen scientists can assist Mars science teams studying data about the Red Planet. NASA/ESA/The Hubble Heritage Team PhotoLooking for another way to become a citizen scientist? Fascinated with Mars and current missions to explore the Red Planet? If you answered “yes” to both of those questions, NASA and Microsoft Corp. have teamed up to create a new online adventure just for you.Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, t...

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Who wants to be an astronaut?

Posted 15 years ago by Bill Andrews

This could be you, if the upcoming reality show Starwalker goes through with its plans to send two winners into orbit. NASA photoReality shows have been promising to transform people for almost a decade now, whether it's into a millionaire, a married person, a beautiful person, or someone smarter than a fifth grader. But soon a TV show may document a group of people jockeying for what may be the grandest transformation of all: becoming an actual space-faring astronaut.Well, so they claim. Ri...

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Smoke trail left by brilliant meteor

Posted 15 years ago by Michael Bakich

Michael J. Fraughton photoLast week, I received an e-mail from Michael J. Fraughton of West Jordan, Utah. At 6:45 a.m. (November 18), his wife showed him a cloud formation of loosely formed rings. He took several photographs of the clouds, two of which accompany this blog. He used a Canon EOS Rebel XTi digital SLR with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens on the automatic setting.Well, it turns out that the “clouds” actually were a persistent smoke trail left by a brilliant fireball that lit up S...

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Try these weekend observing targets

Posted 15 years ago by David Eicher

Did you ever find yourself out under a clear, dark sky in November wondering what to look at? How about targeting a few objects in the constellation Pegasus, one of my favorite autumn constellations. Here are some suggestions:Galaxy NGC 7479 is one of the most popular objects for viewing in the constellation, as it shows a distinct, nearly face-on barred spiral structure. Photos of NGC 7479 appear frequently in astronomy magazines and on the web and give this object a familiar form. This galaxy ...

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NASA technology in your world

Posted 15 years ago by Karri Ferron

NASA recently released its 2009 edition of Spinoff, an annual publication that chronicles successfully commercialized NASA technology. It’s easy to get lost in the magazine or its Web counterpart.The 2009 issue features 49 “spinoffs” in the areas of health and medicine; public safety; consumer, home, and recreation; environmental and agricultural resources; and more. I enjoyed many of them, but my favorites are the life rafts that use water to prevent the them from capsizing, the star-mapping to...

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