Podcast: Comets, Our Icy Friends from the Outer Solar System
The sudden brightening of Comet McNaught has reminded us what a treat it can be to see a comet with…
What’s Up this Week: January 15 – January 21, 2007
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! We start the week with a celestial scenery alert just before dawn... Look for the Moon, Antares,…
Comet McNaught is Now Visible in the Daytime!
Okay, this is unprecedented. The really bright Comet McNaught that I mentioned a few days ago is now so bright…
Hubble Sees a Hypergiant Star Nearing Death
VY Canis Majoris, located about 5,000 light-years away, is no ordinary star; it's a supergiant, containing 30 to 40 times…
Book Review: Astronomical Image Processing Tutorials by Donald P. Waid
Astrophotography is an exhilarating pastime. Thanks to the digital revolution in amateur astronomy, taking deep space images is less of…
The Milky Way and the Seven Dwarfs
There's no easy way to put this, our home galaxy is a killer. It's torn up galaxies in the past,…
Planets Born to a Dying Star
Young stars and new planets go hand-in-hand. But that might not always be the case. An international team of astronomers…
Light Echoes from Our Supermassive Black Hole
A new set of images from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory show the reflected X-ray emission from a small meal consumed…
See the Brightest Comet in 30 Years
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait is raving about it, our forum is buzzing about it, and there seem to be stories…
Eagle Nebula’s Pillars Were Wiped Out Thousands of Years Ago
One of the most famous space photographs ever taken is the "Pillars of Creation" by Hubble, an amazing image of…