Space and astronomy news
Starting tomorrow (Oct. 22) professional and amateur astronomers around the world will be out in force to encourage as many people as possible to look through a telescope. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone project, Galilean Nights, will be a global experience, with more than 1000 public observing events in over 70 countries. If …
[/caption] A collage of 21-day old Moons, sketched by Galileo, (left), an image from Jane Houston Jones’ telescope, center, and Jane’s sketch, right. Amateur astronomers have different ways of documenting their observing sessions, such as taking astrophotos or keeping a logbook. Others, like Jane Houston Jones, employ an age-old method used by Galileo Galilei himself: …
Quick! Grab a pair of red and green 3-D glasses and slap them on to watch this great time lapse video of the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory, high in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It shows a complete night at the observatory, and you can see the four 8m telescopes and the …
[/caption] Well, actually, the people who invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, called a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device), have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith came up with the idea “from their own heads,” Smith said, and CCDs revolutionized photography, as light …
When it comes to the Moon, there are times when I feel like the “Queen of Selene”. In just a few short weeks there will be a whole new style of lunar observing book out on the market, and just when I thought I’d heard it all and seen it all… along comes something new! …
[/caption] Two sunspots appeared on old Sol yesterday just as Earth’s orbit ushered in the Autumnal Equinox. Two sunspots showing up at once hasn’t happened in more than a year, and over 80% of the days in 2009 have been “sunspotless” during this deepest solar minimum in a century. Spaceweather.com had a great picture, below, …
[/caption] Last week the GigaGalaxy Zoom project introduced an interactive 360-degree panorama of the entire night sky, and they promised more zoomable images to come. The second of three images is now available, and it is a wonderful 340-million-pixel vista of the central parts of our galactic home. Taken by Stéphane Guisard, an ESO engineer …
[/caption] A stunning new 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky has been released online for everyone to enjoy. GigaGalaxy Zoom is a project for the International Year of Astronomy, and it allows users to dive right into the Milky Way Galaxy, and learn more about our celestial neighborhood. The project allows stargazers to explore and …
Continue reading “Interactive 360-Degree Panorama of Entire Night Sky Now Available”
[/caption] Paolo Beltrame from Italy sent us this amazing montage of images he took of space shuttle Discovery docked to the ISS on September 1, 2009. See the incredible details visible of the space station and docked shuttle! Paolo is with the Circolo AStrofili Talmassons (Amateur Astronomers Club in Talmassons, or CAST) who have an …
Continue reading “Great Views of the ISS and Shuttle From Earth and Space”
[/caption] Here’s the fourth installment of our new feature, showcasing our readers’ prowess with image editing software. This week’s Astro Art of the Week is a showdown of cosmic proportions: “Dragon Versus Eagle” was submitted by Wienie van der Oord from Negev Desert in Israel. The image of the Eagle Nebula was taken by Wienie’s …