Astronomy

Spooky cosmic news, and Brian May

You don’t often hear about amateur stem-cell scientists, or amateur brain surgeons. But astronomy seems to be set up perfectly for anyone to take part. Take Galaxy Zoo - a project run by scientists at Oxford University, Portsmouth University, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University and Fingerprint Digital Media, Belfast to classify over a million galaxies spotted by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A story is doing the rounds at the moment about a mysterious, unique, astronomical object with gh...

Astrologer Interview: Benjamin Dykes (Part 1 of 5)

I was delighted to speak with Dr. Ben Dykes, a traditional astrologer and translator of ancient astrology texts. He published a comprehensive translation of medieval astrologer Guido Bonatti’s Book of Astronomy last year (a first in English), and, just last month, Works of Sahl and Masha’allah, two 8th-9th century astrologers. I will be reviewing his [...]

Astronomy Students: Project ASTRO Needs You!

Be a visiting astronomer in a San Diego County school - Project ASTRO will provide you with free training, materials, and a rewarding way to help our local schoolchildren and teachers. If you are a professional, student, or amateur astronomer or space scientist, we need you! Project ASTRO is a program of the Astronomical Society of [...]

British Museum buys medieval astronomy tool

A rare astronomy tool that helped medieval scientists tell time will remain in Britain after the British Museum scrambled to come up with the money to buy it. In this undated photo provided by the British Museum, a brass device, called an astrolabe quadrant, is seen. The British Museum said Thursday, July 31, 2008, it has bought a rare medieval astronomy tool after a last-minute influx of cash helped the institution buy it and prevent it from leaving the country. In this undated photo provided b...

What is it? The surface of the sun

Scribal points to JWebb for identifying this as a "nascent sunspot." It's a small portion of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, commentary at the link.

Dharma Initiative Rebranding

Along with it's new recruiting campaign, a 1970's research project known as the DHARMA Initiative unveiled an updated logo. As you can see from the photo taken by The Transmission, the cartoonish lettering has been replaced by Futura, giving it a clean modern look. The octagon of traditional bagua trigrams has been simplified and rotated 90 degrees clockwise. According to Wikipedia, the trigrams have a range of meanings from traditional aspects of nature such as earth, wind and fire to their ac...

Imaging Sourcing Intros Amateur Astronomy Cameras

Amateur astronomers take note: Imaging Source today announced the release of a series of "highly affordable, low noise telescope cameras to capture high quality images of the night sky." The Imaging Source cameras each weigh around 9 ounces, measure 2.0 by 2.2 inches, and come in a blue/black aluminum-and-zinc casing. The cameras can be mounted on a tripod and feature a USB 2.0 or FireWire connection. They have either monochrome or color displays in three resolutions: 640 by 480, 1024 by 768, an...

What Are YOU Doing for the International Year of Astronomy?

In 1609, Galileo Galilei looked at the heavens through a telescope for the first time, and things on Earth haven't been the same since. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of this advent of scientific discovery and thought, people and organizations from around the globe are coordinating a world-wide, year-long program called the International Year [...]

Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

Mars once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life, as per two new studies based on data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and other instruments on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)........

Nano-sized Electronic Circuit To Universe

A newly developed nano-sized electronic device is an important step toward helping astronomers see invisible light dating from the creation of the universe. This invisible light makes up 98% of the light emitted since the "big bang," and may provide insights into the earliest stages of star and galaxy formation almost 14 billion years ago........