Archive for the 'astronomy' Category

Amateur astronomy buffs will want to check out the 2009 listing of night star-gazing highlights for 2009, provided by Space.com.
From the Solar System and beyond, you definitely don’t want to miss these during the year. Mark your calendar!

Google brought us online search that has yet to be matched and Google Earth, a wicked cool bit of software that lets us view almost any part of Planet Earth. The software is so accurate and detailed that governments and security agencies worldwide are extremely uncomfortable.
NASA has brought us, well, space! Moon missions; the space [...]

NASA wants your input on what Hubble’s next target is going to be.
You get to choose from one of six astronomical objects in honor of the International Year of Astronomy, the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations, which began this month.
Want to cast your vote? Go to HubbleSite.org to cast your vote for [...]

NASA is poised to give us the first views of the dark side (far side) of the sun.
The space agency has launched the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories) mission, two spacecraft that will simultaneously orbit the sun to provide a complete picture of all sides at once. The first full image will come early in [...]

NASA recently released a series of four videos providing a tour of the International Space Station (ISS).
The series is over 30 minutes total, but provides a fascinating and rarely seen look at the insides of the ISS. I highly recommend checking it out when you have the time.

In an almost scifi start to the new year, SpaceFellowship.com writes New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced “Virgin Galactic has signed a 20 year lease agreement with the State of New Mexico. Virgin Galactic’s world headquarters will be established in New Mexico and its operations will be located at New Mexico’s Spaceport America, the nation’s [...]

Full Moon Names for 2009

Did you know that Native Americans had a name for each full moon during the year? In fact, the names they gave each moon, such as Full Wolf Moon, Full Flower Moon or Full Corn Moon coincided with what was happening around them in nature.
For example, the Full Wolf Moon got its name because it [...]

The Earth is full of holes

Have you ever looked at the moon or pictures of other planets to see hundreds of impact craters and wondered why Earth doesn’t look like that? Well, it sort of does. That’s right, Planet Earth is full of 170 crater holes and meteor blast sites, and counting!
An interesting article about Earth’s craters on Space.com explains [...]

The total lunar eclipse that took place on Wednesday night, February 20, 2008 was nothing short of spectacular.
About 40 degrees high in the eastern sky, the bright full, white moon slowly darkened from Earth’s shadow over the course of a couple of hours. While it was hard to see the shadow actually creep across the [...]

Viewing the four moons of Jupiter

Last week on Friday was a great night for viewing the night sky. That afternoon, when I came home from work, my neighbor’s daughter came over in a state of excitement because her social studies teacher told her that one could see some of the moons of Jupiter, and she asked if I would set [...]