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Observing Guides for 2009
Astronomical Calendar
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Guy Ottewell's legendary calendar for the new year Limited quantities! |
Observing Handbook
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Unique annual compendium highlights celestial events for the coming year |
Observer's Calendar
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Astrophotos and celestial information for your wall |
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news from sky & telescope
News from Sky & Telescope
Latest Items
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News from the AAS Convention:
Milky Way Doubles Its Mass January 6, 2009 Our Milky Way Galaxy rotates 15 percent faster and is twice as massive as formerly believed making it an equal match for the Great Andromeda Galaxy rather than its little brother.
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International Year of Astronomy 2009
January 2, 2009
Professional and amateur astronomers around the world are gearing up for a year-long celebration of understanding and enjoying the cosmos.
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China Breaks Ground for Giant Radio Dish
December 29, 2008
In 2014, if construction goes as planned, Chinese astronomers will begin to probe distant cosmic targets with the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope.
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Hunt Antarctic Meteorites, Stay Warm
December 26, 2008
Once again an intrepid team of scientists and other adventurers is combing the ice fields of Antarctica for meteorites. Follow the searchers on their quest — and learn about the leaders who return for a cold soak year after year — by reading the team's daily weblog.
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Have a Hot Time on WASP-12b
December 22, 2008
An international team of observers has found an alien world where the temperature is always a toasty 4,600°F and it takes just a second or two to get a great suntan.
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Remembering Steven Ostro
December 18, 2008
On December 15, 2008, planetary science lost one of most gifted and passionate practitioners — a radar astronomer whose work greatly improved our knowledge of near-Earth asteroids.
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Dark Energy: Real and Overwhelming
December 18, 2008
The universe just isn't making galaxy clusters the way it used to. Compelling new evidence argues that "dark energy" has overwhelmed gravity's influence on forming these largest cosmic structures.
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Time for Another "Leap Second"
December 16, 2008
For the first time since 2005, the world's official timekeepers will add an extra second to the clock on New Year's Eve.
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Tycho's Supernova in Reruns
December 12, 2008
436-year-old light echoes give a look today at a blast in the Renaissance past. The catch? They're only a twenty-billionth as bright as the original.
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A Distant World in Hot Water
December 12, 2008
Astronomers report that a planet circling a star 63 light-years away in Vulpecula is wreathed in an atmosphere containing water vapor.
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Hubble's Replacement Now Taking Shape
December 11, 2008
Testing has begun on the first of 18 mirror segments for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, the gargantuan craft that will join the aging Hubble in space as early as 2013 — and eventually replace it as NASA's premier space observatory.
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Hubble Mission Gets OK for May
December 5, 2008
NASA managers have decided on a date to dispatch Space Shuttle flight STS 125, the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Martian Mega-Rover Gets a "Time Out"
December 4, 2008
Plagued by a technical obstacles that could threaten its success, a $2 billion Mars rover has been postponed two years by NASA officials. The Mars Science Laboratory's new launch date is 2011.
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A Very Oddball Comet
December 2, 2008
Periodic Comet Machholz 1 has such a unique composition that a researcher suggests it may have come from another solar system. Though the odds against this seem long.
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