As I mentioned in my last blog, 27 graduate students from 22 countries are attending the Vatican Observatory Summer School (VOSS) this year. It continues until July 6. During my visit last week, I talked with many of the students, who represented such diverse nations as New Zealand, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Brazil, the Ukraine, Taiwan, South Africa, Mexico, and Indonesia. The students were all effervescent in voicing their opinions about...

This summer, starting June 9, the Vatican Observatory hosted a summer school for graduate students who are studying a particular theme in astronomy or astrophysics. The seventh Vatican Observatory Summer School (VOSS), held at the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome, focuses on extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs. On the first day of school, the 27 students from 22 countries who were chosen to attend gathered at the historic observatory...

The sweetest discoveries in science are often the ones nobody ever expected to make. Such is the story of the discovery of pulsars 40 years ago by Irish physicist Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and her Ph.D. thesis advisor, Antony Hewish. To earn her doctorate in physics, Bell-Burnell was to use a new radio telescope at the University of Cambridge, England, to study quasars , about which little was known at the time. About a month into her project, Bell-Burnell...

The Astronomical League has announced their winners of the Webmasters for the 2007 Webmaster Award. 1st place: Travis Swaim of the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club . 2nd place: Ken Slater of the Springfield Telescope Makers . 3rd place: Chris Reich of the Etna Astros .

So far, the nascent space-tourism industry has enjoyed a global media cuddle. In my own blogs, I've been pretty positive about the idea, seeing a potential boost to interest in space, in general, and the start of a new industry and new wealth. But not everybody is so impressed, judging from a few fascinating tidbits that came across my media radar recently. A surprisingly class-conscious critique comes to us courtesy of Günter Verheugen ...

The Visio 8x25 binoculars retail for $199. William Optics Many of us will never be able to afford a high-performance sports car. Instead, we pretend while driving our low-end autos by gripping the steering wheel with Porsche gloves, sitting on Lamborghini seat covers, or sporting a Corvette satin jacket. Thanks to William Optics, skygazers can now combine that ownership fantasy with observing. William Optics has partnered with automaker Ferrari S...

Springer If you've read any of my observing stories in Astronomy , you know I'm a big fan of sketching what you see through a telescope. I think it's the foremost activity that can make you a better observer. Sketching causes you to look for minute details, and it teaches you patience while observing. Imagine my joy, then, when this book crossed my desk: Astronomical Sketching — A Step by Step Introduction by Richard Handy, David...

Looking for a different sort of vacation? Consider a trip to Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) wants you. The mission, slated to begin next summer, is to work and live in a simulated spaceship for a 520-day round-trip to the Red Planet. Aside from weightlessness and radiation, the simulation will follow a real Mars mission as close as possible. ESA's call for candidates went out Tuesday. By late Thursday, the agency had received 2,000 applications...

We know Isaac Newton as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and philosopher, but a doomsayer debunker? The Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently released papers from Newton in which he detailed the earliest date of the Apocalypse. According to his calculations, the world will end no sooner than 2060. "It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner," explains Newton. "This I mention not to assert when the time of the...

Springer Most observers I know love atmospheric phenomena almost as much as deep-sky objects. And if these airborne effects occur after sunset, so much the better. The classic example of a nighttime atmospheric occurrence is the aurora borealis, or, for Southern Hemisphere observers, the aurora australis. If you'd like to learn more — and I mean a lot more — about this phenomenon, pick up Neil Bone's new book, Aurora: Observing...