In January 2009 world-renowned amateur astronomer and comet discoverer David H. Levy joins Astronomy magazine as a Contributing Editor. Levy will write a monthly column for the world’s most popular magazine on astronomy, which has a circulation of more than 125,000 monthly issues. Levy’s first column will appear in the June 2009 issue. Levy is most famous for discovering 22 comets over his long career, including the co-discovery of Comet Shoemaker...

Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher (pictured blogging from the road at right) and Senior Editor Michael Bakich returned from their trip to Arizona Sky Village earlier this week. Now that they're back, we're uploading videos they took while at ASV. The first of the videos is up on Astronomy.com. Check it out! We'll be posting more clips in the coming days. And in case you missed them earlier, you can find out more about their trip...

The final day in New Mexico and Arizona, traveling to the Arizona Sky Village (ASV) with Senior Editor Michael Bakich, was terrific. We enjoyed the hospitality of ASV founder Gene Turner and his girlfriend Loy Guzman, and we visited with an array of observers who spend time at the site. What a wonderful time we had as guests of David and Cathy Johnson at their home near Playas, New Mexico. Afterward, we readied for our third night of observing with...

Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher filed this report from his trip to Arizona Sky Village: Friday opened up great adventures on our journey to the Arizona Sky Village (ASV). Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I continued our stay at Rancho Hidalgo, the newest development of ASV creator Gene Turner and his associates. The ranch lies just across the New Mexico border from ASV near the little town of Animas. Gene and his girlfriend, Loy Guzman,...

“The skies on our first night did not disappoint. Armed with the group’s 30-inch f/4.4 Starmaster Dobsonian reflector and a computer-controlled database, we went after dozens of deep-sky objects.” After flying from Milwaukee to Denver to Tucson, Senior Editor Michael Bakich and I arrived at the eastern arm of the Arizona Sky Village (ASV) yesterday and immediately began an on-the-spot star party with a group of ASV owners. Instead of going to the...

Later today I’m heading west, along with Senior Editor Michael Bakich , to a desolate area southeast of Tucson, Arizona, to visit the Arizona Sky Village (ASV). Michael and I will spend the next few days observing, observing, and observing. We’ll be fortunate enough to be guests of Gene Turner, founder of the ASV. The Arizona Sky Village is a development project near Portal, Arizona, tucked at the base of the Chiricahua Mountains, and it offers a...

Last Friday the magazine’s editors, art staff, and publisher left the office to hang out at my house. It’s something we do once a year, and it’s a major component of how we bring you fresh, new ideas each year with the magazine and with our web site. Accompanied by throngs of magazines, covers, planning boards, and journals, we spread out with our pastries and orange juice and tackled the notions of what we should plan to do over the coming months...

Every year, for a single day, the Astronomy staff gets together and moves off site to think about the universe. We like to operate like a big family, and when this family goes on the road, we tend to think clearly about the magazine and the web site. The group moves to my house for the day, where we can dress informally, spread out, and think and talk about the coming year. This year’s summit will take place Friday, October 10. We’ll have coffee,...

The day after we had a wonderful night of observing at El Camino Real, the Enchanted Skies Star Party slowed down a bit. Attendees spread out doing a variety of things during the day. Editor's note: View the photo album, Enchanted Skies Star party 2008 , to see images from Dave's time in and around Socorro. I checked out the New Mexico Tech Mineral Museum on the campus, with its spectacular collection of minerals. Thursday, I wrote about the...

Getting a multi-hour, behind-the-scenes tour of the Very Large Array radio telescope is a very enriching experience — and that’s exactly what a group of 10 of us from the Enchanted Skies Star Party experienced yesterday, Thursday, September 25. Our expert guide was Jon Spargo, who retired a few years ago after 35 years of service with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He’s now busier than ever, and one of his activities (lucky for us) is leading...