Now that the January 2009 issue is in the mail, we’ve updated Astronomy.com with our newest Web extras that give subscribers exclusive complementary information to the magazine articles. This month, we preview some stories to look for in 2009, explore a recent survey of the Milky Way, and offer PDF of the van den Bergh catalog to download. Take a sneak peek inside the January 2009 Astronomy magazine If you subscribe to Astronomy , make sure you’re...

Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Martin Ratcliffe filed this report from the inauguration of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory in Malargue, Argentina. Ratcliffe sent us this update and images while the event was underway ! Thanks, Martin! November 14 is an exciting day for cosmic-ray astronomy. The inauguration of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory’s (PACRO) southern site took place this afternoon in Malargue, Argentina. Nestled beneath...

I asked Astronomy magazine’s Circulation Manager Paul Daniel for an update on our first Young Astronomers Video Contest. Here’s what he shared: UPDATED: "We now have 14 entries in the Young Astronomers Video Contest and they are looking great. They have come from New York, Michigan, and Oklahoma. Matter of fact, seven of them came from Oliver Middle School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Boy, are they overachievers! Most recently, we have received...

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...

I recently received a telephone call from a jazz musician, Michael Roach. He explained to me that he and the other members of the trio TEN27 have created seven original compositions inspired by astronomy and cosmology. As it turns out, a news article I wrote about the galaxy I Zwicky 18 for the February 2008 issue inspired one of their songs. The trio is holding an event this week called " The Black Book Project ." It is a multimedia-live...

Now that the December issue has been mailed out, we’ve updated Astronomy.com with our newest Web extras that give subscribers complementary information to the articles in the magazine. This month, we have a cool video of some extreme organisms; some great images of both land and sky from Athens, Greece; and an in-depth look at an image from “Reader gallery.” If you subscribe to Astronomy , make sure you’re registered with Astronomy.com so you can...

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,...

Astronomy magazine columnist Stephen James O'Meara sent us an image he took while observing the Orionid meteor shower. Here's the message he sent along with the image: "Despite the last-quarter Moon on October 21st, the Orionid meteor shower put on a good show over Hawaii. Between 2:30 am and 3:30 am Hawaiian standard time, I counted 20 meteors. They ranged from magnitiudes –1 to 4th. Many were colorful (yellows and blues), and the activity...

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...

India’s lunar probe Chandrayaan-1 finally blasted off last night. Make that one more space-faring nation on its way back to the Moon. One of Astronomy magazine’s columnists, James Oberg, sent the information below out to the various media interests he writes for and agreed to let me share it with you. In case you don’t know who Jim Oberg is, he is one of the world's leading popularizers and interpreters of space exploration. His classic Red Star...