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Category Archives: Astronomy

CEdR/academic TV- Prof. Ian Dell Antonio-2. Astronomy, Cosmology, International Science – Video

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CEdR/academic TV- Prof. Ian Dell Antonio-2. Astronomy, Cosmology, International Science
HD discussion with Brown University collaborator in Astrobiology course, and Cosmologist. Dr. Ian #39;s views on research improvement.

By: CEdRacademic: Culture Education Discussion Research Network

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CEdR/academic TV- Prof. Ian Dell Antonio-2. Astronomy, Cosmology, International Science - Video

Astronomy Forecast- Near Earth Asteroid,Spring Equinox,Supermassive Black Hole, and The Moon – Video

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Astronomy Forecast- Near Earth Asteroid,Spring Equinox,Supermassive Black Hole, and The Moon
March 20, 2014 2004 YC 0.1054 AU 41.0 LD Size 20-45m Close Approach 12:08 p.m. UT 19 Fireball/Meteor Sightings for March 19 20, 2014 Thank you for watching!!!

By: Sarah Hockensmith

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Astronomy Forecast- Near Earth Asteroid,Spring Equinox,Supermassive Black Hole, and The Moon - Video

Counting Moon Craters: Amateurs, Scientists Do Equally Well

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Trained volunteers with no astronomy experience can pick out craters on the moon as accurately as researchers with five to 50 years' experience, a new study reports.

The finding is a boon for CosmoQuest, an organization that has amateurs identify craters on several celestial objects, including the moon, and do other types of astronomy data crunching. This work is then used in scientific studies, and in some cases has been published. The work of individual volunteers is repeated several times to ensure accuracy.

"What we can say is that a very large group of volunteers was able to chart these features on the moon just as well as professional researchers," Stuart Robbins, a research scientist at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, said in a statement.

"More importantly, we now have evidence that we can use the power of crowdsourcing to gather more reliable data from the moon than we ever thought was possible before," added Robbins, who led the new study.

The study compared the performance of thousands of CosmoQuest volunteers against that of eight scientists, using pictures taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The participants were asked to identify craters at least 18 pixels across in the pictures (about 35 feet, or 11 meters, in diameter).

The area for the images under study was about 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers) on the moon the equivalent of 1,000 football fields, researchers said.

While individual volunteers and scientists saw vastly different numbers of craters in the study area, averages for the two groups were similar statistically. Study team members said the results were "reassuring" for CosmoQuest, which has crater-mapping projects for the moon, Mercury and the protoplanet Vesta.

"Put simply, the sky is large, and astronomers need all the help the public can offer," said co-author Pamela Gay, who runs CosmoQuest out of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Studying craters allows scientists to better understand how the early solar system came together. By seeing the frequency and age of craters, scientists can then estimate when bombardment of the moon, Earth and other bodies in the solar system was at its most intense.

The new study was published March 4 in the journal Icarus.

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Counting Moon Craters: Amateurs, Scientists Do Equally Well

Check Out These Online Astronomy Classes and Contests

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Here are a few upcoming and ongoing astronomy classes and photography contests that our readers may be interested in.

Once a year, the One-Minute Astronomer aka Brian Ventrudo offers a detailed course called The Art of Stargazing, and you need to act fast on this one, as the final signup date is March 24, 2014. This 12-month course breaks down everything you need to know about stargazing into bite-sized pieces detailed sky tours, choosing and using the best binoculars and telescope for you, and a smattering of science to help you understand a little about your place in the universe. It also shows you how to find and enjoy hundreds of achingly beautiful sights you will remember for the rest of your life.

You have until noon (GMT) this Monday, March 24 to begin your personal odyssey through the heavens. As the Brian says, Youll come away from The Art of Stargazing with everything you need to become a skilled backyard stargazer.

The cost is $197 USD, and there are payment plans, as well as a lifetime of followup information and email advisories. Get all the details here.

As always, you can find other ongoing classes at the CosmoQuest Academy. They regularly have new classes as well as opportunities for citizen science with their Moon Mappers, Asteroid Mappers and Planet Mappers programs.

There are also two astrophotography contests going on right now:

Ciel & Espace magazine in France is having their Photo Nightscape Awards, and are looking for submissions of Earth and night sky photos. Photos must be taken between January 1, 2014 and August 31, 2014. One photo submission per photographer, and all formats are accepted: panoramic, square, mosaics.

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Check Out These Online Astronomy Classes and Contests

Capturing Halley's Comet: An Astronomy Tale

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Victor Rogus is an amateur astronomer, and this is the first in his series of exclusive Space.com posts about amateur astronomy. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

April 8th is my father's birthday, but in 1986, I was not with him or the rest of the family back in Des Plaines, Illinois, celebrating with him, and enjoying a slice of his favorite cheesecake. That year, my wife and I were nearly 1,400 miles away, standing on a beach of crushed coral. We used a public pay phone to wish him many happy returns. With sincerity he wished us the best of luck on our adventure. We were far from home getting ready to photograph the historic Comet Halley from one of the best locations in the United States: the Florida Keys. At latitude of 23 degrees north, we would enjoy a distinct advantage over other astrophotographers.

We had made the journey knowing that every degree of latitude we moved south, the historic interloper known as "Halley" moved one degree higher in the sky. Comet Halley would be among the stars of the constellation Centaurus. Centaurs, a constellation so far south we never see it from our home in Illinois, and certainly not from our dark-sky sight in Algoma, Wisc. [Photos of Halley's Comet, an Icy Icon]

We were excited with the promise of new stars to see in the dark skies over the Straits of Florida. As mile blurred into mile and hour blurred into hour it seemed nothing could detour us from our grand undertaking.

After a brief tour of Key West we decided to find a comfortable campground where we would set up our equipment and try to get some rest. Retreating a few miles north, we settled on Lazy Lakes Camp on Sugarloaf Key. After checking in, we slowly drove to our campsite. We passed a huge 12-inch Newtonian telescope on a massive mount staring at the azure sky, its owner nowhere in sight. In the campsite across from ours, our next-door neighbor tinkered with his 8-inch Schmidtt-Cassegrain. It would seem we were in the right place!

With our camp made, tent erected, van organized and telescope set up, we settled in for dinner. Our next move would be to Polar-align our telescope's homemade mount, locate the great comet and perhaps begin photography.

As darkness fell we waited in hushed anticipation for the most famous snowball in history to appear. Then, a moment after the great orange globe of the sun slipped below the western horizon, a loud BUZZ-CLICK was heard and we were bathed in a sickening yellow light from an unnoticed street lamp directly across from our campsite.

Photography was out of the question for tonight. Bugs danced and played around and around the street lamp, each a micro-comet unto itself, in orbit around its quartz-halogen sun. We had driven nearly 1,400 miles to see and photograph history's most famous comet. The same one that William the Conqueror was said to have seen and took as a sign to invade England in 1066 AD. We would not be stopped by a light bulb.

What were we to do?

I had a slingshot and was good with it. Maybe no one would notice the sound of the glass breaking. We talked about using the van as a makeshift light stop but the light was too high above us and too close. Before us lay a salt marsh, behind us a small bay, so moving did not seem a very appealing prospect. Besides, we were all set up and ready to Polar-align, and it was getting dark fast. We decided to do the right thing and speak to the caretaker of this facility and offer him a bribe.

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Capturing Halley's Comet: An Astronomy Tale

Bill Nye on Taking Astronomy with Carl Sagan

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by Jason Major on March 21, 2014

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter

This is how we know nature. It is the best idea humans have ever come up with. Bill Nye, Science Guy and CEO of The Planetary Society

In this latest video from NOVAs Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers, science guy Bill Nye talks about the incredible influence that Carl Sagan had on his life, from attending his lectures on astronomy at Cornell University to eventually becoming CEO of The Planetary Society, which was co-founded by Sagan in 1980.

I took astronomy from Carl Sagan. Now theres a statement thatll get peoples attention. (It got mine, anyway.)

See more videos in NOVAs Secret Life series here.

A graphic designer in Rhode Island, Jason writes about space exploration on his blog Lights In The Dark, Discovery News, and, of course, here on Universe Today. Ad astra!

Tagged as: Astronomy, Bill Nye, Carl Sagan, cosmos, nova, pbs, Secret Life of Scientists, video

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Bill Nye on Taking Astronomy with Carl Sagan

Astronomy Forecast – NEO, Harvard’s Annoucement, Venus, Comet P/17 Holmes – Video

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Astronomy Forecast - NEO, Harvard #39;s Annoucement, Venus, Comet P/17 Holmes
March 17, 2014 2014 AY28 0.0429 AU 16.7 LD Size 120-260m Close Approach 3:34 a.m. UT 2014 EL45 0.1280 AU 49.8 LD Size 290-640m Close Approach 6:04 a.m. UT 16...

By: Sarah Hockensmith

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Astronomy Forecast - NEO, Harvard's Annoucement, Venus, Comet P/17 Holmes - Video


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