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Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

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Bad News Good News

01/10/2006 08:00AM

Bad News Good News

The bad news is that when the editor goes on vacation, the review contest gets skipped. The good news is that, when he returns, it's Double Winner Day!!

Size Of Pluto's Moon Charon Determined With Unprecedented Accuracy

01/09/2006 04:25AM

Size Of Pluto's Moon Charon Determined With Unprecedented Accuracy

MIT and Willams College Astronomers used the 8-meter Gemini South, the 6.5-meter Clay, the 2.5-meter du Pont, and the 0.8-meter Cerro Armazones telescopes in Chile to take advantage of a rare stellar occultation that permitted Charon's size to be determined with unprecedented accuracy -- 606 km ± 8 km.

U of Iowa Astronomers Find a Star Orbiting a Black Hole in M82

01/07/2006 04:33PM

U of Iowa Astronomers Find a Star Orbiting a Black Hole in M82

University of Iowa researchers have found a star orbiting a "medium-sized" black hole -- about 1,000 times more massive than the sun -- in the nearby galaxy M82. The discovery may help confirm the existence of a class of black holes that are larger than black holes produced by the collapse of a single normal star and smaller than the supermassive black holes found in the center of galaxies.

Imaging tech inventors win top honors

01/06/2006 12:43PM

Imaging tech inventors win top honors

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- The inventors of a light-sensitive component integral to digital cameras, camcorders and medical imagers will share a $500,000 award for work that has revolutionized how people view themselves, the world and the universe.

The New Year Arrived One Second Late

01/04/2006 04:14AM

The New Year Arrived One Second Late

The speed of the Earth's rotation is continually changing -- partly due to varying weather patterns and geological disturbances, but more importantly due to the friction of tides raised by the Sun and Moon, which cause a systematic lengthening of the day. To account for this gradual slowing down of the Earth's rotation, a leap second was added at the end of 2005 by the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), thus delaying the arrival of 2006 by one second.

Astrophysicists Determine Sun's Location in Milky Way

12/29/2005 01:44AM

Astrophysicists Determine Sun's Location in Milky Way

Astrophysicists have determined the location of our Sun in the Milky Way with an accuracy of 2% through the use of two tools: 1) the Very Large Base Array (VLBA), a system of ten 25 meter diameter dish antennas spread from Hawaii to St. Croix in the Caribbean that all work together as a single telescopic system roughly the size of the Earth and 2) Trigonometric Parallax as the Earth moves in its orbit around the Sun.

Astronomers Search for Light Echoes from Ancient SuperNovae

12/28/2005 02:30AM

Astronomers Search for Light Echoes from Ancient SuperNovae

Astronomers have found faint visible reflections (or light echoes) of three ancient supernovae by detecting their centuries-old light as it is reflected by clouds of interstellar gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

Sometimes, its the little things...

12/27/2005 08:00AM

Sometimes, its the little things...

This week's review winner explores the virtues of a little add-on helical fine focuser that clearly improved the observing life of the winning reviewer...

NASA's Hubble discovers new rings and moons around Uranus

12/26/2005 08:00AM

NASA's Hubble discovers new rings and moons around Uranus

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope photographed a new pair of rings around Uranus and two new, small moons orbiting the planet. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

CONDOR Looks at the Universe in the 1.5 TeraHertz Range for the First Time

12/23/2005 08:15PM

CONDOR Looks at the Universe in the 1.5 TeraHertz Range for the First Time

CONDOR pointed its eye to the universe for the first time, opening up the nearly unknown TeraHertz universe for exploration.

Astronomers Use Laser to Take Clearest Images of the Center of the Milky Way

12/23/2005 02:32AM

Astronomers Use Laser to Take Clearest Images of the Center of the Milky Way

UCLA astronomers have taken the first clear picture of the center of our Milky Way galaxy, including the area surrounding the supermassive black hole, using a new laser virtual star at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii.

Wanted: Amateur Astronomers to Help in Supernova-Neutrino Research

12/22/2005 02:47AM

Wanted: Amateur Astronomers to Help in Supernova-Neutrino Research

Ohio State University scientists have thought of a new way to help establish an astronomical linkage between the detection of subatomic particles known as Neutrinos and Supernovae... and their plan relies on the well-connected network of amateur astronomers. Since 2002, there have been at least nine supernovae identified in galaxies within about 30 million light years of our Milky Way, and more than half of those were discovered by amateur astronomers. Today's so-called amateur astronomers aren't really so amateur. With the quality of equipment in their hands, they can be though of as "professional amateurs." When a major discovery is made, they know as soon as the professionals do.

A little maroon Mak anyone?

12/21/2005 08:00AM

A little maroon Mak anyone?

This week's review contest winner takes Orion's 90mm Mak and basic EQ mount out under the stars...

Neutron Star Collisions Linked to to Mysterious Cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts

12/21/2005 02:30AM

Neutron Star Collisions Linked to to Mysterious Cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts

Cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe, have the extreme brilliance of a billion billion Suns and occur several times a day -- But very little is known about them. Two types of Gamma Ray Bursts have been observed 1) Long ones that last for tens or hundreds of seconds, and 2) Short bursts, which last a few milliseconds to a second. Long bursts are believed to result from the death of massive stars only a few million years old in young and vigorously star forming galaxies. Short Gamma Ray Bursts, until now shrouded in mystery, are being linked through recent research to the collision of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole. The objects slowly approach each other as their orbits shrink over hundreds of millions of years. Eventually, the two objects get so close together that they simply shred each other apart in a cataclysmic explosion.

Buffy Stands Out from the Crowd.

12/17/2005 08:00AM

Buffy Stands Out from the Crowd.

A team of astronomers working in Canada, France and the United States have discovered an unusual small body orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, in the region astronomers call the Kuiper belt. This new object is twice as far from the Sun as Neptune and is roughly half the size of Pluto. The body's highly unusual orbit is difficult to explain using previous theories of the formation of the outer Solar System. <b>NOTE: French and German translations follow (character count too large for subsequent translations - Ed.)</b>