News

A First Impression of the Siebert 5.9mm StarSplitter Modified Ortho takes this week's Review Contest Trophy...

... and you are invited!

Astrophysicists at Penn State University have found that Super Massive Black Holes, like those found in the center of Galaxies, are more numerous than originally thought. Extrapolations from the 600 black holes recently found by the Chandra Space Observatory suggest that there are about 300 million Super Massive Black Holes in the whole sky detectable from Earth.

This week's review contest winner covers the Meade 5000 Series 5.5mm Plossl...

Using NASA's Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (XRTE), MIT astrophysicists have found a black hole that has chiseled a remarkably stable indentation in the fabric of space and time. The finding may help scientists measure a black hole's mass and how it spins, two long-sought measurements, by virtue of the extent of this indentation.

Scientists peering back to the oldest light in the universe have new evidence for what happened within its first trillionth of a second, when the universe suddenly grew from submicroscopic to astronomical size in far less than a wink of the eye.

Astronomers examining a region where new stars are forming found a surprise - an object that looks like a giant tornado in space. The apparent tornado is shaped by a cosmic jet packing a powerful punch as it plows through clouds of interstellar gas and dust. The scientists could only speculate about the source of the spiral appearance.

Many an amateur astronomer has cast a covetous glance at Software Bisque's Paramount ME. In this week's review contest winner, the author describes how to rope this big mount into a semi portable configuration...

The latest NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Pluto's two newly discovered satellites reveal that the new moons have the same color as Charon. <b>NOTE: French, German, Italian, and Spanish translations follow...</b>

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has been used to discover some of life's most basic ingredients in the dust swirling around a young star. The ingredients -- gaseous precursors to DNA and protein -- were detected in a region around the star where rocky planets such as Earth are thought to be born. The findings represent the first time that these gases, called acetylene and hydrogen cyanide, have been detected outside of our Solar System.

Just like the old Certs commercials, this week's review contest winner is 2 mints in one. Learn all about the Celestron CGE mount.

Comet Pojmanski 2006/A1, the first comet discovered in 2006, is now at its maximum brightness in the eastern sky at dawn, not far from Venus, which dominates the morning sky. At magnitude 5.4, Comet Pojmanski is just bright enough now to be a good target for early-risers with binoculars. The comet was at its closest approach to Earth (just over 100 million kilometers away) on March 5.

For the last decade, astronomers have thought that the Andromeda Galaxy M31, our nearest galactic neighbor, was rather different from the Milky Way. But a group of researchers at Cal Tech have determined that the two galaxies are probably quite similar in the way they evolved.

The official name of this storm is "Oval BA," but Red Jr. might be better. I's about half the size of the GRS and almost exactly the same color.

Some of the most highly promoted missions on NASA's scientific agenda would be postponed indefinitely or perhaps even canceled under the agency's new budget