SUNSET: 
"Hidden Treasures" Winners Announced
It was challenging to pick the best of the best from among nearly 100 entries. But there's no argument that the melding of raw European Southern Observatory images with amateur astrophotographers' creativity has produced stunning results.
Night Lights Worsen Smog
New research shows that a sea of nighttime lights plays a role in making the smoggy air over Los Angeles even dirtier than it should be.
Create Great Images, Win Cool Stuff!
Are you up for a challenge? Work some computer magic on images obtained with the ESO telescopes, and you might win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Darkness Still Reigns Over Kitt Peak
Since astronomers started calling Tucson home in 1958, the city's population has quadrupled to more than 500,000. Yet the night sky above the observatories on nearby Kitt Peak is as dark now as it was 20 years ago.
"And the Winner Is..."
Most of us are just casual skygazers. But each year several amateur astronomers are honored for their true passion and dedication at awards ceremonies across the U.S.
Stellafane at its Best
There's star parties and star parties — and then there's Stellafane. Inaugurated in 1926, the Stellafane Convention is probably the longest-running star party in North America, if not the world.
The August Mars Hoax Is Back
No, Mars will not shine as big and bright as the full Moon. But you can't stop a good e-mail chain letter, now in its eighth year.
A KBO in the Crosshairs
When an enigmatic object in the distant Kuiper Belt occulted a star last October, an international team of observers — including several amateur astronomers — were ready and waiting.
Closure for Copernicus
More than 4½ centuries after his death in 1543, Nicholas Copernicus received a hero's acclaim as his remains were interred in Frombork, Poland.
A New Do-It-Yourself SETI Project
The Allen Telescope Array is swallowing terabytes of celestial radio data in the ongoing hunt for alien signals from space. The SETI Institute is about to hand out the data to anyone with ideas for new ways to sift it.
Saturated With Springtime Star Parties?
April 2010 is Global Astronomy Month. This is also International Dark-Sky Week, to be followed later this month by Astronomy Day. Lots of events come and go — but who's participating in them?
Stargaze Locally, Party Globally!
Get ready for a worldwide star party! Global Astronomy Month will feature a host of activities, large and small, throughout April.
Mel's Arecibo Adventure
A globetrotting mascot gets a behind-the-scenes tour of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.
Stargazing with the Obamas
It was a star-studded Kodak moment: Last night, under clear skies, President and Mrs. Obama did a little stargazing from the White House South Lawn.
MIT's Apollo Reunion
At the "Giant Leaps" symposium, an astronaut-studded cast recalled the glory days of human space exploration — and where we might be headed next.
New York Teen Finds Wimpiest Supernova
On November 7, 2008, 14-year-old Caroline Moore of Warwick, New York, discovered a supernova in the galaxy UGC 12682, making her the youngest person ever to find an exploding star.
The Chance of Finding Aliens
Frank Drake's famous equation helps to quantify our chance of finding ETs — or at least to pose the essential questions.
Dark Skies 15,300, Light Pollution 0
The fourth annual GLOBE at Night star-counting campaign netted a record number of estimates of the night sky's darkness worldwide.
Hubble Telescope's 19th Birthday
The greatest of NASA's Great Observatories rocketed into space 19 years ago. After a rocky start, it fulfilled its promise as Astronomy's Discovery Machine.
The Case of the Stolen Sundial
During his time at Caltech in the 1930s, Russell Porter cast this beautiful sundial to adorn the campus. But it was stolen sometime during the 1970s — do you know where it is?
