SUNSET: 
"Supermoon" Overplayed by News Media
The full Moon of May 5, 2012, will be the year's closest — but not by enough to draw attention.
Celebrate Astronomy Day: April 25, 2012!
April 20th is Astronomy Day, when hundreds of astronomy clubs, observatories, museums, colleges, and planetariums worldwide host special family-oriented events and festivities that showcase the wonder and excitement of the night sky.
Hubble Celebrates as Shuttle Retires
Hubble is beginning celebrations early for its 22nd birthday with this composite image, a fantastic combination of ground- and space-based observations of the Tarantula Nebula.
Great Heights Reached with Gaffer Tape
Spectacular photos of Earth’s curvature from the atmosphere are just one balloon and camera click away. Able to reach an altitude of more than 20 miles, so-called space balloons are an inexpensive hobby for those with an eye for the sky.
Closure Looms for Keck Interferometer
With NASA funding ending, astronomers will soon shut down the optical plumbing that links the giant Keck telescopes — the most powerful interferometer of its kind on the planet.
NASA Taps a Rocket Scientist
With probes on the way to the Moon, Mars, and Pluto — and a multibillion-dollar space telescope gobbling up shrinking funds — astronomer and former astronaut John Grunsfeld agrees to take the helm of the space agency's science division.
ALCon Meets Under Dark Mountain Skies
With bright stars all night and amateur-astronomical enthusiasm all day, America's biggest coalition of astronomy clubs held a bang-up annual convention.
A Milky Way Masterpiece
Using a deceptively simple setup, Randy Halverson has captured the galaxy's motion across his South Dakota farm with breathtaking beauty and realism.
The March 19th "Supermoon": Hardly Super
Saturday's full Moon is indeed the closest and biggest in 18 years. But not by enough to notice.
New Images from Old Data
Find out how Joe DePasquale converted grayscale ESO data into beautiful full-color images as part of the Hidden Treasures competition.
"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.
