SUNSET: 
January 15th's Rare Annular Eclipse
The longest annular eclipse of the Sun until the year 3043 happens tomorrow — but only a luck few (million) will be positioned to see it.
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for Janaury 2010
Midwinter evening skies are alive with celestial activity — after sunset you'll find Jupiter in the southwest, and Orion, Mars, and much more over in the east.Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (5.9MB MP3 download: running time: 6m 27s)
Meteor Showers in 2010
Everyone loves to watch "shooting stars" blaze across the sky. Sky & Telescope predicts that 2010's best meteor showers should be the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December.
December's Blue Moon? Bah, Humbug!
This month brings full Moons on the 2nd and 31st — a doubling-up that's neither rare nor noteworthy.
The Big Dipper Adds a Star
Using a technique envisioned by Galileo, astronomers have discovered a new companion to Alcor in the handle of the world's most famous star pattern.
"Free Spirit" Effort Hits a Snag
The bad news is that NASA engineers aren't having much luck freeing one of their Mars rovers from a quagmire of soft sand. But the good news is that it's gotten stuck in a remarkable deposit where steam and molten rock once mingled.
Tour December's Sky! | November 26th, 2009
After listening to this podcast, you'll have no trouble spotting Jupiter, Orion, the Pleiades star cluster, and much more in the evening sky! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (7.3MB MP3 download: running time: 8m 00s)
A Rogue Star Going Wild?
Is Eta Carinae, the famously erratic star in the southern sky, tipping off astronomers that its demise might come sooner than later?
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for December 2009
After listening to this podcast, you'll have no trouble spotting Jupiter, Orion, the Pleiades star cluster, and much more in the evening! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (7.3MB MP3 download: running time: 8m 00s)
Rosetta Bids Earth Adieu
A European comet-chaser has made its third and final flyby of its home planet, taking a few snapshots when it was nearby.
Bird's-Eye View of Tranquility Base
Did Armstrong and Aldrin really walk the Moon? An incredible new image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter should erase any naysayer's lingering doubt.
LCROSS Impact Kicked up Lunar Water
It took more than a month of fevered analysis, but NASA scientists are at last convinced that October 9th's crash by the LCROSS spacecraft on a shadowed lunar plain vaporized at least 100 kg of water.
Phoenix Amid the Winter Snow
An orbiting camera has spotted NASA's Phoenix lander amid deepening dry-ice snow in the Martian arctic. Hardly anyone expects the craft to have survived the long, dark, bitterly cold winter — but engineers will attempt to reestablish contact anyway in a few weeks.
Strange Brew at LCROSS's Crash Site
NASA scientists haven't said much since a spacecraft and its carrier rocket slammed into a lunar crater on October 9th. One reason might be that they can't believe what they're finding there.
Mercury Throws Geologists a Curve
When NASA's Messenger spacecraft zipped past the innermost planet for a third and final flyby on September 29th, a glitch caused half of the planned observations to be lost. Scientists are thrilled to have the other half — but they're not entirely sure what to make of them.
Tour November's Sky! | October 29th, 2009
With the return of standard time in the Northern Hemisphere, evenings arrive much sooner than they did just a few weeks ago. That makes it a snap to get in some quick stargazing before dinnertime.
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for November 2009
With the return of standard time in the Northern Hemisphere, evenings arrive much sooner than they did just a few weeks ago. That makes it a snap to get in some quick stargazing before dinnertime. (5MB MP3 download: running time: 5m 27s)
Cosmic Blast Rattles Indonesia
As if this island nation hasn't been troubled enough by recent earthquakes, impact specialists confirm that a cosmic "bomb" — likely the most powerful in 15 years — exploded noisily (but harmlessly) over one of its provinces on October 8th.
The Orionid Meteors are Here!
October's Orionid meteor shower isn't one of the year's richest, but it's a chance to see bits of dust shed long ago by Halley's Comet colliding with Earth's atmosphere. For the next few nights, with moonlight not a factor, you might spot an Orionid every few minutes from a dark-sky location.
Mel's Arecibo Adventure
A globetrotting mascot gets a behind-the-scenes tour of the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.
