Astronomy History & Science
September 2026 – The Mother of Hubble
In 1925, Nancy Grace Roman was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her family moved frequently during her childhood, but it was her mother who first introduced her to the night sky. By the…
The (Star)Light of Independence
Arc To Arcturus, Spike To Spica: Tracing A Line Through The Stars And American History This Independence Day– A Backyard Astronomer Special The Big Dipper is one of those patterns that seems almost…
May 2026 – A Fire in the Asteroid Belt
Discovering a world in the asteroid belt The dawn of the 19th century marked a boom in astronomical discovery. Telescope technology improved rapidly, revealing a new class of objects orbiting between Mars…
April 2026 – Earthshine: The Da Vinci Glow
Step outside on a clear evening and look for a thin crescent Moon hanging low in the twilight. If the sky is dark enough, you may notice something unexpected: the rest of…
February 2026 – Back to the Moon
Outside of space enthusiasts, Apollo 8 is an almost forgotten mission. On December 21, 1968, three astronauts launched aboard a Saturn V rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Just 68 hours later,…
May 2025 – Life In The Cosmos
Humans have likely always looked at the sky and wondered if we are alone in the universe. From the classical Roman god messenger Mercury to the angelic hosts of the Abrahamic religions,…
Sept/Oct 2024 – Aliens!
Earth is a cool place. It has oceans, forests, and mountains galore. These different environments serve as host to millions of different types of animal and plant life, including us, humans. Earth…
May 2024 – The Sombrero Galaxy
The late 18th Century was a golden age of astronomical discoveries. After Galileo famously pointed his early invention at the heavens in 1609, Dutch glassmakers spent decades perfecting the lens technology that…
Sputnik and the “October Sky”
The dawn of the Space Age October 4th, 1957 was truly the beginning of a new age. While humans had spent the last few decades dreaming of, dabbling in, and testing their…
The James Webb Space Telescope
As early as 1923, space telescopes were proposed to peer deeper into the universe, without the obstruction of the Earth’s tenuous atmosphere. By the 1970s congress had funded the first of these…