How do you take a lens cap off in space?

NASA's Kepler telescope, whose mission is to detect Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits around Sun-like stars in other solar systems, recently removed the dust cover over its CCD camera. Go here for a movie of how this is done. Enjoy!

Peak of Lyrid Meteor Shower tomorrow morning

Earth is currently passing through the stream of debris left behind by Comet Thatcher as it orbits the sun, are the resulting (Lyrid) meteor shower should peak tomorrow morning before dawn
with 10-20 meteors per hour crashing through the northern hemisphere. For full coverage, go here. And don't forget the Moon occulting Venus tomorrow morning around 5 AM. Go here for more information, and hope for clear skies!

Disappearing Venus

Next Wednesday, Venus will disappear from the sky! Well, for a short time anyway. Because the Moon will be blocking it from view. At the same time, the Lyrid meteor shower - one of the most active meteor showers of the year - will also be going on. Should be a fun time to be observing the sky. Go here for more information, and clear skies!

World Science Festival 2009 Volunteers

The second annual World Science Festival to be held June 10-14 in New York City is now looking for volunteers. Go here if you are interested.

Pretty picture of the Triangulum Galaxy (M 33)

Available here, courtesy of scientists at NASA's JPL.

Astronaut twitter

If you are interested in what life as an astronaut is like, as well as how preparations for the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission is going, check out the Twitter of Mike Massimino (username is Astro_Mike or @Astro_Mike, or just go here). Enjoy!

Radio bursts from Jupiter (and beyond)

Jupiter is actually an extremely bright radio source, and NASA has a pretty impressive program that lets you build your own radio telescope and observe Jupiter for yourself - and other sources as well I imagine. Go here for more information. Enjoy!

I'm back....

I'm really sorry for the lack of posts over the last 3 weeks, but I recently attended an Astronomy conference and only returned late last week. I'm back, and hope to resume posting on a more regular basis. Thank you very much for your patience.