Astronomers identify the best spot on the planet for a telescope

An international team of astronomers has identified what may be the best spot on Earth to stick a telescope. According to the study, a high plateau in eastern Antarctica would have an exceptionally clear view of the stars, even outperforming other loca… Continue reading Astronomers identify the best spot on the planet for a telescope

As A Matter of Fact, It’s All Dark

While the dark side of the moon wasn’t seen by humans until the middle of the 20th century, that side of the moon isn’t always dark, just hidden from view of Earth by a quirk of gravity. The more appropriate name for the other half of the moon is the …read more

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Reverse Engineering Keeps Keck Telescopes on Track

Perched atop a dormant volcano far above the roiling tropical air of the Big Island of Hawai’i sit two of the largest optical telescopes in the world. Each 10-meter main mirror is but a single part of a magnificent machine weighing in at some 400 tons that needs to be …read more

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Kepler Closes Eyes After a Decade of Discovery

Since its launch in March 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope has provided us with an incredible amount of data about exoplanets within our galaxy, proving these worlds are more varied and numerous than we could ever have imagined. Before its launch we simply didn’t know how common planets such as ours were, but today we know the Milky Way contains billions of them. Some of these worlds are so hot they have seas of molten rock, others experience two sunsets a day as they orbit a pair of stars. Perhaps most importantly, thousands of the planets found by Kepler are …read more

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Majority of Sites Fail Mozilla’s Comprehensive Security Review

A thorough review of the top 1 million websites reveals 93 percent fail Mozilla’s Observatory security review. Continue reading Majority of Sites Fail Mozilla’s Comprehensive Security Review

Majority of Sites Fail Mozilla’s Comprehensive Security Review

A thorough review of the top 1 million websites reveals 93 percent fail Mozilla’s Observatory security review. Continue reading Majority of Sites Fail Mozilla’s Comprehensive Security Review

An Astronomical Observatory For Your Front Yard

[Barry Armstead] is an astronomy enthusiast who built his own observatory in his front yard, in Canberra, Australia. It was a fine observatory as home-made observatories go, but he describes it as being small and cramped. His replacement was on an entirely different scale though, a building created by hand and which no doubt many readers would be pleased to own.

His design started with a cardboard model, and has a downstairs room upon which sits a rotatable dome with two sliding sections to form the observation window. The original observatory’s concrete pillar on which the telescope mount stood remained …read more

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