Smithsonian Photography Initiative Celebrates the International Year of Astronomy in May and June

During May and June, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative offers three ways to celebrate both the International Year of Astronomy and the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observation with a telescope by Galileo Galilei. [image at left from the SI collection is of Annie Jump Cannon]
Call for Entries
The Smithsonian Photography Initiative invites the public to contribute images and stories to “click! photography changes everything” (http://click.si.edu), an online exhibit that explores how photography influences every aspect of people’s lives. This month’s focus is “Seeing Other Worlds”:

• The public may submit their photo and story about how photography influences the ability to see people, places and things “unseen” or “unfamiliar” through the contribute link on the “click!” Web site at http://www.click.si.edu/Contribute.aspx. Contributors may also share their thoughts about photos of the universe from the Chandra X-ray Observatory images available on the Smithsonian Institution’s photostream at The Commons on Flickr.
• Selected entries will be added to the “click!” Web site, which features photos and stories from innovators, writers and public figures across multiple disciplines.
• Entries selected for the “click!” Web site will be eligible to receive a copy of the book “At First Sight: Photography and the Smithsonian,” an intriguing glimpse into the Smithsonian’s more than 700 photographic collections.

Learn more here [pdf]

Raise a Wing to Hubble and the Servicing Team

If all goes well, next week a team of well trained astronauts will be working to refurbish the first of the Great Observatories. Astronomers all across the world will be holding their breath in anticipation of the word that all is A-OK and a first glimpse of the first downloaded images. In Tuscaloosa, AL, a few of these astronomers and members of the public will be waiting with BBQ baited breath.

Dr. William Keel of the University of Alabama Department of Physics and Astronomy will be at the local Buffalo Wild Wings watching NASA TV on the big screens with colleagues and students. Together they’ll take in the EVAs and perhaps even raise a Wild Wing in salute of the astronauts achievements.

While this idea started in Tuscaloosa, there is no reason for it to end there. Many restaurants and bars have cable television packages that include NASA TV. Next week, grab a friend and grab a beverage and ask the guy behind the bar to tune the TV into the greastest high risk game of all: It’s Man versus the Machine as Mike Massimino and the STS-125 team of astronauts upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

Find out more about STS-125 on the mission website and check out the NASA TV schedule here.

IYA2009 Boosts GLOBE at Night to Record Number of Dark-Skies Observations

The global citizen-science campaign GLOBE at Night 2009 recorded 80 percent more observations of the world’s dark skies than the program’s previous record—including double the number of digital measurements—thanks in large part to active participation and publicity from the network of 140 countries currently celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009).

Now in its fourth year, GLOBE at Night encourages people everywhere to observe the prominent constellation Orion at least once over a two-week period and compare the number of stars that are visible using their unaided eyes with a series of charts that show how Orion would appear in skies ranging from very dark to very bright skies. The program is designed to aid teaching about the impact of excessive artificial lighting on local environments, and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a shared natural resource for much of the world’s population.

The 2009 campaign, held from March 16-28, garnered 15,300 geographically “mappable” measurements of Orion, nearly 7,000 more than the previous record of 8,491 that were contributed in 2007. [Read more…]