astronomy

MB Moon Phase is a program that lets you calculate a moon's phase on a particular date, but that's its lone feature. According to the publisher's description, the program is free, but further inspection revealed a trial of 30 days and a donation once the trial expires.

When first installed, we were greeted with a ridiculously cluttered window full of donation requests. We had to root through the clutter to find the button that would let us continue with the program. From there, we were greeted with yet another cluttered interface. We entered a specific date and … Read more

Some people who spend their nights staring up at the stars still have black bands around their telescopes.

This is to commemorate the heinous day in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status.

Now, the bountifully deep and forward-thinking state of Illinois is showing its Illinoyance. It has decided that the IAU is comprised of downright plonkers and that Pluto will, on March 13, 2009, be reinstated as a full, mature rockstar planet.

In fact, March 13 will be Pluto Day in Illinois.

It appears that Clyde Tombaugh, the fine citizen who discovered Pluto, was … Read more

HAT CREEK, CALIF.--From the perspective of an extraterrestrial, I wonder if there would be much difference between a human and a deer.

You might think that's an odd question, but on Wednesday, as I stood in an open plain here, at around 5,000 feet, with Mount Shasta visible far off to the north, a stunning blue sky, I watched a deer poking around at the base of what on its own would be an odd piece of astronomy equipment.

In fact, though, the 20-foot-diameter antenna the deer was investigating was just one of 42 identical units that … Read more

The fact that an amateur astronomer named Mike Weasner was able to take a photograph of Jupiter and its moons is hardly something worth a mention on Crave, but the fact that he did it with his iPhone camera is rather remarkable.

It was aimed through a telescope to create a 267x magnification. He then cleaned it up in aperture on a Mac and posted it to Mac Observer.

Before you rush out and try to duplicate the image, you should know that you've got to have perfect conditions and fairly expensive gear. Still, it's incredible that a … Read more

You might be enjoying the dog days of summer now, but look out! The school year is just around the corner, and teachers, books, classes, and winter will be here before you know it. Get a jump on the upcoming school year with a collection of downloadable software for communicating with classmates, managing your homework, learning new study skills, or harnessing the reference power of the Internet. You can even find software to let you call your parents free from college. (Seriously, your mom wants a call.)

Digsby

Facebook profiles, instant-messaging networks, various Web mail accounts...who can track them … Read more

Last night, Microsoft Research released WorldWide Telescope--new, free software that enables users to explore the universe with impressive content from the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, and other famed ground- and space-based telescopes. Colorful nebulae, distant galaxies, black holes, and radiation clouds are all accessible from your desktop with a few clicks. The software has been released for free in honor of Jim Gray, a Microsoft researcher who was lost at sea last year.

Google Earth added a similar feature called Google Sky with its Version 4.2 release. Google also … Read more

You probably have heard about Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope referred to as "the thing that made Robert Scoble cry". Today, the world finally gets to check out what all the buzz is about.

WorldWide Telescope is a desktop application for Windows which does exactly what you would think. It essentially turns your computer into a telescope. You can choose from a variety of options from roaming the universe freely, to guided tours of various celestial features. You can join communities of stargazers and also connect your own telescope to your computer and control it with this application. … Read more

Ever since we were kids, amateur star-gazing gear never really worked out for us. And we suspect that the same would be true as adults today, whether the equipment costs $70 or $60,000. But maybe there's finally a logical alternative for the astronomically challenged.

Dvice says this Milky Way galaxy 3D model from design firm Living World, created from authentic space data collected by researchers at Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and Osaka University, is a depiction of 80,000 laser-rendered stars--with a price of 1 yen each, which comes to about $770. That's actually pretty … Read more

Microsoft on Wednesday gave TED conference-goers--an audience typically filled with stars like Goldie Hawn or Forest Whitaker--a close-up of real celestial bodies with its new virtual telescope.

Microsoft demonstrated long-awaited software called WorldWide Telescope to an audience at the exclusive Technology Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, Calif., a four-day confab that started Wednesday. It's unclear whether the demo of the astronomy technology made anyone in the audience cry like former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble, but the images (shown above) were certainly stellar.

WorldWide Telescope, similar to the sky feature in Google Earth but much more expansive, is a … Read more