NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin answers a girl’s question at the Experimental Aviation Association’s annual convention July 29. Dick McNally photo NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin says the United States will establish a base on the Moon in 15 years, and astronauts will land on Mars in 25 years. Speaking of the potential Mars landing, the 58-year-old aerospace engineer said, “I hope to live to see it … it’s within our budget capacity.” The...

I’ve never been a fan of Home Depot. My typical experience involves trying to locate an employee for assistance, only to find an apathetic teenager who doesn’t know a coupling from a chicken coop. I do my best to avoid Big Orange in favor for my local mom-and-pop hardware store. Despite my disdain for Home Depot, I have to tip my hat to Big Orange. The chain recently agreed to provide a new roof for the Custer Institute in Southold, New York. The...

Scott Roberts with the apochromatic refractor telescope presented to National Young Astronomer Award winner John Hodge. Explore Scientific, LLC Most amateur astronomers are familiar with Scott Roberts. During his days with Meade Instruments , he was a common visitor to dozens of annual star parties and would often talk with observers on the phone to answer questions regarding telescopes and accessories. Roberts left Meade earlier this year, but promised...

NASA’s lone gunmen say they have designed a better, safer, cheaper version of the Ares I crew launcher (above), one of the cornerstones of the post-Shuttle space program. NASA Remember the “ lone gunmen ,” the trio of militantly nonconformist Uber-geeks on The X-Files who tracked government conspiracies? It appears NASA’s got an infestation of them, too. In a story this week by Jay Reeves of the Associated Press , I learned of a merry band of dissident...

Bob Schneider, the administrator of the Astronomical League Webmaster Award, announced the winners of the group’s annual contest. First place goes to Del Gordon of the Huachuca Astronomy Club . Besides providing information about the club and its events, he uses the site to promote the people in the club. “I believe that the people are what make the club,” Gordon told Astronomy . In the future, he wants to improve the site’s interactivity and encourage...

The Galileo spacecraft photographed the binary asteroid Ida (the big one at left) and its tiny satellite Dactyl in 1993. Galileo Project/JPL/NASA Spinning asteroids or skinning cats — there are so many ways to do it. Let’s look at three methods recently in the news: One: The effects of sunlight In today’s issue of Nature , several scientists outline a mechanism by which sunlight striking at an angle “spins up” loose, rubbly asteroids, causing them...

Several astronomy clubs send us their newsletters covering group activities and upcoming sky events. I recently received “Desert Skies” from the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association . While perusing it, I came across the story concerning rattlesnake alerts for observers. Holy cow! Now that is an observing site danger. Here in Wisconsin, I think the only wildlife danger at an observing site would be blood loss from mosquito attacks. I suppose it is...

For the past few months, the staff at Astronomy has been working on a special publication titled Extreme Weather . On newsstands now, the magazine covers the science of weather and its effects. Extreme Weather features articles on violent weather, weather science, weather imaging, and more for both casual observers and serious enthusiasts. We have received some excellent feedback from weather experts around the country who have previewed the magazine...