Alan Dyer

^ Introducing In the BeginningOur Place inSpaceSpace is really big! The planet we live on, Earth, is just one in a family of eight planets in our Solar System. Earth orbits a yellow dwarf star-the Sun. Though important to us, our Sun is just one of billions of other suns that make up a...

Last Tango in MinneapolisDouglas Aalseth bids farewell to his longtime partner.We knew the end was coming for months. Since 1961, generations of people had come through the doors to see what tire grand old lady in the library could do. OK, maybe her star fields weren't as bright as they once were....

Gravity Matterso you play lotto or some other get-rich-quick rip-off? Do you plop down a buck and happily accept odds of tens of millions to one?Let's turn the game around. Plop down hundreds of millions of dollars (or even enough billions to make Hubble blush) and claim the odds of winning are one...

LJspectrumOn to a Third SarosThe Moon's shadow was still racing toward the eastern horizon when my brain inexplicably began to calculate: 1999-1963 = 36; 36/2 =18 = 1 saros cycle. Suddenly 1 realized that I'd been around the eclipse block exactly twice, from Maine in 1963 to Turkey in 1999. It's...

Astronomy's Magic ReachJ o gather the whole of astronomy is like trying to catch dust bunnies dancing around a drafty room. Whenever you grab J one, another scampers by. Astronomy is as multifaceted as a brilliant-cut diamond, an infinite font of ideas and imagination. So much to learn, so much to...

SpectrumSuch a Deal!One of the neat things about working at ST is that no day ever unfolds as you expect. A conversation with a surprise visitor, for example, can cause new thinking. That's what happened during Christian Nitschelm's visit last July.I first met this astronomer/high-school teacher...

Az ember és a Hold A Hold mindig mágikus erővel vonzotta az emberek tekintetét az égre. Minden kultúra népei már ősidők óta a segítségével mérték az időt, csodálták, és azon tűnődtek, vajon hogyan került az égboltra. Mi lehet ez, ami változtatja az alakját, eltűnik,...