Astronomical Clock, Prague, Czech Republic (Hervé "Setaou" BRY on Flickr)

Each week we bring you moments in history, upcoming events, and different way you can engage in doing astronomy.

Special Announcement: The New Horizons’s mission is working to get signatures on a petition to create a stamp dedicated to the missions 2015 visit to Pluto. You can sign it by visiting change.org.

History Highlights | Events | Looking Ahead

Events for Febraury 18 – 24, 2012

• Public (Second Life) Non-Governmental Space Exploration by Pamela L. Gay (SL Pamela Gondwana)
  Time: Saturday 10am LA / 1pm NEW YORK / 6pm LONDON / 5am + 1d SYDNEY
  Location: Large Auditorium on StellaNova, Second Life
  We are at a turning point in how humans get themselves and their things into space. Soon launches will belong to a new generation commercial companies led by the worlds richest and most visionary entrepreneurs.  Learn all about how NASA and the X-Prize are both incentivizing the commercial space race, and which companies are going to be taking home (or orbiting) the big wheel of cheese. (see all MICA events here)
• Astronomy Cast with Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay
  Time: Monday 12pm LA / 3pm NEW YORK/ 8pm LONDON / 5am + 1d SYDNEY
  Location: Google Hangouts on Air at CosmoQuest
  Take a facts-based journey through the cosmos with Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay. They’ll help you learn not only what we know but how we know it about the universe we live in.
• Weekly Astronomy Hour: Supernova 1987a – 25 years later
  Time: Wednesday 4pm PACIFIC / 7pm EASTERN / 0:00 + 1d GMT / 11am + 1d Sydney
  Location: Google Hangouts on Air at CosmoQuest
  Learn about SN 1987A and modern supernovae research with Drs Alex Filippenko and Phil Plait.
• Weekly Space Hangout hosted by Fraser Cain.
  Time: Thursday 10am PACIFIC / 1pm EASTERN / 6pm GMT / 5am +1 d SYDNEY
  Location: Google Hangouts on Air at CosmoQuest
  Join Fraser Cain along with some combination Alan Boyle,  Pamela Gay, Nicole Gugliucci, Emily Lakdawalla, Phil Plait, and Miles O’Brien for a round of this weeks Space News.
• Virtual Star Party hosted by Fraser Cain
  Time: Thursday 6pm PACIFIC / 9pm EASTERN / 2am + 1d GMT / 1pm +1d SYDNEY
  Location: Google Hangouts on Air at CosmoQuest
  Join Fraser Cain along with some combination of telescopes and astronomers to explore the sky.

Save the Date!

• Palo Alto Meetup: Come talk astronomy and space science at the SETI Institute with team scientists and educators including Dr. Pamela L. Gay. RSVP on our Meetup Group
• Science & Engineering Festival, Washington, D.C.: Join us April 28-29 for the ultimate celebration of science and engineering. CosmoQuest will be part of the NASA display.
• International Observe the Moon Night:Scheduled for Sept 22, it’s none to soon to start planning your events. Learn more here.

Looking back:

• Feb. 18, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh Discovers Pluto: Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto as a small object slowly moving against background stars in blinked images at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.
• Feb. 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus Born: A scientist with training in fields spanning from medicine to physics,  Copernicus is best know for his Heliocentric solar system model, detailed in “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”.
• Feb. 23, 1987, Eruption of Supernova 1987a: 25 years ago, a blue supergiant erupted into the brightest supernova to go off since telescopes were first used by Galileo.