Posted by Christina Folz, OPN Managing Editor

The University of Sydney recently announced the opening of its new Institute for Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS). The new institute will link research and postgraduate teaching programs across the Faculties of Science and Engineering at the University of Sydney to create a world-class optics research center. IPOS’s research covers the entire spectrum of optics, both fundamental and applied. For more information, visit http://www.usyd.edu.au/ipos/. Also check out this YouTube video about the new photonics institute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4D6Y46Q3js. Great photonics outreach!

2009-04 April

By Patricia Daukantas

It’s crunch time for NASA’s human spaceflight team as the agency prepares for its May 12 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on the next, and final, mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. That’s just four weeks from today!

As I wrote in OPN’s October 2008 issue, the space telescope will get a new camera and spectrometer, both of which will provide Hubble with improved stargazing (and galaxy-gazing) capabilities. Two pairs of astronauts will also perform delicate repairs to other instruments that have not been doing their jobs over the last couple of years. Finally, they’ll install new gyroscopes, insulation, and docking hardware.

The Atlantis crew was supposed to blast off last fall, but shortly before the original mission date, Hubble developed some additional problems that needed to be fixed (and even more repairs needed to be added to the mission manifest).

Today’s New York Times profiles John Grunsfeld, an astronomer by profession who will be making his third repair trip to the space telescope. The article’s author, Dennis Overbye, is a talented writer (he penned Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, one of my all-time favorite non-technical books about science), and you won’t soon forget the stunning NASA photos.

Also online: Grunsfeld’s spacewalking colleague Mike Massimino, who is “Twittering” his Hubble repair mission training experiences under the name Astro_Mike.

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2009-04 April astronomy, hubble

By Patricia Daukantas

Will your skies tonight be cloudy or clear? Here’s hoping the stars are out, because the 100 Hours of Astronomy have begun! But don’t worry – even if the rain is pouring down or the sun is shining brightly, you can still gaze at the heavens.

As I reported in this month's Scatterings column in OPN, the “100 Hours” project is part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). Around the world, observatories are throwing open their doors and domes to the public, with the goal of having more people look through a telescope than ever before.

If your local skies are hopelessly cloudy, don’t despair. As this Wired blogger notes, the “100 Hours” event includes streaming video and live “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” webcasts from observatories worldwide. As nighttime “travels” around the world, there’s bound to be a clear sky somewhere. And you’ll be able to “look” virtually through many of the world’s biggest professional telescopes in Hawaii, Europe, India, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Antarctica and Earth orbit. (On the list are some I’ve visited over the years: Kitt Peak and the MMT in Arizona; Gemini North, the Keck Observatory and the California Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea; and Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.)

Since IYA commemorates the 400^th anniversary of Galileo’s first use of an astronomical telescope, it’s interesting to ask: What ever happened to that instrument of his? As recounted in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, it recently left its permanent home in Florence, Italy, for an exhibit at the Franklin Institute in the United States. I can hardly wait to visit it myself!

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2009-04 April astronomy