But Back in time for Astronomy Day

I took some time away from writing here to work on the next issue of GeminiFocus, the twice-a-year publication from Gemini Observatory. It’s due at the printer in a week or two, and I’ve spent the past few weeks working on articles for it.

I’ve worked with Gemini Observatory for several years now, doing writing and editing in support of the public information office. Before that, the only contact I really had with the observatory was when I needed images for publications. One of my favorite Gemini images is a shot of the superbubble complex N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (some 160,000 light-years away).

This thing looks so cool; three-dimensional, spacey, colorful—all the things that make it aesthetically pleasing (to me, anyway). And, as always, I think I’m pretty lucky to be doing what I’m doing, all courtesy of astronomers who are out there checking out the universe and sharing it with the rest of us through beautiful telescope views like this one.
So, in honor of Astronomy Day, I’m going to go out Saturday night and check out the sky with my binoculars to see what I can find. It may not look as pretty or high-resolution as this image,but that’s not the point of Astronomy Day. The point is to (as the cruise line commercials here in the U.S. say) get out there!!

That’s what Astronomy Day is all about; getting out there and checking the sky out for yourself.