Look up!

I live far away enough from civilization, at 9000ft in a national forest in Colorado, that the sky is spectacular pretty much all the time. Even when I can't see the stars, there's something cool going on in the atmosphere. Since I started living at this elevation, I've been continually wowed by the night (and sometimes day) sky, so I thought I'd share a few interesting astronomy links, because what's Out There is really fucking amazing.

I get a lot of cool sky news from Space.com, including frequent alerts to upcoming astronomical events. There are a lot of amazing sights to see with or without a telescope. NASA's website is also good for space news, as well as staying up to date on various NASA projects like one of my favorites, the International Space Station. I'm continually awed and envious that there are people living in space right now.

The 'net is loaded with sites full of space pictures, so I'm going to keep it simple. First, check out some awesome Hubble photos from the Gallery at Hubblesite.org. There's a fuckton of other terrfic stuff on that site as well, so browse at your leisure. Then there's Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is, as they say, what it says on the tin, and every day it's something amazing.

For further research I recommend going on a hike during a full moon, gathering your friends together for a little spot-the-satellite drinking game, or getting acquainted with your local astronomy professor. Go study space; it's interesting!