For nearly a decade, University of California at Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy and his colleagues have been using the W. M. Keck Telescopes to discover giant planets orbiting distant stars. Now, with the successful launch of NASA’s Kepler mission, they will be using Keck I’s 10-meter astronomical eye to discover distant Earths. Kepler will pick out earthlike candidates. Keck will then zero in on them and determine if they are at all similar to our planet. Read more.

NASA’s Kepler mission successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST, March 6. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-sized planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet’s surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life. Read more.

>> Related blog: Kepler satellite launches successfully
>> Complete mission coverage

The procedure requires rebooting the spacecraft’s computer. This is not a risk-free event, but the Odyssey team and NASA have carefully weighed the risks of performing a cold reboot compared with the risk of doing nothing, and they determined that the proper course of action is to proceed with the reboot. Read more.

>> Update: “Reboot successful”

Astronomers from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona, have found what looks like two massive black holes orbiting each other in the center of one galaxy. It has been postulated that twin black holes might exist, but it took an innovative, systematic search to find such a rare pair.
Read more.

Experience the development exclusively designed for astronomy enthusiasts: Sierra la Rana Astronomy Village. This neighborhood preserves the dark skies for our residents, the McDonald Observatory, and the Big Bend region. We are adopting stringent lighting restrictions to protect and enhance nighttime stargazing. Sierra La Rana is a gated community just outside of the city of Alpine in West Texas and has some of the darkest skies in North America.

Learn more about Sierra La Rana.

New images are posted daily from amateur and professional astrophotographers all over the world. Check it out and submit your images today!

NGC 2903 is a young, barred spiral galaxy in Leo. At magnitude 8.9, it is remarkable that Messier didn’t catalog this galaxy. Craig and Tammy Temple captured this image February 16 and 19, 2009, from Hendersonville, Tennessee. Click here to view.

The Orion Nebula (M42) is one of the brightest nebulae, and it is visible to the naked eye. It lies approximately 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Orion. Denny Hill took this image October 31, 2008, from Leechburg, Pennsylvania. Astronomy.com featured this image as its Picture of the Day March 5, 2009.
Click here to view.

Astronomy.com member “WABarry” took this image of Venus from Vancouver, Washington. He submitted it to the Online Reader Gallery March 10, 2009. Click here to view.

If you have images you’d like to share, submit them to Astronomy.com’s Online Reader Gallery at Astronomy.com/ReaderGallery or attach them to an e-mail sent to ReaderGallery@Astronomy.com. Make sure you include in your submission the date, location, equipment, and methods used in taking and processing each image. Submitted images may be used elsewhere on Astronomy.com or in Astronomy magazine.

Meteor activity remains low during March. The only shower is a minor one deep in the southern sky. Still, you might see fine meteor dust in the form of the zodiacal light. This faint glow shows up best from dark observing sites during the moonless evenings after mid-March. Well after the Sun sets, twilight’s last gleaming will give way to a lingering cone-shaped glow - the zodiacal light. The glow extends up through Aries and into Taurus.

The zodiacal light represents sunlight reflecting off dust particles concentrated along the ecliptic, the plane of our solar system. Because the dust lies in the ecliptic plane, the glow follows the constellations of the zodiac (hence the name). The glow shows up best when the ecliptic makes a steep angle to the horizon. In the Northern Hemisphere, this happens on evenings in early spring.

March offers plenty of great observing opportunities, and Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to the full version of
The Sky this Month at Astronomy.com. Use it to spot asteroids, comets, planets, and more!

To find out when more observable objects will appear in your sky, visit Astronomy.com’s sky events calendar.

Astronomy.com’s interactive star chart, StarDome, will help you find Saturn, Venus, and many other night-sky delights from your own backyard! Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS.

Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Rich Talcott explains how to find a few objects in the spring sky using nothing more than your binoculars. Highlights include Venus, the Big Dipper, and the Beehive Star Cluster (M44). Watch the video.

Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich highlights the objects you can see this spring using a small telescope. Highlights include the star Mizar, spiral galaxy M101, open cluster M67, and the Sombrero Galaxy (M104). Watch the video.

Astronomy magazine Editor David J. Eicher shares 10 of his favorite springtime deep-sky objects, including the NGC 3190 galaxy group, 3C 273, and NGC 3242. Watch the video.

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich, a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky.

Targets for March 13-20, 2009
Naked eye: Constellation Corvus the Crow
Small telescope: Open cluster M67
Large telescope: Spiral galaxy NGC 2683

Listen to the podcast here.

As Photo Editor of Astronomy, I see some great stuff. I just received an e-mail from astroimager Tom Carrico. He shared with us an animation he did of Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin). You’ll find Carrico’s creation in our videos section, “Watch Comet Lulin fly.” Read more and watch video.

In recent blogs, I introduced you to Benne Holwerde, a researcher at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He’s on a team of scientists building a new radio telescope called MeerKAT (Karoo Array Telescope). Holwerde and his group hope MeerKAT will solidify South Africa as the host site for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an even-larger radio telescope. Here’s another report on the project from Holwerde. Read more.

For more than 4 months now, Astronomy editors and art staff have been working on a new department for the magazine. During our annual editorial retreat back in October, we discussed a way to showcase more astronomy professionals in the magazine. We knew from reading feedback on our Forums that readers are interested in learning more about both professional and amateur astronomers, so we created “Astro Confidential.” Read more.

What is your primary interest in astronomy?

Observing and imaging the sky
Cosmology
Solar system exploration
Astronomical history
Other

Vote here.

Join astronomy discussions on everything from observing to astro imaging to education, and more here.

Here’s what people are talking about on the Reader Forums:

General discussion: What interests you most about space?

Observing reports: The “Worm Moon”

Accessories: Best eyepieces for observing planets

>> Search the Deep Sky catalog.

>> Search the Telescope Making catalog.