ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) - Art, science and culture will combine in Native Skywatchers - Earth Sky Connections, a series of 12 free art workshops and classes led by four artists with Native American heritage.

For me personally, as an astronomer and an artist, I feel that art is to me about this expression that comes from the heart and a lot from our own experience, Annette Lee told the St. Cloud Times (http://on.sctimes.com/1FizRTO ). The science is kind of like the counter-balance to that, where the science is about logical thinking, linear thinking. But it also has some magic and some things that are amazing.

Lee, a painter and an associate professor of astronomy and physics at St. Cloud State University, secured the $25,000 Minnesota State Arts Board grant thats funding the series.

Four workshops will be in St. Cloud, including two open to the public and two at Kennedy Community School. The rest are at the Duluth Art Institute, the Mille Lacs Indian Museum near Onamia and Fond du Lac Ojibwe School in Cloquet.

During her presentation, As it Is Above; It Is Below, Lee will talk about constellations and Native American star knowledge while painters (organizers encourage beginners to attend) create a piece that ties constellations to a season. She plans to bring a solar telescope to augment the hands-on science.

When she teaches astronomy or runs a St. Cloud State Planetarium program, Lee sees excitement and curiosity run through the audience. Through Native Skywatchers - Earth Sky Connections, she aims to spark interest in both art and science.

What I see is that theyre both equally powerful, and in our time, our civilization has really kind of shut down or put aside the art part as maybe an extra or just a hobby or not so important. The technology has sort of reigned the day, and we have all of the high-paying jobs in the sciences - and thats great. But I really feel as human beings that we have both parts to our being, our existence, Lee said.

St. Joseph-based artist Anne Meyer, who incorporates drawing into her clay work, will bring raw materials from her farm to use in her sessions, Be Humble for You Are Made of Earth. Meyer will share the Minnesota geology lessons she learned, which explain where clay is found, how it got there and how it was made.

The knowledge helps put the session in context.

Participants will hand-build a pot using a coil method used not only to make pre-settlement Oneota ceramics but also currently used around the world where pots are hand-built. A wooden paddle wrapped in cords will give the pots texture as it compresses and strengthens the clay.

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Workshops meld art with Native American astronomy, culture

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have awarded the 2015 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship to Dr. Nick Z. Scoville of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the trustees of AUI to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy.Scoville leads the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), a project that uses data from virtually every large space- and ground-based telescope, including the NRAO's Very Large Array, to study the large-scale structure of the Universe and the evolution of galaxies over a vast range of cosmic time. Begun in 2004 with a large allocation of observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope, COSMOS now has detected more than a million galaxies spanning cosmic time back to the first billion years of the Universe. He is currently using the new Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to investigate the evolution of star formation in the early Universe and colliding starburst galaxies nearby.A professor at Caltech since 1983, Scoville received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1972. He was a pioneer in millimeter-wave astronomy and is a leading expert in studies of galaxy evolution, the nature of the dense interstellar molecular gas in galaxies, and in the process of star formation, both in the nearby and in the distant, early Universe. He is a past director of Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory, and has served on numerous national committees. In his spare time, he enjoys doing sculptural welding projects.Author of more than 600 publications in both observational and theoretical astrophysics, Scoville's previous awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Aaronson Award of the University of Arizona, and serving as Bishop Lecturer at Columbia University.As Jansky Lecturer, Scoville will give lectures at NRAO facilities in Charlottesville, Virginia; Green Bank, West Virginia; and Socorro, New Mexico. These lectures are open to the public.This is the fiftieth Jansky Lectureship. First awarded in 1966, it is named in honor of the man who, in 1932, first detected radio waves from a cosmic source. Karl Jansky's discovery of radio waves from the central region of the Milky Way started the science of radio astronomy. Other recipients of the Jansky award include seven Nobel laureates (Drs. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Edward Purcell, Charles Townes, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, William Fowler, and Joseph Taylor) as well as Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, discoverer of the first pulsar, and Vera Rubin, discoverer of dark matter in galaxies.The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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2015 Jansky Lectureship Awarded to Caltech Professor

"Astronomy", Backward Comet

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"Astronomy", Backward Comet - Video

For the first two weeks of August, Hawaii will be the centre of the Universe when more than 3500 astronomers from at least 75 countries gather in Honolulu for the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Expected to be the largest professional astronomy conference since the Big Bang, the 3-14 August 2015 meeting will feature thousands of scientific presentations, numerous policy discussions, and several exciting media events. The IAU offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and public information officers (PIOs); see details below.

At the General Assembly, held every three years, the world's astronomers come together to advance the astronomical sciences through international collaboration. Participants at the General Assembly in Honolulu will address key topics in contemporary astronomy and assess the latest scientific progress in a number of specialised areas. With six symposia extending over several days, 22 multi-session focus meetings, nine IAU Division meetings, dozens of IAU Commission meetings, and the first-ever daily general poster sessions, the XXIX General Assembly's scientific programme will be the broadest in the union's history.

This will be the first General Assembly to be held in Hawaii and the first in the United States since 1998. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is the national host organisation, with vital local support from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Institute of Astronomy as well as observatories and other astronomy-related institutions throughout the Hawaiian islands.

Maunakea, on the Big Island, is well known today as the site of most of the northern hemisphere's 8- to 10-metre telescopes. But the history of astronomy in Hawaii goes back to ancient times, when Polynesian sailors navigated among the widely separated islands of the Pacific Ocean primarily using their deep knowledge of the starry sky. The landmark Diamond Head volcano on Oahu, visible from Honolulu's famed Waikiki Beach, was the site of an important 1910 expedition to photograph Halley's Comet. Grote Reber did some of his early work in radio astronomy on Maui, which now hosts a major solar observatory atop Haleakala. And Maunakea itself, first recognised as a superior astronomical site by Gerard Kuiper half a century ago, will soon be home to the Thirty Meter Telescope, one of the next-generation optical-infrared extremely large telescopes slated to usher in the next great age of ground-based astronomy. Representatives of the media in Hawaii for the General Assembly will have an opportunity to visit Maunakea before science sessions begin; see details below.

Overview

Contacts

Lars Lindberg Christensen IAU Press Officer Garching bei Mnchen, Germany Tel: +49 89 320 06 761 Cell: +49 173 38 72 621 Email: lars@eso.org

Raquel Yumi Shida IAU Deputy Press Officer Garching bei Mnchen, Germany Tel: +49 89 320 06 177 Cell: +49 151 5066 2673 Email: rshida@eso.org

Local press contacts

Roy Gal University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy Cell: +1 301-728-8637 Email: rgal@ifa.hawaii.edu

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Media Invitation for the XXIX General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union

New Astronomy - Exploiting the Neutrino
Speaker: Steven W. Barwick Recorded on January 20, 2015. The ARIANNA team braves the fierce wind chill of Antarctica to capture one of science #39;s most elusive prey: ghostly particles called...

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New Astronomy - Exploiting the Neutrino - Video

Updated Radio astronomers have moved to block the roll-out of an army of robotic lawnmowers in a submission to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The boffins claim that iRobot's deployment of the machines will interfere with their federally-funded radio astronomy.

iRobot, well known for the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner but also a producer of military and policing robots, filed a request in January for the FCC to waive a prohibition on the outdoor use of a particular frequency range, so that iRobot could take its robotic lawnmowers (RLMs) to market.

In the filing, iRobot described its RLMs as "battery-operated, self-propelling lawnmowers that rely on portable beacons placed in multiple locations on a lawn. The beacons transmit information to the RLM that enables the RLM to map out and stay within a designated mowing area".

The robots are designed to operate in the 6240-6740 MHz frequency range. However, the FCC has a blanket prohibition on unlicensed operations of wideband systems within the 5925-7250 MHZ band.

The FCC noted that "Section 15.250(c) states that '[e]xcept for operation onboard a ship or a terrestrial transportation vehicle, the use of a fixed outdoor infrastructure is prohibited' for such systems, and that '[a] fixed infrastructure includes antennas mounted on outdoor structures, e.g., antennas mounted on the outside of a building or on a telephone pole'."

The FCC acknowledged that its Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) was reviewing the request that the clause be waived, and that it was also allowing "interested parties" to submit comments on the issue as per protocol.

Scientists from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have filed a comment and explained: "The purpose of singling out this frequency band is to allow interference-free observation of the 6.66852 GHz spectral line of methanol (CH3OH), that is abundant in star-forming regions and serves as a galactic beacon of star-forming activity owing to its maser-like qualities."

Adding that this "also allows the Observatorys telescopes to do a kind of celestial cartography that measures distances to star-forming regions with high precision, charting the course of galactic evolution".

In its waiver request, iRobot states that while Section 15.250(c) prohibits "fixed outdoor infrastructure" the use of the portable beacons does not fall under the rule as it would not "establish a wide area communications system or network".

This is disputed by the NRAO. The astromers are not opposed to RLM operations in general, but have objected to the robots' potential capacity to degrade the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in West Virginia.

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Astronomers battle plague of BLADE-WIELDING ROBOTS

Matthew Povich, a Cal Poly Pomona astronomy faculty member, is getting $650,000 from the National Science Foundations Early Career Development (CAREER) grant, given to full time professors working towards tenure. This is one of six grants awarded nationally in the astronomy field, and the only one to be awarded to a primarily undergraduate university.

The NSF grant spans five years, and will sponsor a postdoctoral fellow to assist in research, teach and assist in other grant activities. These additions are comforting to CPPs Physics and Astronomy Department, due to the grants financial stability and support.

The grants aims are to build a strong foundation of astronomy research activity at CPP, leverage an international community of over one million citizen scientists to power discoveries and build enthusiasm for astronomy, and establish Bring the Universe Into LA Districts.

Povichs proposal includes building a new calibration and spatially resolved map of the present-day Galactic star formation rate.

I like to say that star formation is the lifeblood of a galaxy, and the star formation rate is a galaxy's pulse, said Povich in an email correspondence.

My CAREER project is focused on improving measurements of the star formation rate in our Milky Way Galaxy, so in a sense we're trying to take the pulse of the Milky Way.

With the incorporation of citizen science, Povichs groundbreaking Milky Way Project aims to help scientists and researchers deal with the flood of data that confronts them. Tens of thousands of volunteers have classified well over 50,000 images from the project website, http://www.milkywayproject.org.

In the past what we did was have small teams of professional astronomers looking at very small blotches of the sky, said Povich. What we want to do now is use the Milky Way Project to look at the whole galaxy sort of unrestricted, which is much harder because the galaxy is very big.

To date, the Milky Way Project has been used to catalog several thousand star-forming nebulae throughout a large fraction of the Milky Way Galaxy. Part of the CAREER grant goal is to do the rest of the Galaxy. However, before beginning CAREER grant research, Povich intends to first use the Milky Way Project to search for bow shocks in our galaxy.

Im trying to get [new] data prepared, said Povich.

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CPP astronomy professor wins NSF research grant worth $650,000

MODIS Atmosphere Science Team/Reto Stockli, NASA's Earth Observatory

Clouds are key to understanding climate change, but more-realistic models of their formation are needed.

Climate science needs more mathematicians and physicists. So say prominent climatologists who are trying to spark enthusiasm for their field in budding researchers who might otherwise choose astrophysics or cosmology. Talented physical scientists are needed to help resolve mysteries that are crucial to modelling the climate and, potentially, saving the planet the group says, such as the ways in which clouds are formed.

There is a misconception that the major challenges in physical climate science are settled. Thats absolutely not true, says Sandrine Bony, a climate researcher at the Laboratory of Dynamic Meteorology in Paris. In fact, essential physical aspects of climate change are poorly understood.

To attract physics and mathematics students to the speciality, Bony and her collaborators have presented some of the fields grand challenges in magazines such as Physics Today (B. Stevens and S. Bony Phys. Today http://doi.org/3f9; 2013), and are organizing summer schools for students from an array of scientific backgrounds.

Last week in Nature Geoscience, Bonys team outlined four of the fields deepest questions, including how clouds and climate interact and how the position of tropical rain belts and mid-latitude storm tracks might change in a warming world (S. Bony et al. Nature Geosci. http://doi.org/3gb; 2015). The questions are best tackled, says Bony, by creating more realistic climate simulations an approach that she hopes will appeal to physicists.

The perception that climate science is solved is an inadvertent result of pressure on climatologists to convey a simple message to the public for instance, that all dry regions will get dryer and all wet regions wetter in a warming climate, says Piers Forster, a climate modeller at the University of Leeds, UK. That has made the science sound somewhat dull, he says.

We too quickly turn to the policy implications of our work and forget the basic science, adds Bjorn Stevens, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and a co-author of the Nature Geoscience paper. Although climate scientists agree on the basics for example, climate change is primarily the result of human activity large uncertainties persist in climate sensitivity, the increase in average global temperature caused by a given rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide.

As Bony and co-authors argue, understanding how the warming climate might affect cloud cover, which influences the amount of sunlight reflected back into space and thus Earths energy cycle, is key to addressing these uncertainties. A major weakness of current climate models is their limited ability to simulate the convection by which humid air is lifted into the atmosphere and which drives cloud formation and rainfall. In some instances, the models cannot even agree on whether the future will bring more rain or less.

Building better cloud-resolving models requires enormous computer power, as well as people who have a deep understanding of climate physics combined with skills in numerical modelling. But the number of scientists involved in developing computer algorithms for improved climate models is tiny, says Christian Jakob, an atmosphere researcher at Monash University in Clayton, Australia.

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Climatologists to physicists: your planet needs you

Minecraft: Space Astronomy- Episode 1: Let the Tree Punching Commence!
Let #39;s try out this new modpack from MJRLegends: Space Astronomy. Using the latest technology, we will explore different planets and find an answer to if the moon really is made of cheese. ...

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Minecraft: Space Astronomy- Episode 1: Let the Tree Punching Commence! - Video

The Chimney Swifts - Astronomy (Original Song)
http://music.cbc.ca/#!/artists/The-Chimney-Swifts - Local CBC Searchlight contestants the Chimney Swifts performing their original song Astronomy. Remember to cast them a vote every day until...

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The Chimney Swifts - Astronomy (Original Song) - Video

By Tony Hoffman

Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy is an iPad app geared to newcomers to astronomy. It includes the usual planetarium view, showing the constellations in their proper positions relative to each other in the direction your iPad is pointing for any given time and location. It also features star and constellation quizzes, a solar system view that shows the planets in motion around the Sun, a section featuring individual 3D planets that you can spin, a section with astronomy news items, and more. The planetarium part of the app works okay, though it's rather basic, and some of the sections are amateurishly produced.

The app can be used in either Landscape or Portrait mode. After a brief, yet fun, animation (a fly-through of the solar system), the Home screenwhich changes color depending on the time of day you activate the appappears. The app's title appears at top center, and below it is an image of the Moon. Listed further down is the current date, the Julian date (a continuous count of days since the beginning of the Julian Period on January 1, 4713 BC, a measure frequently used by astronomers), the Star Date (in a nod to Star Trek, though there is no universally recognized conversion scheme between the TV series's Star Date chronology and actual time), and the lunar phase (Waxing Gibbous, when I tested the app). Below these bits of information, the rising and setting times of the Sun, Moon, and the planets that can be seen by the naked eye are listed.

Gaze into a Virtual Sky Appearing lower on the Home Screen are links marked Help, Virtual Sky and Extras, Planets, Orrery, What's Up?, and Ask. The heart of Pocket Universe, as it is with any planetarium program, is the Virtual Sky view, which lets you see the stars and constellations on your iPad's screen as they would actually appear in the night sky in whatever direction you point your device. It identifies constellations and bright stars both onscreen and via audio when they pass through the virtual crosshairs at the screen's center. Virtual Sky provides position and brightness data for the brightest stars, but no information on the vast majority of stars, which is unusual in a planetarium program.

The Extras section includes quizzes, depictions of the positions of Jupiter's and Saturn's brightest moons, 360-degree virtual views of the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, and more. While the latter items are good, the quizzes tended to be repetitive, asking some of the same questions over and over even when I got them right.

Tracking the Planets Clicking on What's Up? takes you to a table showing the altitude (in increments of 10 degrees) and azimuth (its compass direction, measured clockwise from due north) of the five planets you can see with the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), plus the Sun and Moon for a given location and date. At the bottom of the screen are right and left arrow buttons, plus a play/pause button, that let you view, speed up, pause, or reverse the motion of the planets over time.

The Help button takes you to a menu with five items. What's New shows you what has been changed in the current version of the app as opposed to the previous one. Getting Started teaches you some basics about the app. For instance, it tells you that the app can run on an iPhone, iPod, and iPad (I tested it on an iPad Air 2 ), provides a virtual sky view rendered for your location and time, and displays the 10,000 brightest stars, the location of the planets, Sun, and Moon, and the Messier catalogue of deep-sky objects.

The Planets section shows 3D rotating versions of the Sun, Moon, and our solar system's planets (Pluto is omitted), and includes basic data on each world. When you use the app in daytime, Earth is illuminated, but when you use it at night, our planet is in darkness, with just the faint outline of continents and the lights of cities. The globes vary greatly in quality; the Moon shows some detail on both its near side and far side, and Mars, Neptune, and Venus look fairly realistic (and Venus correctly rotating backwards). In contrast, the Sun appears as a glaring ball of mottled yellow and white, with sunspots looking like they were photoshopped in place, and Mercury appearing blotchy and nearly featureless. Forward and backward arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen take you from one planet to the next. Some basic detail is provided for each planet, including its rising and setting times in our sky, radius, distance from the Sun, period of rotation, orbital period, and number of satellites.

The Orrery view shows the solar system in motion, and can be tilted, squeezed, or pinched to change perspective. Through the use of front-arrow, back-arrow, and pause keys, you can freeze, speed up, or reverse the motion of the planets. The individual worlds are not identified in the Orrery view, although they're the same 3D planets that appear in the Planets section.

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Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy (for iPad)

Dedication of the Patricia Druger Astronomy Center at Holden
On March 28th, 2015 friends, family and faculty gathered together on the Syracuse University Campus to help dedicate the brand new Patricia Druger Astronomy Center at the Holden Observatory.

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Dedication of the Patricia Druger Astronomy Center at Holden - Video

Fun-filled event at UC Riverside for families includes hands-on activities, presentations and lab tours

By Iqbal Pittalwala on April 3, 2015

Standing on a rotatable platform, a visitor to a past Physics and Astronomy Open House at UC Riverside gets a hands-on education on a physical law called the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Photo credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. One way to understand concepts in physics and astronomy is to get hands-on experience with demonstrations that explain these concepts (see photo). The public has an opportunity to gain such experience at an open house hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Riverside on Saturday, April 18.

The open house will take place from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Physics Building on campus as well as in the buildings courtyard. The event is free of charge. Parking in Lot 30 is also free.

The demonstrations of physics and astronomy concepts will be conducted by UC Riverside faculty and students. Tours of research laboratories are also included in the open house. Free T-shirts will be given out to visitors (while supplies last).

Many of the demonstrations will cover electricity and magnetism, said Owen Long, a professor of physics and astronomy, who is leading the open house organization. For example, there will be demonstrations of the physics behind electric motors and electric generators. One of the hands-on activities will be to make a small electric motor which visitors can take home out of a battery, a magnet, and a piece of copper wire. There will also be a collection of demos on the physics of sound. The open house has been tremendously popular with families in past years; we are expecting a good turnout this year as well.

Included in the open house are three research presentations in classrooms and the lobby of Physics Building. These presentations, which start at 2 p.m., will cover the three main areas of research being done in the department: astronomy, condensed matter physics, and high energy physics.

The open house is on the same day as Highlander Day on campus and the Riverside Insect Fair in downtown Riverside. For more information about the open house, please click here or email owen.long@ucr.edu.

Archived under: Inside UCR, Science/Technology, astronomy, condensed matter physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, electricity, high-energy physics, magnetism, open house, Owen Long, Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy Open House, sound

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Open House on April 18 to Showcase Best of Physics and Astronomy

PHY195 Astronomy #08 Spring 2015
Astronomy with Bruce Betts Taught by Bruce Betts of The Planetary Society for undergraduates and astronomy enthusiast. http://www.youtube.com/csudhtv [Please Subscribe]

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PHY195 Astronomy #08 Spring 2015 - Video

Astronomy Cast Ep. 373: Becquerel Experiment (Radiation)
Join +Fraser Cain and +Pamela Gay for a live episode of Astronomy Cast. We #39;ll record our 30-minute show, and then stick around to answer your questions about space and astronomy. Astronomy...

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Astronomy Cast Ep. 373: Becquerel Experiment (Radiation) - Video

Lunar Eclipse April 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 2
Lunar Eclipse April 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 2: A total lunar eclipse is coming this month! It #39;s Time For Stargazing, Skywatching, and Astronomy of The Night Sky April...

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Lunar Eclipse April 2015 Stargazing Skywatching Astronomy For Kids Ep 2 - Video

The Earth: Crash Course Astronomy #11
Phil starts the planet-by-planet tour of the solar system right here at home, Earth. -- Table of Contents Earth is a Planet 0:03 Layers of Earth 1:25 The Magnetic Field 5:10 Atmosphere and...

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The Earth: Crash Course Astronomy #11 - Video

Astronomy Science Journalism JWST - Part 1 -Surely, you Jest.
I #39;m like Peter Parker Clark Kent and this video is about secret agent space stuff. So give me some sugar, baby. God Bless Everyone, 100 year Earth Truce Global Jubilee = Everybody Wins...

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Astronomy & Science Journalism & JWST - Part 1 -Surely, you Jest. - Video

By Julian Robinson for MailOnline

Published: 23:36 EST, 2 April 2015 | Updated: 04:33 EST, 3 April 2015

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These are some of the breathtaking images of auroras and constellations vying for top spot in a prestigious competition.

Photographers around the world have been reaching for the stars with some stunning pictures of the sky at night for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest.

The winner can expect to see their work showcased in an exhibition at London's Royal Observatory Greenwich - along with a top prize of 2,500.

Entries so far include spectacular visions of the cosmos from destinations as far afield as America and Bolivia as well as dazzling images of the aurora captured closer to home in Wales and Scotland.

The deadline for entries is April 16.

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Astronomy photography award entries include auroras and constellations

Astronomy Star Party in Yosemite at Glacier Point
Yosemite Astronomy @ Glacier Point 07/18-19/2015 v2.0 We try to make multi subject videos biweekly events. U R welcome to subscribe.

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Astronomy Star Party in Yosemite at Glacier Point - Video