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10 Febrero 2005: Visible light images from NOAO telescopes (left) have been used by scientists from the Spitzer Science Center to help them better understand dozens of massive embryonic stars in the Trifid Nebula (M20), which were discovered in images from two instruments aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope (right).

31 Enero 2005: NOAO Astronomer Steve Ridgway is part of a team that used the CHARA array on Mount Wilson to make detailed measurements of the physical properties of Regulus, the brightest star in Leo. They found that Regulus’ frenetic spin gives the star a grossly bulging mid-section; its equatorial diameter is one-third larger than its north-south diameter. The star’s axis of rotation happens to point in the same direction as its motion through the galaxy—meaning Regulus zips along like an enormous, spinning bullet.

11 Enero 2005: A current rendering of the 8.4-meter Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) which will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view. The LSST Corporation has awarded a $2.3 million contract to the University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Lab to purchase the glass and begin engineering work for the 8.4-meter diameter main mirror that will enable the LSST to survey the visible sky in only three nights. LSST press release

2 Enero 2005: Like the annual New Year’s fireworks display, astronomers at Gemini Observatory are ushering in 2005 with a striking image that dazzles the eye with stellar pyrotechnics. In this new image, the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is ablaze with colorful outbursts fueled by the births and deaths of multitudes of brilliant, massive stars.

24 Diciembre 2004: The staff of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory wishes you all the best this holiday season.

20 Diciembre 2004: Using adaptive optics on the Gemini North and Keck II telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i, a U.S. team has discovered a new phenomenon in the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan. Unlike previous observations showing storms at the south pole, these new images reveal atmospheric disturbances at Titan’s temperate mid latitudes—about halfway between the equator and the poles. Read the Gemini Press Release.

13 Diciembre 2004: Discovered just this past summer, Comet Machholz continues to brighten toward being visible with the unaided eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres. This image was taken at the Kitt Peak Visitor Center Observatory on December 11, 2004.

2 Diciembre 2004: This image of the massive N11 complex is featured on the cover of the December 2004 NOAO Newsletter. Numerous star forming regions and shells blown out by supernovae and strong stellar winds can be seen. The data used to create the image were taken with the University of Michigan Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory near La Serena, Chile, as part of the Magellanic Clouds Emission Line Survey (MCELS).

22 Octubre 2004: The third data release (DR3) from the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) is now available. This release includes all the Mosaic-1 optical and ONIS K-band imaging of the 9.3 square degree Boötes survey field. Catalogs of objects detected in the images are also provided. The images can also be obtained via the NOAO Science Archive.

5 Octubre 2004: Astronomers including Steve Howell of NOAO-WIYN have used the Gemini North and Keck II telescopes to peer inside a violent binary star system to find that one of the interacting stars has lost so much mass to its partner that it has regressed to a strange, inert body resembling no known star type. Gemini Press Release

27 Septiembre 2004: Mira stars, red giant variables that have been studied for 400 years, are generally half as large in diameter as had been believed, thanks to an opaque shell of water vapor and other molecules that surrounds them. A team including Steve Ridgway of NOAO used the IOTA interferometer on Mount Hopkins, AZ, to make this discovery. Read more in the Astronomy and Astrophysics press release, Forseeing the Sun’s Fate.

8 Septiembre 2004: This stunning image from the Gemini Observatory’s Multi-Object Spectrograph captures the graceful interactions of a galactic ballet, on a stage some 300 million light-years away. The galaxies are literally tearing each other apart, as the shapes of four of them are warped by mutual gravitational interactions. The fifth galaxy, at the top center of the image (NGC 7320) is thought to be much closer to us than the others, so it remains unaffected by the dance of galaxies behind it. It is further distinguished in this image by numerous red blobs indicating hydrogen-rich star forming regions.

31 Agosto 2004: In theory all Planetary Nebula should look like this one: a nearly perfect sphere with a brightened limb. The reality is that most nebulae are found in a wide variety of shapes and colors. Round ones like PK 40-0.1 are actually a rarity in the Universe.

13 Agosto 2004: A team of U.S. astronomers reports the discovery of extremely high rates of star formation (more than 11 solar masses per year) in one of the most distant known galaxies in the Universe, some 12.8 billion light-years away. Astronomers traced the galaxy's starburst activity by measuring light emitted in the Lyman-alpha emission line, using deep multi-object spectroscopy conducted at the Gemini Observatory with GMOS-North.

27 Julio 2004: Infrared observations of SN 1987A made in October 2003 as part of the checkout of the new Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph (T-ReCS) instrument on Gemini South have revealed emission from a cool dust ring that is surprisingly luminous. It co-exists with hot gas components left over from the relic equatorial ring featured prominently in data from other observatories in wavelengths from X-ray to radio.

16 Julio 2004: An image of N11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) as part of the Magellanic Clouds Emission-Line Survey (MCELS). This color image was produced using three separate exposures taken in hydrogen, sulfur and oxygen bandpasses. It was used to support the July 2004 release by the Hubble Heritage project.

8 Julio 2004: Some 5,000 light years from Earth, toward the asterism of Sagittarius, lies the emission nebula NGC 6559. Hydrogen gas is responsible for the diffuse red glow, while dark clouds of dust absorb much of the nebula's star light. Smaller dust particles scatter the blue light from the bright stars in the bottom half of the image, creating the beautiful blue and purple reflection nebulosity.

29 Junio 2004: This loose, widely spaced open cluster is found in the constellation Cygnus, about 800 light-years away. Also known as NGC7092, it has around 30 members and is two to three hundred million years old. This picture is a combination of 33 dithered frames in BVR colors taken with the Mosaic camera at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona

18 Junio 2004: Astronomers using a combination of data sets from the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, including the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (image above), have found a galaxy that formed when the Universe was just six percent of its present age, suggesting the "dark ages" of the early universe ended in a patchy, gradual process.

3 Junio 2004: This three-color composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 4402 shows several key lines of evidence for the galaxy being stripped bare of its star-forming material by its violent ongoing encounter with the hot gas in the center of the Virgo galaxy cluster, as NGC 4402 falls into it. Released at the AAS meeting in Denver.