DECEMBER 2010. I've been doing a new set of Editor's Picks. This link will always take you to the most recent selection: Astronomy Editor's Picks

Top of the list is a biog of the great American astronomer Annie Cannon. It's the anniversary of her birth next week and she should be better known - not only as an astronomer but as a tireless fighter for women's rights.

The 500th extrasolar planet was discovered a few days ago. These are planets orbiting other stars. Why not find out a bit about how we discover them?

With Christmas coming up, I've included two book reviews of books I particularly liked. Maybe there's someone on your list who would also like them.

Venus is bright in the early morning sky and figures in two articles -- one of them is about telling a planet from a UFO, since Venus is the biggest culprit here.

The body of Tycho Brahe, one of the fathers of modern astronomy, was recently exhumed. It's not everyone who is still in the news four hundred years after his death. Read more about his life.[b][/b]

Thanks Mona

JANUARY 2011. My new Editor's Picks - the link will always take you to the most recent selection - start with my favorite sight in the winter sky, the constellation Orion. There's also a look at how we came by today's astronomical constellations.

How about a tour of the Solar System? Learn how our nearest neighbor the Moon seems to change shape. There's beautiful bright Venus, our sister planet whose natural features are mostly named after women. And if you want to get away from it all, there are the outer planets and beyond -- Uranus, Neptune, Pluto or the moons of Saturn.

We all know ways to work out distances on Earth, but it's a lot harder in space. There's an introduction to how this is done, as well as to another essential astronomical tool, photography. It's more than pretty pictures, though there are plenty of those.

It took a long time to work out how stars shine and how they evolve. Empire of the Stars tells about some of the personalities involved in the debate and about the many pieces of this puzzle.

Happy 2011!

MARCH 2011Since I saw the aurora in Norway and there has been increased activity this month, I'd enthusiastically recommend the article on aurorae and the one on its legends.

My other picks were inspired by March anniversaries.

On the thirteenth of March, 230 years ago, William Herschel discovered Uranus, the first new planet since antiquity. His sister Caroline wasn't with him when the found the new planet, but when he became a fulltime astronomer, theirs was a great partnership. There are two articles about Uranus in my list. Also since Caroline was born on March 16, 1750, there will be a new article about her on her birthday.

William's son John was born on March 7. In addition to astronomy, he was a pioneer of photography. Henry Draper -- who shared his birthday -- was an early astrophotographer. I've put an article about this in my list, as well as a my review of Dark Matter - Poems of Space which contains a poem about Herschel's observing in South Africa.

Urban LeVerrier, who predicted mathematically the existence of the planet Neptune, was another March birthday.

I hope you see something you like. Here's the link - this link will always take you to the most recent selection.

APRIL 2011 I've put up a new set of Editor Picks.

I'm bewitched by the Northern Lights and there is still auroral activity in high latitudes, so I've recommended an article about aurora. But you don't have to be in the far north to look at what the spring sky has to offer and learn about the constellations.

Saturn was recently at opposition (at its nearest to Earth) and it's a lovely pale yellow object in the sky. Kids of all ages can read my introduction to the Solar System's most beautiful planet. Seeing the rings requires a telescope and there is some guidance on choosing one.

Seeing nebulae also needs a telescope, though really the best pictures are taken by big telescopes and I've included links to some of these pictures in my article on nebulae. The Herschel Space Observatory is studying nebulae � it's named for one of my astronomical hero William Herschel and my heroine Caroline Herschel. If you haven't already, do read about her amazing life � if it were a novel, you'd think it was unbelievable.

I don't have anything to offer about Easter, but since setting the date for Easter is related to calendars and to equinoxes, I've listed articles on those topics.

Distances in space isn't a glamourous-sounding topic, but everything else depends on our having some understanding of how far away things are. Have a look if you want to know a bit about how it's done.

Cheers and Happy Easter to those of you who will be celebrating it.

The list and links are here. The link will always take you to the most recent selection.

JUNE 2011 I've changed my Editor Picks and hope you'll see something of interest to you. Astronomy Editor Picks

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was a true Renaissance man - fluent in four languages, church administrator, practiced law and medicine . . . and there was that book on astronomy which started off a revolution in thinking. Yet until a few years ago, his final resting place was unknown. The discovery and identification of his remains is a great story in itself.

Yes, summer is coming and auroras will soon be washed out by light nights, but there is still a lot of activity in both hemispheres. Whether you can see the lights in the sky or not, the folklore is fun.

Pluto is a favorite of mine, though I didn't have a hissy fit when it was classified as a dwarf planet - here's some background on that.

The rest of my recommendations are background on what you can see in the sky. Arcturus in Bootes is still one of the brightest stars around, but the Summer Triangle is now visible. One of its three stars is Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

Venus is a one of pre-dawn sights for early risers. It is very bright and is the astronomical object most likely to provoke a UFO report!

On June 15 there is a lunar eclipse. Alas, the bad news for North Americans is that none of it will be visible there. The entire eclipse can (weather permitting) be see in east Africa, the Middle East and western Asia, with everyone else getting at least part of it.

JULY 2011Just updated the Editor's Picks with �Good-bye Spirit� at the top of the list. It was surprisingly emotional when NASA finally had to admit that it was over for the Martian rover after a year of trying to contact her.

Recently, I was doing some research and started noticing how many things aren't named for their discoverers. Apparently, this is called Stigler's Law (who, of course, didn't discover it). I thought it would be interesting to choose some astronomical examples, so �What's in a Name�? Comet Halley is one of the examples, but Halley turned out to be so interesting, I give him a whole article. And still had to leave out most of his achievements or it would have been an ebook instead.

Since it's summer, why not go out and look at the sky? Yes, it gets dark later, but it's also warmer! I've included a beginners' guide to the summer skies and something about moonwatching in my Picks. But remember the �Getting Started� part of the Astronomy site has a number of little guides for beginners.

You need a good telescope � sometimes an infra-red one � to see �Nebulae� in their glory. Find out what they are and follow the links to some pictures. And for even more spectacularly gorgeous pictures, there's �Royal Greenwich Observatory Photography.�

I don't usually read poetry, so was a bit suspicious of �Dark Matter,� a collection of poems with space/astronomy themes. If this article arouses your interest, but you can't get hold of the book, many of the poems can be found online by searching.

Here's the list with the links.

AUGUST 2011. For those in the northern hemisphere, summer weather means you can look at the sky without freezing. So I�m recommending some articles to help you get going - summer isn�t over just yet. The Perseid meteor shower arrives in August. You don�t need binoculars to see the meteors, but you can use them for other objects in the sky. There�s also a beginner�s guide to the summer sky and two articles about summer constellations.

Quasars are a popular topic and I updated the article on them for kids (and readers of all ages). Two interesting astronomers are also on my list: Caroline Herschel whose life is an inspiration and the work of Copernicus.

I probably shouldn�t mention going back to school, but I have chosen two articles which may be of interest to educators. One is about teaching the tricky topic of why we have day and night. The other is about calendars. I hope you enjoy them � but also the rest of the summer!

Here's the list with links.

SEPTEMBER 2011. It's September and according to the weather folk, summer is gone. Astronomically, it finishes at the autumn equinox on September 23. Top of my Picks is an article explaining what the equinoxes are and a beginner's guide to the fall skies. On October 1 it's Astronomy Day - an article about that may help you find an event near you.

Both night owls and early risers can see a bright Jupiter. If you'd rather sleep, you can read about Jupiter. Also a superb picture of the planet won the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. I'll be writing about that, but meanwhile you might like to read about the importance of photography to astronomy.

Vega is a bright blueish star high in the sky. It's in the constellation of Lyra which represents the instrument Orpheus played and melted even the stony heart of the god of the dead, but still lost the love of his life. If you're a cat lover (or even if not!) I hope you'll enjoy reading about cats in the skies. I've also recommended articles about Ceres and Mercury, as Dawn is now on the way to Ceres and Messenger is circling Mercury.

My final pick is a tribute to young people. They get a bad press because of the behavior of a minority. Here are some stories about young astronomers � aged between ten and nineteen � who have actually made astronomical discoveries.

OCTOBER 2011. Cast your mind back to last year at about this time. The Big Story was the Chilean miners who had been trapped underground since the summer (their winter). I was intrigued by the way space age technology helped in the rescue.

Jupiter is still so bright that I mistook it the other night for one of the line of planes headed for the airport. So I'm encouraging everyone to learn more about it and to go out and look at it in the eastern sky. If you're easily spooked, be sure to go skywatching before Halloween, but it's safe enough to read my account of its origins.

NASA says that we're headed for fantastic aurorae. I love them and enjoyed sharing some of stories about them in Tales of the Northern Lights. And for animal lovers, I'm recommending my themed articles on dogs and cats in the sky.

These are the Editor Picks -- Only the latest ones will show up.

JANUARY 2012. A new year is a good time to read about our calendar, in which January is the start of the year. January is also the month in which NASA's rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars eight years ago for a 3-month mission! Spirit was lost to us last year, you can read her story.

If you live far enough to the north, you've been seeing the Northern Lights recently - there's an article about what causes them. Even if we don't see aurorae, we can look at the winter sky, and there's an intro to winter skywatching as well as articles on the constellations of Orion (my favorite!) and Auriga. [I should apologize to people in the southern hemisphere for this bias, but after all you are having summer, instead of freezing.]

There are 3 articles related to anniversaries in the next month. Johann Bode (born January 19, 1747) discovered the asteroid Ceres on New Year's Day 1801. Clyde Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 � January 17, 1997) discovered Pluto.

This evening Jupiter was bright overhead and Venus was brilliant low in the sky. It seemed like a good idea to recommend my guide to telling planets from UFOs.

Astronomy Editor Picks

JULY 2012 You can find out about Eris and Pluto, two distant dwarf planets. They're often called twins, but they aren't much alike.

The Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak after midnight on August 12th and 13th - you can find out more about this annual event. And for general summer observing, there's an introduction to the summer skies and a special look at Cygnus, my favorite summer constellation.

The anniversary of the first Moon landing comes up on July 20. The autobiography by Michael Collins � the Apollo 11 astronaut who didn't walk on the Moon � is a good read.

If you have any budding astronomers, the long summer holiday could be a good time to read about the stars and planets. And it could also be a good time for any member of the family to join a citizen science project.

Read about the sad end of the best laid plans of astronomer Guillaume LeGentil who didn't get any measurements of the Transit of Venus in 1761 or in 1769.

There's also a tour of the canine-inspired parts of the sky and a chance to learn more about Saturn's moons. A complement to the Cassini images that we keep seeing!