Just three more weeks until Global Astronomy Month kicks off. Are your scopes ready to star party?

If you’re still unsure about what to do this time, we have ten super programs to inspire you!

How cool would it be if you could chat with some of the Living Legends of astronomy out there? Way cool.
We thought the same, and there you have Living Legends Series, an online program that connects you with some of the most fascinating people in astronomy. Stay in touch to see who will be the first!

From worldwide know astronomers we move to unknown Earth-like planets. There are 450 planets discovered outside our Solar System, and you will have the chance to observe one during our remote event “Is There Anybody Out There?”

Talking about planets that revolve around similar Suns, we cannot leave our own star aside. April, 11 is SunDay, so make sure you’re out there watching it. The more we schedule a meeting with it, the more chances it will finally prepare some spots or solar turbulence for us :)

If the Sun has deprived us of its spots for quite a while now, Saturn turned its rings edge-on, making them almost invisible during the last months. We loved the sight, but it’s time Saturn shows its entire beauty again. From 12 to 16 April we have the go for Saturn Watch, five days which end with a Beauty Without Borders event dedicated to the Lord of the Rings.

If rings are Saturn’s personal signature, what if you could Write Your Name in the Sky? All it takes is to discover an asteroid, so make sure you join our remote event where we hunt for these mysterious travelers!

But you don’t have to be an asteroid to be mysterious. Our close neighbor, the Moon, still hides its dark face from us. However, the one that we do see never stops to fascinate us. So get your scopes out there between 17 and 23 April for Lunar Week!

Oh, you don’t have a scope yet? Not to worry. Your eyes will be enough equipment to assist to one of the most impressive shows of the Universe – meteor showers! Dress warmly and scan the sky for the beautiful Lyrids between 21 and 22 April.

Make sure you get out of town though. Light pollution will surely prevent you from seeing this show right from your home. We know, it’s rather annoying - going miles away to enjoy the sky above, when we all, astronomers or not, should have the right to a starry night. If you share our view, join us in claiming “One Star at the Time” and pledge to preserve and protect the patch of sky above your home or work place.

Having done all this, we sure deserve a party, a Global Star Party. 24 of April is the date to remember. We will all join together to admire the stars as One People under One Sky!

With 2012 coming up, watch a movie about the true facts around asteroids that threaten Earth

2012 it's almost here and speculations regarding the end of the world reach high levels of intensity. Presented with otherwise common sense and annually repeated astronomical data and phenomena, people see them as an exception capable of destroying us, helped of course by the very concerned media.

Sometimes I wonder who came first? The whole craziness around ancient predictictions regarding 2012 that led to the screening of "2012" the movie? Or the movie and the whole panic is just a malefic, but genious PR campaing to increase box office? Talking about the movie, I went to see it and left with one strong impression: the special effects were so impresive that made you think this could be real. The actors play however reminded you that it was just a fictional movie.

Leaving behind all speculations, The Space Generation Advisory Congress (SGAC) released a movie about the true facts around asteroids that threaten Earth. The volunteer made documentary presents the opinions of international experts on issues surrounding defending Earth from asteroid and comet impacts. More about the team behind it on the SGAC website.

You can watch the movie here. It is made of four sections, each focusing on one important aspect regarding asteroid impact: definition and understanding, deflection methods, public awareness and asteroid exploitation.

First conceived at the 2008 Space Generation Congress, the documentary uses footage from interviews made in April at the 2009 Planetary Defense Conference in Grenada, Spain. At the same time, the film promotes the first “Youth of Defense Conference” which will be held in Romania, in 2011, prior to the second "Planetary Defence Conferece" to be held in Bucharest.

In 2011, Romania will not be at its first flirt with such topics as asteroids. Last year, we saw the first Romanians to discover asteroids in a fantastic project called EURONEAR, coordonated by Dr. Ovidiu Vaduvescu. The team gathered Romanian professional and amateur astronomers, setting an example of how prolific the colaboration between the two types of astronomers can be.

If you are an amateur astronomer living in Romania and passionated by such topics you can join the EURONEAR team and be sure not to miss the 2011 SGAC conferences! Keep in touch via email for more detalis.

And for all those who can read Romanian, an interesting article about the maya calendar with regards to astronomy as well.