Kansas City, MO)–The Astronomical League is pleased to announce the top finishers in its youth award programs for 2014. The first-place winner in the National Young Astronomer Award (NYAA) program is Pranav Sivakumar, from Tower Lakes, Illinois. A freshman at Barrington High School, Barrington, Illinois, his astronomical project uses a novel method developed to identify gravitationally lensed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Understanding gravitational lensing can help decipher the properties of dark matter and dark energy.

The second-place winner is Katie Shen who lives in Potomac Falls, Virginia. Katie, a junior at Loudoun Academy of Science in Sterling, Virginia, titled her research project, “ Census of HII Regions in Sloan Digital Sky Survey.” These are regions of actively forming stars inside galaxies.

The top two finishers have each won an expenses-paid trip to receive their awards at ALCon, the national convention of the Astronomical League, being held in San Antonio, Texas, July 9-12, 2014. In addition, the first place winner will receive a special telescope from Explore Scientific, sponsor of the National Young Astronomer Award program.

The 2014 first-place winner of the League’s Jack Horkheimer/Smith Service Award, is Hagan Hensley, whose hometown is San Antonio. Hagan’s tremendous contribution to outreach activities for his astronomical society, the San Antonio League of Sidewalk Astronomers, earned him this award which is sponsored by the family of the late Jack Horkheimer, of the PBS astronomy program Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer. In addition to receiving his award, Hagan will receive a $1,000 check in recognition of this special achievement.

GE Austin, is the 1st place winner of the Jack Horkheimer/O’Meara Journalism Award for 2014. The title of his essay was “The Mass of Life”. He lives in the state of Oregon and will be receiving his award in person at ALCon 2014. He will also receive a $1,000 check for his special 1st place essay.

Our NYAA and Horkheimer Service awards are open to high school age youth. The Horkheimer Journalism award is open to youth ages 8-14. For specific entry guidelines, please refer to the Astronomical League website www.astroleague.org.

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Kansas City, MO)–The Astronomical League is pleased to announce the winner of the 2014 Astronomical League Award. The Astronomical League Award is presented to any person, either amateur or professional, who has made worthwhile contributions to the science of astronomy on a national or international level. This year’s winner is David Hans Hough, Ph.D., professor of Physics and Astronomy at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Hough is a longtime supporter of astronomy and the Astronomical League, including its National Young Astronomer Award program. The Astronomical League is honored to present this top award of the organization at its national convention, ALCon 2014, in San Antonio on July 12.

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Time Magazine asked the League to request from our astrophotographers their best photos for possible inclusion in its Astrophotography Gallery.

This was in connection with Astronomy Day 2014.  We had a great response, and here is the link to the gallery:  http://ti.me/1jJm0tp.  Congratulations to all who submitted an entry.  What talent we have among our over 15,000 members.

The magazine has also requested the League’s collaboration for its annual astrophotography contest.  More details will follow soon.  Time anticipates allowing much more lead time for the annual contest.

Here is the printable form to register for the 2014 ALCON  on July 10th thru 12th at the Hilton San Antonio Airport Hotel in San Antonio, TX.

The good news about winter is that the skies are dark longer than they are bright (for those of us north of the equator); the bad news about winter is that it cold, often frightfully so, at night. More good news: when a cold front blows through, sometimes accompanied by bad weather, it’s not uncommon to have very clear skies behind the front. Astronomers say that the ‘transparency’ of the sky is good. What’s often not good is the steadiness of the air in the atmosphere, which astronomers call the ‘seeing’. Poor seeing makes stars look like blobs and planets look like bigger blobs.

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Light pollution is an ever-growing problem that is blocking out the night sky in major cities, obscuring all but the moon and a few bright stars and planets. Bob Parks, executive director of the International Dark Sky Association joins “CBS This Morning: Saturday” to discuss what can be done to combat this growing problem.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/how-bad-is-light-pollution

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To help commemorate this comet, the AL developed a downloadable certificate for anyone who was fortunate enough to have seen  Comet ISON.  They can be downloadedanyone who might coordinated an ISON observing event.  It is on the AL’s downloadable certificates web page.  Please check them out.
 
The web page is:  http://www.astroleague.org/content/downloadable-certificates

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Wouldn’t it be great to be young again and to be entering amateur astronomy! Now is the time to start considering the Astronomical League’s youth awards for 2014: the National Young Astronomer Award (NYAA), the three Jack Horkheimer Youth Service Awards, and the Horkheimer/O’Meara Journalism Award.

If you know a young person who has been involved in an astronomy related research project — either of his or her own doing or though an educational institution — please consider nominating that person for the NYAA. He or she must be between 14 and 19 years of age.

If you know a League member, 18 years or younger, who has brought amateur astronomy to your club or to the public through outreach, presentations, writing, or observing, please consider nominating that person for one of the four Horkheimer Service Awards. One of these awards is more specialized than the others — the Horheimer/O’Meara Journalism Award. It requires a person who is 8 to 14 years of age to compose a 300 to 500 word essay on any science related topic. 

Since the deadlines for the National Young Astronomer Award is January 31, 2014 and for the Horkheimer Awards is March 31, 2014, now is the time for potential candidates to work on their projects and to participate in various astronomy events.

If you are a club officer, nominate them. If you don’t, no one else will! Complete information about each award can be found at www.astroleague.org/al/awards/awards.html

If you or someone you know has earned a Sky Puppy certification, we would like to hear from you. Please contact Aaron Clevenson, the interim Sky Puppy Observing Program Coordinator. Please let us know this information for your award: Your Name, Your Astronomy Club (or Member at Large), Date of the certificate, Number of the certificate. Thanks. Aaron Clevenson aaron@clevenson.org