Marco Cáceres
Teal Group

I had never heard of star parties until a friend of mine, who happens to be an amateur astronomer, introduced me to them a couple of years ago. The idea of hundreds of people with their telescopes getting together for a few days to gaze up at the stars immediately appealed to me, and I pulled out my old telescope, determined to finally figure out how to use it properly. I started researching star parties throughout the world, and found out that the biggest one in the US takes place in the Florida Keys each February.  There are literally hundreds of these events going on throughout the year.

I've actually been contemplating organizing a star party myself in Copán, Honduras in a couple of years in celebration of the end of the Maya calendar (long count) on December 21, 2012. The date coincides with the Winter Solstice and the aligning of the Earth with the center of our Milky Way galaxy. There's a lot of speculation about the meaning of the end of the calendar, including the end of the world or the beginning of a new spiritual awakening. Who knows. What is certain is that in the past year or so, a new cycle of solar activity has begun. Ground-based telescopes and space-based observatories have detected a marked increase in solar eruptions and massive plasma storms, and NASA expects this to continue and peak around 2013 -- so much so that it and other space agencies are preparing a series of probes to image the Sun's surface more consistently and in greater detail than ever before.

France's Picard solar observation spacecraft was launched on June 15. It will observe the Sun for at least two years. Earlier this year, NASA launched its Solar Dynamics Laboratory (SDO), designed to study the Sun's magnetic field and corona over the course of five years. These and other planned spacecraft will provide information to help us better understand how the new activity on the Sun may affect our planet. There is speculation that solar activity will become so intense during 2012-2013 that it could disrupt power and communications on Earth... kind of like the Y2K we never had. Well, that wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world. In fact, if you ask me... we could use the break from all the noise.

Congratulations to Thales Alenia Space for its contract to build the Eutelsat W6A communications satellite. The satellite will be based on the Spacebus C3 bus and is expected to weigh 5,000 kg. Plans call for launching it sometime in mid-2012. I'd like to note that Orbital Sciences received a $70 million contract from NASA to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory replacement satellite in 2013 aboard a Taurus XL rocket. Look for Boeing to soon receive a major order for broadband satellites from Inmarsat... worth perhaps as much as $1 billion.