2009 has been dedicated by the United Nations as the International Year of Astronomy. There will be worldwide events starting with the dedication in Paris January 15th. Check out the website at www.astronomy2009.org.
The main thing this means to amateurs like me is that telescopes will be available on the web like never before. Currently there are several telescopes available to the public through links on the Internet. People simply log-on, suggest certain views of the night sky and if chosen, the telescope slews to the requested object. Recently I asked for a 60 second viewing of M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy, just for fun. The telescope site is in the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Isn’t the Internet incredible. Unfortunately I missed the screen capture, but have requested the picture be e-mailed to me. I’ll post it when it arrives.
bob