There'92s a whole bunch of stars out there. Billions of them, I swear. Want to see some pictures of them? Want to look at some badass nebulae through a real telescope? You need to come check out '93Images from the Great Space Observatories'94 on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Christenberry Planetarium on the campus of Samford University. There, the Birmingham Astronomical Society will have a bunch of really, really, really awesome pictures from telescopes like Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Those telescopes can see quite far into the universe'92s nether regions, but the new space telescope we'92re building is going to be even cooler'97it is designed specifically to detect planets in other solar systems, and actually get a good look at them by using an array of telescopes and some technology to block the blinding glare of the star the planet orbits (which, in most cases, is why we can'92t find lots of planets in other systems). Ask about that while you'92re there. Anyway, BAS will also provide telescopes so you can look at globular star clusters and nebulae and other awesomeness like that. If you'92re interested, hit up the planetarium at about 7 p.m. This event is free. For more information call (205) 726-4139 or visit www.samford.edu

Microsoft Office