Whatever your position in the Great Pluto Debate, you can’t deny the significance of that distant icy world and the ground-breaking mission to finally explore both Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Nor can you reasonably argue the importance of formally recognizing this great achievement in Space exploration, so that today’s accomplishments can inspire tomorrow’s generation to reach even greater horizons.

NASA’s New Horizons team is asking the public to join a petition requesting that the United States Postal Service issue a new postage stamp to commemorate the remarkable milestone of this historic mission to Pluto. Not only does the proposed stamp celebrate humankind’s most distant exploration yet, it acknowledges the continued dedication of the men and women of the U.S. Space program. It will also “correct” the 1991 Pluto stamp which, curiously, declared our once-most-distant-planet as merely unexplored.

Joining this endeavor is as simple as signing the petition and encouraging others to participate. You can also follow the New Horizons spacecraft as it journeys towards Pluto – we’re halfway there - and catch the latest mission updates via the New Horizons Twitter and Facebook accounts!

#StopSOPA #PIPA #SOPA

Now, when you buy the night sky for yourself, you can help to share it with others across the world!

Through December 8, the folks at Southern Skies are donating 40% of all proceeds from sales of their Sky Safari 3 astronomy app to Astronomers Without Borders. Available in three versions for both Apple and Mac devices, Sky Safari 3 is a pocket-sized planetarium, powerful enough to replace your desktop astronomy software. And with current sale prices ranging from just $0.99 to $29.99 – that’s 20% to 67% off regular prices! – it’s also a very affordable app!

I recently purchased the standard version of Sky Safari 3 and can tell you that the app is very easy to use, has an extensive database, includes hundreds of beautiful images, and is especially handy for my real-time, local sky. A fellow sky enthusiast, Frank Piscitelli, tells me that the app is amazing and he prefers it to others that he has used.

So, go check it out. You’ll be supporting astronomy across the globe, while getting a fantastic astronomy app at a super-low price!

A Sky Full of Stars will be on a brief hiatus as Rob and I – along with several colleagues – work to develop the Astronomy.FM website. We’ll be back as soon as possible!

A fun citizen science opportunity returns this week with the Great World Wide Star Count, an annual endeavor that encourages everyone to look up and count the stars! Now in it’s fifth year, this international event has recorded night sky observations from thousands of individuals in dozens of countries on all but the two pole continents. Most importantly, all that counting has prompted more family nights under the stars and raised a greater awareness about the many ills of light pollution.

Participating in this Windows to the Universe / UCAR project is literally as simple as counting stars on any night from October 14 through October 28. The star count website includes step-by-step instructions and a user-friendly reporting form, as well as a printable activity guide available in fifteen languages. You can also encourage others to participate by posting to Facebook or Google+ or by tweeting your own observations with hashtags like #StarCount2011 and #citizenscience.

Fun Fact: The Great World Wide Star Count is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Wanna have a little fun with the International Space Station? Check out ISS Live!, a new interactive NASA website that includes crew and science timelines, console displays, lesson plans for educators, and 3-D models that let you explore the world’s only manned orbiting laboratory, inside and out. It’s the kind of fun that can keep your attention for hours, and there are even plans for smartphone apps!

Want more? Catch the latest station news, connect to live video and audio feeds, and follow the station’s orbit, all from NASA’s ISS homepage. And if that isn’t enough, you can follow the astronauts themselves as they post updates and share images through Twitter and Facebook.

Though the shuttle program has ended, work at the space station continues on – and NASA continues to develop fun ways to include us all!

Twitter users unite to #RTforLiteracy! Through September 30, Random House will donate up to $30,000, for the collective re-tweets of this message, to Room to Read’s Africa and Asia literacy programs. Every RT is worth $1.00, so start tweeting today, to help others begin reading tomorrow!

Kudos to Random House - $15,000 has already been raised!

With all the fervor surrounding the execution of Troy Davis, two main points have taken hold of my heart:

1) What is our justice system, that we readily kill a man who may or may not have shot a police officer while in spontaneous flight for “freedom,” yet we require a prison sentence of less than ten years for men who plot and carry-out the torture and mutilation of a teen-aged girl?

2) Where are our ethics, that most who oppose the death penalty for even the worst atrocities also support abortion of the most vulnerable, and most who support the death penalty even in cases of reasonable doubt also oppose a terminally-ill individual’s right to choose his own death?

Who are we, and where is our reason?

SN 2011fe in M101

By now, most of the astronomy world is aware of the type Ia supernova discovered this week in Ursa Major’s M101 galaxy. This is an exceptional discovery in that the early catch of the supernova and the host galaxy’s close proximity offer scientists an unprecedented look at the processes of type Ia supernovae. In addition, M101 just happens to be a popular target under darker skies, potentially making this bright new supernova, formally designated SN 2011fe, an easier-than-most target.

Shortly after this discovery, I began receiving congratulations as the independent discoverer. But, I did not discover SN 2011fe; I merely confirmed its existence, and I didn’t do it alone. And while the misinformation was an innocent and probably not uncommon mistake made during a flurry of reports, I should personally correct the record.

This important new supernova was discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory, who immediately released word for follow-up observations by others. As I often do with such events, I received and shared the notice and then immediately contacted my friend and former colleague at SLOOH, who quickly acquired an image and submitted a report. Within hours, our confirmation was mistakenly noted in a CBET telegram as being an independent discovery, and before the actual discovery and confirmation details were formally published, or anyone had seen the AAVSO correction, word spread that I had independently discovered one of the most exciting supernovas in recent history.

Although I did not discover SN 2011fe, my participation in the confirmation is none-the-less exciting, because it is a perfect example of how even the least-equipped amateurs (me) can actively participate in some of the most exciting discoveries through outreach (AAVSO,) friends (Mathew Marulla,) and user-friendly observatories like SLOOH!