Observatories

Archeologists working high in the Peruvian Andes have discovered the oldest known celestial observatory in the Americas -- a 4,200-year-old structure marking the summer and winter solstices that is as old as the stone pillars of Stonehenge. The observatory was built on the top of a 33-foot-tall pyramid with precise alignments and sightlines that provide an astronomical calendar for agriculture, archeologist Robert Benfer of the University of Missouri said.

Across the tapestry of the night sky, hundreds or perhaps thousands of stars are doing frantic dances of death, spinning wildly around each other and shooting off waves of invisible gravitational energy like interstellar beacons. In one of the most exotic observatories in the world, Fred Raab is waiting for those waves to wash up on the shoreline of Earth. When they do, they could change our understanding of the universe.

A grouping of granite blocks on a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory. The 127 blocks, some as tall as 9 feet, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet across. On the shortest day of the year -- Dec. 21 -- the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it. The site is near the village of Calcoene in northern Brazil.

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a new director of the Vatican Observatory, replacing the Rev. George Coyne, a vocal opponent of "intelligent design" theory who had held the post since 1978. It was unclear whether the move reflected disapproval over Coyne's opposition to the theory that the world is too complex to have been created by natural events alone. He has attacked the theory as a "religious movement" lacking scientific merit. He could not be reached for comment.

For more than a century, professional astronomers and amateur stargazers have made the pilgrimage to this small lakeside village with dreams of discovering the secrets of the universe. Overlooking the blue waters of Lake Geneva is the Yerkes Observatory, a renowned research facility and home to the world's largest refractor telescope. Its 40-inch lens has lured Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble and Carl Sagan to peer through its eyepiece and study the constellations.

Astronomers opened a new window to the cosmos by inaugurating a powerful U.S.-Brazilian telescope under northern Chile's famously clear skies. The $30-million Southern Astrophysical Research, or SOAR, telescope sits at 8,800 feet on Cerro Pachon mountain, 300 miles north of Santiago, the capital. Builders broke ground on the telescope project six years ago. It was financed by the U.S.

Firefighters widened a defensive ring around a mountaintop observatory near Safford, trying to protect a powerful telescope under construction from wildfires burning nearby. The crews in the southeastern part of the state used bulldozers and fire retardant around Mt. Graham International Observatory, which has two operating telescopes and the $120-million soon-to-be-completed Large Binocular Telescope.

In the lush orange groves of Fillmore, flu-stricken Charles Morris viewed each frame of his space shuttle videotape through bleary eyes, wondering what had gone so tragically wrong. Morris is one of those astronomy buffs who trudge up mountains and freeze for hours while the rest of the world sleeps, all for a fleeting vision that might strike less knowledgeable viewers as no more impressive than a smudge on their glasses.

The UC Irvine Observatory will open its doors to the public Aug. 27, the day Mars approaches Earth more closely than it has for 600 centuries. The university's high-powered telescope will be available to anyone interested in seeing the red planet up close, observatory director Tammy Smecker-Hane said. "Scientific researchers are not that excited, because we are not going to learn anything new," she said. "But the public is excited."

Arizona's Lowell Observatory, known for the discovery of Pluto in 1930, will add a new telescope to its Flagstaff site. The new 4-meter survey telescope could speed the discovery of Earth-threatening asteroids and the search for thousands of Kuiper Belt objects near Pluto. The $30-million Discovery Channel Telescope, built in partnership with Discovery Communications Inc., is expected to be finished in 2008.