In December of 2009 NASA launched an interesting vehicle. Entitled Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE, this satellite entered a polar orbit and began scanning the skies, collecting images taken at four infrared wavelengths of light. WISE captured more than 2.7 million images of various objects from distant galaxies to close by asteroids.

Starting just recently, images from this grand expedition have started to become available through an online public archive.

Here is a much better description than your humble writer can provide:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110414.html

This is simply one more stunning example of the incredible discoveries being wrung from the universe through the technology available today. Astronomers have today have resources undreamed of in the not too distant past. And with these resources they are beginning to unlock the secrets of the universe.

Schools today also have an awesome resource available for awakening a love of science and a passion for the stars among our young. Planetariums have been available for field trips for many years, but not all schools are close enough or have the logistical capabilities to arrange a visit to a traditional "brick and mortar" planetarium. Portable planetariums such as the Starlab have also been around for years but the analogue technology was rudimentary and left much to be desired.

But now, schools have at their disposal an amazing science assembly in the form of Mobile Ed's Sky Dome Planetarium. Sky Dome features a $40,000 digital star projector light years better than the old analogue system, and capable of amazing computer-generated special effects.

This Spring is an excellent time to investigate scheduling a date for your school. As the summer leads into the Fall the calendar will fill quickly. Why wait? You don't want to miss out on an experience your budding astronomers will never forget! Who knows? Twenty years from now it may be your children fashioning the instruments that will peer into the birth of time itself...