Our Island Universe

05/13/2026

For 250 years, astronomy has transformed how humanity sees the cosmos — and ourselves. ✨

Abstract submissions are now OPEN for Astronomy@250 — a virtual conference celebrating the people, discoveries, technologies, cultures, and ideas that shaped astronomy in the United States.

From Indigenous sky knowledge and ancient timekeeping… to observatories, space missions, citizen science, and the future of space exploration…

We’re bringing together educators, researchers, communicators, artists, historians, futurists, and astronomy lovers to imagine where the next 250 years may lead.

🌌 5 conference themes
🛰️ Panels, workshops, and posters
📚 Opportunity for inclusion in commemorative ASP proceedings

Submit your abstract today! See link in bio.

STEM SpaceScience

04/21/2026

250 years of looking up.
250 years of asking questions that changed who we are.

For 250 years, astronomy in the United States has not only expanded our understanding of the universe, but has helped shape education, culture, and our collective sense of place in the cosmos.

As part of the America250, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s annual meeting later this summer will explore how astronomy has shaped not just what we know — but how we see ourselves in the universe.

📅 Save the dates: August 27 — 29
🔗 See link in bio to be part of the next chapter and join us in this moment of reflection and possibility.

NightSky

04/02/2026

Artemis II has begun its 10-day journey to the Moon — a step toward humanity’s return, this time to stay.

Yet even as we reach outward, the sky itself grows more fragile — crowded above, constrained below.

Astronomy is not a luxury; it is how a species learns its place in the universe. To protect it is to protect curiosity itself.

To explore the cosmos while losing the night would be a profound contradiction. The future we seek must include both discovery and preservation.

“Threats to astronomy from above and below”,
Editorial,
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-026-02830-9

01/30/2026

Calling all educators! Sign up now for a four-part workshop series showcasing the free astronomy visualization software Stellarium. 🔭

Participants will learn Stellarium’s applicability for creating learner-centered lessons, facilitated by experienced ASP educators Tony Smith and Shanil Virani. The series culminates in a showcase and discussion of participant-created lesson plans using Stellarium. 💫

📲 Register at the link in the first comment!

Prior to his role as ASP’s Online Learning Program Manager, Tony Smith worked at Pacific Science Center and then as Planetarium Supervisor at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Hawai’i’. Shanil Virani, the ASP's Cosmic Engagement Specialist, is an award-winning astronomer, recipient of the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Award from the American Astronomical Society, and a former Solar System Ambassador for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Both Tony and Shanil work to expand access to astronomy through their volunteer work, writing, and astrophotography.

Classes meet Tuesdays 2/10, 2/17, 2/24, and 3/3 at 3:30-5:30pm PT/6:30-8:30pm ET

12/31/2025

I wrote an essay on Substack about the songs that return to every December — not for comfort, but for clarity.

Taking stock of another year, and choosing to try again.

👇🏾Link in first comment.

12/31/2025

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 federal 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀, 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁. Give today and help the ASP protect access to science for all.

👉 Donate Today at https://buff.ly/XO8eibJ
🎁 Make a gift of $100, $500, or $1000 to receive special gifts

12/20/2025

Are you gifting a Unistellar smart telescope this holiday season?!

Maybe your child's science teacher has one in their classroom?!

Homeschooling your children and looking for something fun and STEM-related?!

Then this online, live, 5-part astronomy workshop series is the perfect complement. Limited enrollment so register today!

Gifting a Unistellar telescope this holiday season?! Let your recipient get 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 out of their smart telescope!

⏳ 𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮-𝙗𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙤𝙣 for 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗽𝗲 — a live, online, instructor-led workshop that helps you move from pretty pictures to real understanding.

“This workshop finally helped me understand what my Unistellar images mean. For the first time, I could interpret color, brightness, and structure like a scientist.”
— participant

⭐ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟭
🎁 Makes a fantastic gift for the astronomy enthusiast in your life
🔭 Brought to you by Unistellar, SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

👉 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻-𝘂𝗽 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

12/19/2025

The winter solstice arrives on Sunday at 10:03 AM EST — the longest night of the year, and the moment the Sun begins its return.

Five thousand years ago, people knew exactly when this would happen. From Newgrange and Stonehenge to Peru’s Chankillo, they watched the sky closely enough to predict it — and built monuments to mark it.

My Medium essay explores what we once knew about time, and what we’ve forgotten.

👇 Link in first comment

12/01/2025

There are moments when a song doesn’t just play — it remembers you.

I’ve spent this weekend writing about what Pearl Jam’s music has meant to me, and how certain songs become portals back to the versions of ourselves we fear time has erased.

For me, those songs are inseparable from my younger brother Riaz — from our road trips, our post-concert recaps, and the years after his death when music became a bridge across a grief I still carry.

In this Substack essay, I explore how music collapses time, how memory becomes a kind of physics, and how the universe holds the people we’ve loved in ways that never quite disappear.

If you’ve ever felt a song take you back to a moment you’d give anything to relive — this piece is for you. As Allison Hagendorf said: "Music is how your soul remembers."

Read it here:
https://substack.com//note/p-180322506?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=n9jeo

And if you feel like sharing:
What song or band has stayed with you across the years — and why?

How music binds our lives into constellations — and how loss reveals the universe’s quiet tenderness.

11/26/2025

Carl Sagan famously said:
“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”

Which means that anyone baking today is about 13.8 billion years late in getting started! The real ingredients of apple pie were forged long before Earth existed:

• Hydrogen & helium in the first 3 minutes of the Big Bang
• Carbon & oxygen in generations of long-dead stars
• Iron in supernova explosions
• And the elements of life in the ashes of ancient stellar furnaces

I wrote a piece about this cosmic recipe — the journey from stardust to Thanksgiving dessert, and what it means to be “made of star stuff.”

Read it on Medium:
https://medium.com/.virani/02fcb3a700bf

S. N. Virani — Starstuff, Still Asking

From the Big Bang to your Thanksgiving table — Carl Sagan’s cosmic recipe for making an apple pie from scratch.