Where will you go for a holiday in 20 years time? To the beach, visit the relatives or tour another country. What about outer space?

Virgin Galactic is planning to fly passengers into space in 2009. One person lucky enough to have a ticket to fly into space is Editor-in-Chief of COSMOS magazine.

I spoke with Wilson about how, why and when he's taking the big ride.

If you love looking at crystal clear night-time skies, you can travel to the top of Hawaii, the mountains of Chile, or the icy continent of Antarctica.

For more than 10 years, astronomers have been travelling south to Antarctica, to see whether it is the perfect place to build some of the newest and largest telescopes in the world.

Professor John Storey from the University of New South Wales and Dr Will Saunders from the Anglo-Australian Observatory discuss why Antarctica is the likely to be the new home of astronomy and what they envisage for the future.

Image: Andrew McGrath, AAO

Links

• UNSW Department of Astrophysics and Optics
• Professor John Storey at the University of NSW
• Radical Antarctic telescope "would outdo Hubble" (Media release)

In January 2003, the city of Canberra was devastated by bushfires, killing four people, destroying more than 500 homes, and the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory.

Nearly four years on, the Observatory has celebrated the opening of their new Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre (AITC).

Professor Penny Sackett, Director of Mount Stromlo Observatory, talks about the Centre and the rebuilding of the Observatory.

Image: Mount Stromlo Observatory, ANU

Links

• Mount Stromlo Observatory