What's Up? Look Up and Discover the Universe Using NASA Missions and the Night Sky to Inspire the Public

NASA's monthly What's Up video podcasts connect night sky observations with NASA mission milestones. During 2009, each month's podcast will highlight NASA's IYA topic and celestial target. With a news you can use formula, each two-minute podcast connects an easy to see celestial target with an important NASA mission, instrument or discovery. The podcasts, plus supporting star charts, hands-on activities, standards-based educational lessons and mission links can be used by museums, planetariums, astronomy clubs, civic and youth groups, as well as by teachers, students, and the general public. They can be translated into other languages, too. Saturn Observation Night - March 8-28, 2009, weather permitting. Saturn Observation Night 2009 is centered near Saturn Opposition, when the Sun and Saturn are on opposite sides of the Earth, and Saturn is easy to see in the evening sky. All IYA participants, in all countries around the world, will be encouraged to take their telescopes out and share the planet Saturn with their communities and share images and stories with others. NASA's Cassini Equinox Mission, the 2-year extended mission of the Cassini Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan has a 400 member strong volunteer network called the Saturn Observation Campaign. These astronomy enthusiast volunteers in 54 countries have conducted a Saturn Observation Night event the past 2 years, and it succeeded by building an international community all sharing a view of our solar system's jewel, Saturn. This celebration has been successfully conducted in hundreds of locations all over the world, from Australia to Vietnam, from South Africa to Slovenia, and from Arkansas to Washington.