I am thrilled to announce a new partnership between LightBuckets and Astronomy magazine. As part of this partnership, LightBuckets is now the official online observatories for Astronomy magazine.

Michael Bakich, Senior Editor at Astronomy magazine, and I have been working on putting this partnership together for quite some time and it is finally seeing the light of day. You can see Astronomy magazine's announcement of the partnership here in the Astronomy magazine blog.

The first "phase" of the partnership is a new LightBuckets Image Gallery that sits side-by-side with the Astronomy magazine reader's gallery on the Astronomy magazine website. The gallery went live today.

It will be quite an honor to have your LightBuckets image chosen to be part of the LightBuckets Image Gallery. If you would like to have an image considered, please submit a high-resolution version directly to LightBuckets at astronomy@lightbuckets.com and be sure to include the image specs as well (Lightbuckets observatory used, target name, date the data was acquired, filters used, and total durations for each).

The second "phase" of the partnership is going to be the Astronomy/LightBuckets Solar Observatory. We are in the process of building a new observatory here at our Rodeo, NM facilities that will house a Lunt LS100T Hydrogen-Alpha solar telescope. The plan is to stream real-time images of the Sun to the Astronomy magazine website. The Astronomy/LightBuckets Solar Observatory is being made possible by our great partners including Lunt Solar Systems and Astro Haven Enterprises. Andy Lunt at Lunt Solar Systems provided the amazing solar telescope for the project. David and Priscilla Brotherston at Astro Haven has generously provided a 7-foot Astro Haven clamshell dome with complete automation. This is the same model of dome we use for LB-0002.

There are a number of other astro-projects that we're working on to bring the world of online astronomy to the Astronomy magazine readership as well as to promote the wonderful work being done by LightBuckets customers. Be sure to check the LightBuckets Forums and the Astronomy magazine blogs frequently for updates.