While the spotlight is currently on Mars rover Curiosity, Sunday marks the ten-year anniversary of a different rover's launch: Opportunity. A decade later, that thing is still exploring the red planet even though the mission was planned to end 90 days after touchdown.

ps. Contact was lost with Opportunity's sister, Spirit, in March 2010.

The possibilities presented by the vast expanse beyond our planet are staggering in number and enthralling in depth. Rovers on Mars are a step (or roll) toward the realization of our species' potential in the universe.

If you'd like to keep tabs on space-oriented news and other information, I would suggest:

http://www.space.com/

And Neil deGrasse Tyson. Enough said.

Light pollution is a frustrating issue anywhere near the major hub cities on the east coast. The best stargazing conditions I've had in the east were out in the Shenandoah and the northwest region of Maryland. (Granted, I've never spent more than a day or two in upstate New York.) At some point I want to travel out to Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to see how dark it gets out there. Someday maybe Montana as well. Hopefully I will also have acquired a satisfactory telescope by then.

Finding an undiscovered asteroid is an interesting goal. Is there a database for known and/or historically observed asteroids? I'm not up to date on the records of celestial objects, although now I think I'll take more notice.