With the onset of the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS), a new view of the high-velocity cloud (HVC) distribution in the southern sky is being revealed. The dense spatial sampling and unbiased coverage of HIPASS gives it multiple advantages over previous surveys of the southern sky. Detailed views of the clouds’ structure and large mosaics of the HI sky allow us to link individual concentration...

[1] An important item to distinguish in estimations of cloud forcing is the characteristics of the ‘‘clear sky.’’ In this study we investigate the influence of the composition of the clear sky in calculations of shortwave cloud forcing based on two case studies from the Monterey Area Ship Track Experiment (MAST). The forcing is calculated with respect to a clear sky devoid of aerosol particles ...

Polarization is the next frontier of cosmic microwave background analysis, but its signal is dominated over much of the sky by foregrounds which must be carefully removed. To determine the efficacy of this cleaning, it is necessary to have sensitive tests for residual foreground contamination in polarization sky maps. The dominant Galactic foregrounds introduce a large-scale anisotropy on to th...

Contrary to the story of the star-counter in Le Petit Prince, there aren’t unnumerable stars in the night sky, at least so far as we can see with our own eyes. Only about a thousand are visible. Almost all have names or Greek letter designations as part of constellations that anyone can learn to recognize. Modern astronomers have divided the sky into 88 constellations, many of them fictitious— ...