Sometimes astronomy is like sports.

Keeping up with it can be a lot of fun. Big things happen nearly every day. This includes new discoveries in tools and techniques for astronomy, as well as interesting images of all the objects and phenomena in the sky.

A good place to find out about a lot of this is on NASA's website. NASA both breaks the news and makes the news when it comes to astronomy and space. Here are just some of the current events shown in mid November of 2008.

One of the most important current events in astronomy NASA discussed in November was the late month launch of the shuttle Endeavour. Its mission was to re-supply and repair the International Space Station. There were a number of spacewalks for routine maintenance outside the station. Such space walks aren't only immediately important for the goals they accomplish, but important in the development of techniques and experiences that apply to future missions. While some might argue that the space station is more space related than necessarily astronomy related, there is a lot of science going on there, including observations of outer space which definitely falls under the heading of astronomy.

The Hubble telescope chimed in to current events in astronomy with an amazing discovery. It took a historic visible light image of a planet circling another sun. The effort dates way back to the 1980's when NASA's IRAS, an infrared telescope, discovered dust around the star. Fat was a tipoff that there might be planets.

In astronomy, current events in astronomy can cover the past. The Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project is set to restore images taken of the moon by Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1966 and 1967. This data was taken from tape drives. Some of these photographs have already been released to the public.

Astronomy, like the Universe, is huge. Current events in astronomy go on forever. Always looked to the sky!