In honour of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, I would like to present a brief introduction to the history of astronomy, some of the interesting hacks that have allowed people to see smaller, dimmer, more distant objects than ever before, and present a number of ways that individuals can get involved in astronomy in collaborative ways using materials and resources available to anyone, including galaxy cataloguing and comet hunting.

Ben Keller
I am an undergraduate Physics student at the University of Calgary, in my 3rd year of study. I do research at the Institute for Space Imaging Science under the supervision of Dr. Jeroen Stil, applying statistical methods to Rotation Measure analysis in extragalactic sources www.isis.ucalgary.ca.