"Something amazing happened last night," reports astronomy professor Jimmy Westlake of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. "As I was shooting a star trail picture of the sky's brightest star, Sirius, it flashed out a message on the film! How's your International Morse code?"

"This is actually a series of 28 separate exposures on one piece of film. The 'dots' are 30-second exposures; the 'dashes' are 3-minute exposures. The 'shutter' creating the gaps was my shivering, gloved hand held over the lens in the 0ºF Colorado air. The entire message required just under two hours to record. Every few minutes, I had to turn on a blow dryer to keep the frost from forming on the lens--and me!"

"Give up? Apparently, the Universe is announcing the arrival of the
International Year of Astronomy 2009!" The message reads:

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I	Y	A	2	0	0	9