Gov. Christie returns to Moonachie. Get them grant applications in, people!

On a recent evening, more than a dozen people huddled around the telescope inside the center’s six-meter retractable dome, where Rusher and the observatory’s director, John Sloan, were guiding their eyes toward Saturn, Venus and the Double Double, a quadruple star system located some 162 light years away in the constellation Lyra.

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On a recent evening, more than a dozen people huddled around the telescope inside the center’s six-meter retractable dome, where Rusher and the observatory’s director, John Sloan, were guiding their eyes toward Saturn, Venus and the Double Double, a quadruple star system located some 162 light years away in the constellation Lyra.

Computer software gives the two a map of the New Jersey night sky, and the click of a button sends the telescope whirring in the direction of the next celestial body. As Sloan fields questions, the curvature of the metal dome hurls sounds like a ventriloquist from one end to the other, delivering the voice of someone on the other side of the room right into your ear.

“There’s no secrets in the dome,” Rusher says.

I hung out at an observatory — for work!

Lyndhurst, NJ.

Preparing for the worst, Mahwah, New Jersey.

Sometimes, you have to get creative. Congressional outtake, Palisades Park, N.J.

I joined Voice of Russia American Edition this afternoon to discuss the legacy of New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died today at 89.

I hung out in a church rectory this morning and heard a lot of great stories. This lady just became a U.S. citizen after spending 14 years on an overstayed visa. Here’s just a quick thing I edited where she told me about what that was like.

Please sign my petition and join the nearly dozen Americans on the right side of history. (And enjoy the original while you sign.)

Bergen County Zoo, 5/17/13, New Jersey.