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Rosie O'Donnell show lands in Oprah's Chicago studio

Rosie O'Donnell will base her new, hour-long TV talk show at Oprah Winfrey's soon-to-be vacated space at Harpo Studios in Chicago, with the program airing on Winfrey's OWN cable network this fall, the studio said on Tuesday.

"I'm delighted to welcome Rosie to the studio I've called home for so many years," said Winfrey, who has announced her final show will be on May 25, ending her 25-year run as the queen of daytime talk.

Winfrey's OWN cable television network debuted January 1 in around 80 million homes, and the media mogul will focus on it.

A comedian, actress, author, and activist, O'Donnell, 49, won six Daytime Emmy awards for her syndicated TV talk show that ran from 1996 to 2002.

"Harpo is a world class studio and I can't wait to do my show from Chicago," O'Donnell said in a statement. "It's a dream come true."

O'Donnell currently hosts a two-hour radio show, "Rosie Radio," on Sirius XM Radio. She squabbled with co-host Barbara Walters during a brief stint on ABC's "The View," on which she appeared after Meredith Vieira left the show and before Whoopi Goldberg joined.

Besides producing "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Harpo Studios helped develop the programs "Dr. Phil" and "Rachael Ray," and the studio also produces "The Dr. Oz Show" and "The Nate Berkus Show."

"Speaking from experience, she will be working with the best team in television in one of the greatest cities in the world," Winfrey said.

A new set will be built for O'Donnell while some elements of Winfrey's stage will go to the Smithsonian Institution, the studio said.

There has been concern in Chicago about the fate of Harpo's studios and employees who do not join Winfrey in California at OWN.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Oprah's last show: Will planet Earth survive?

The media's most powerful woman will wrap up her talk show in May — and bloggers are already relishing the finale's over-the-top flourishes

When Oprah Winfrey launched her namesake OWN network last year, she reassured fans of her syndicated talk show that she'd continue taping it until September, 2011. Change of plan: The queen of sympathy has moved up the finale of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to May 25, possibly becauserequires her full attention. Oprah's announcement quicklyexactly how the last show might transpire. Here's a sampling of remarks:

I'm all farklempt! "Start stockpiling the tissues now," ."You get a box of Kleenex! And YOU get a box of Kleenex! And YOU get abox of Kleenex!"

What's in it for me?"We're expecting her to give away small islands to each and every member of the studio audience in attendance," .

Paging Tom Cruise... "Details on which celebrity might be jumping up and down on her couchforthe last time... have not been released," Or someone even more powerful"As of now, no word on who her final guest will be," , "but we're thinking at this point that it's probably going to be Jesus! Seriously, if anyone can pull it off and get him,it's her!"

Forget the guests"Honestly, we don’t want to see any guests on Oprah’sfinal show," . Montages and memories of years past would be much more appropriate. Although, perhaps "Oprahcan give everyone a car too? You know, for old time's sake."

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Secret X-37B Space Plane Spotted Again by Amateur Skywatchers

s second X-37B space plane – a robotic spacecraft that launched into orbit March 5.

The mission of the unmanned , which is known officially as the Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2), is shrouded in secrecy. The Boeing-built spacecraft is believed to be involved in reconnaissance — perhaps testing powerful sensors for a new generation of spy satellites. It looks much like a small version of NASA's space shuttles and blasted off from the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

While its mission is secret, the OTV-2 itself has attracted the eyes of dedicated skywatchers hoping to spot it in orbit just as they saw its predecessor – the first X-37B spacecraft, OTV-1 – during the OTV-1's months-long flight last year.

A new video, recorded by amateur Canadian skywatcher Kevin Fetterof Brockville, Ontario, shows the OTV-2 as a bright point of light soaring across the night sky. []

Fetter was successful in getting video of the OTV-2 gliding past the binary star Eta Serpentis on March 24. The OTV-2 and the star can easily be seen with the naked eye, shining at a magnitude 3 on the scale astronomers use to measure the brightness of sky objects (with the lowest numbers representing the greatest brightness).

Secret X-37B space plane found again!

Many satellites and spacecraft are regularly tracked by skywatchers. The International Space Station, for example, can appear to the unaided eye to outshine Venus and the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, under optimum viewing conditions. []

But to find satellites and spacecraft in orbit, skywatchers need to know ahead of time where to look. The secretive nature of the OTV-2's mission for the U.S. military made that task very difficult.

Once the , satellite watchers started scanning the skies for a glimpse of it. Skywatcher Ted Molczan of Toronto developed a set of orbital elements based chiefly on last year's OTV-1 flight to help prospective observers in the search.  

And days after the launch, on March 9, Molczan announced that OTV-2 had been sighted by satellite tracker Greg Roberts of Cape Town, South Africa. Roberts spotted the spacecraft "in difficult observing conditions," Molczan reported.

Within days, other observers made sightings as well.

The orbital inclination of the space plane has been determined by Molczan to be 42.8 degrees with respect to Earth's equator, which means it can appear over regions as far north as Boston; as far south as New Zealand's South Island. 

It is traveling in an elliptical orbit that measures 214 miles (345 kilometers) at its high point, or apogee, and 203 miles (327 km) at its low point, or perigee, and takes 91.1 minutes to circle the globe.    

A not-so-secret space plane

While the exact mission of the X-37B space plane is classified, quite a bit is publicly known about the spacecraft's design, because it originally started out in 1999 as a NASA project.

The vehicle has a blunt nose, payload bay and stubby wings, which make it look somewhat like a NASA space shuttle, although it's only about a quarter of the length. A solar array packed inside the X-37B's truck bed-size payload bay allows it to stay  in space for months at a time.

By 2006, after the Department of Defense and the Air Force took over the program,  a cloak of secrecy descended on both the project's budget and future missions.  The first X-37B launched April 22, 2010, with officials keeping its orbital flight path secret, but amateur skywatchers found and tracked it anyway.

Roberts and Fetter independently spotted a mystery object on May 20;  Molczan was able to combine the two observations and determined that the object was indeed the OTV-1.

Oddly enough, Fetter had stumbled across the space plane by chance on video while looking for something else. By contrast, Roberts made a concerted effort to spot the OTV-1, performing numerous searches after its launch.  He caught it eight hours after Fetter.

Fetter was able to find OTV-1 again on the very next night, as it passed the third-magnitude star Sadalsuud in the constellation Aquarius.

Molczan posted the orbital elements of the OTV-1 flight on SeeSat-L – an Internet mailing list composed of avid satellite watchers around the world.  Molczan is the site's moderator.

Soon, many others were watching as well. In terms of brightness, the OTV-1 usually appeared as bright as third or fourth magnitude, corresponding in brightness to a medium-to-faint star.  But on some occasions, it was brighter.

A first-time observer in Fort Davis, Texas, commented, "It was easy to see. I estimated its magnitude at about +2.8."  And another observer from Bradenton, Fla., caught the space plane brightening suddenly to a surprising magnitude of -0.8, or about twice as bright as Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Perhaps a favorably placed glint of sunlight briefly reflected off a solar panel to cause the flare-up in brightness.

How to find it

So what is the OTV-2 viewing schedule for your particular hometown? You can easily find out by visiting one of these three web sites:

shows you at any given moment during the day or night over what part of the Earth any satellite happens to be.  When you initially log on, you will see a map that is tracking the International Space Station.  To switch to the OTV-2, look under the listing "Just Launched"; then click on OTV 2 (USA 226). When the page is switched, just click on Single Tracking/Track it now!

You'll then be able to see where the OTV-2 is.  In addition, on the right-hand side of the page is a five-day Predictions link, which will provide you with specifics on any potentially visible pass over the course of the next five days.

Then there is . Once you become a registered user, look on the home page under Satellites, and click on "Select another satellite" (from the database).  In the box for "US Space Command ID:" type the number 37375.

You'll be taken to a new page, "Satellite Search Results," where you'll find a link for "OTV 2 (USA 226) in Earth orbit."  On this new information page, just click on "Passes (visible)," which will provide you with a listing of when OTV-2 will be passing over your area during the next 10 days. 

Finally,provides satellite viewing information through your cell phone. 

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Dice-K donates $1 mn to quake aid

Boston pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is donating $1 million to the Red Sox' official charity for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in his native Japan.

The Red Sox said Friday that his gift to the Red Sox Foundation will be sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society to aid response to the March 11 disaster, which also spawned an atomic crisis thanks to damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Boston's other Japanese hurlers, Hideki Okajima, Junichi Tazawa and Itsuki Shoda, have also made personal donations and joined Matsuzaka, team captain Jason Varitek and others in collecting donations from fans at two spring training games in Florida.

The death toll from Japan's worst post-war disaster had topped 10,000 by Friday, and there was scant hope for 17,500 others still missing.

Matsuzaka, a native of Tokyo, was already a star in Japan when he joined the Red Sox in December 2006, inking a 52 million-dollar, six-year contract.

He became the first Japanese pitcher to start a World Series game as Boston won the Fall Classic in his first Major League season.

"Our efforts on the field are dedicated to all who are suffering from this catastrophe," Matsuzaka said in a videotaped message released by the Red Sox earlier this month. "We are in this together, so we must overcome tragedy together."

Positive outlook lifts carriers

T (NYSE: - ), saying AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile would probably get approved by regulators, leading to a more stable pricing environment. Baird also raised price targets on the carriers. It expects the T-Mobile takeover to compel Verizon and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: - ) to consider buying MetroPCS and Leap. Sprint is also seen as a takeover target for Verizon, which is jointly owned by Verizon Communications (NYSE: - ) and Voda-fone (NASDAQ: - ). MetroPCS, Leap, Sprint, Verizon and Vodafone all rose.Various Artists - Banana Moon Compiled by Christos Tripodis and Markos Fragos .For You Marlene and Overdub - Various Artists .Debout Sur Le Zinc - Decharybde En Scylla .Beleza Rara .Anajo - Wenn Du Nur Wuesstest