SUNSET: 
How to See Near-Earth Asteroid 2012 QG42
A fair-sized chunk of rock will pass unusually close to Earth this week. If you don’t have a telescope, dark skies, or a clear night, watch its close approach broadcast live from the Virtual Telescope Project.
Dawn Bids Vesta Adieu
With a gentle, constant nudge from its ion-propulsion system, NASA's asteroid explorer has departed its first target and begins a 2½-year cruise to the second one.
William E. Shawcross, 1934-2012
Sky & Telescope’s former publisher, company president, and long-time managing editor, William E. (Bill) Shawcross, died unexpectedly on September 3rd. He was 77.
Universe is Still Missing its Lithium
New observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud have only heightened the mystery surrounding a decades-long cosmic conundrum: why does the universe have so much less lithium than astronomers think it should?
Galaxy Family Portrait
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a family portrait of a pair of galaxies in the nearby Virgo galaxy, where a huge elliptical galaxy dwarfs its spiral sibling.
IAU Conference Draws to a Close
In the final days of the IAU conference, Jay Pasachoff reports on talks about black holes and exoplanets, and a redefinition of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Tour September's Sky! | August 31st, 2012
Some of this month's sky sights are low down along the horizon: Saturn and Mars in the west after sunset, the first-quarter Moon in the south, and Jupiter when it rises around midnight in the east.
Space a Little Sweeter
Astronomers have detected a simple sugar called glycolaldehyde in the gas around two young stars. The ALMA observations that led to the discovery are impressive, but don’t jump on the “life” bandwagon just yet.
Science All Around at the IAU
Jay Pasachoff blogs about his experience at the second week of IAU's General Assembly in Beijing, taking in talks on everything from the age of the universe to the history of sunspots.
WISE Detects Blazing Black Holes
Astronomers using data from the WISE all-sky infrared survey have discovered a new class of luminous galaxies in the distant universe. These objects are rare, super-duper bright, and yet totally invisible in visible light.
A Tatooine Family
Astronomers have discovered two exoplanets orbiting two stars, both answering and raising questions about how planets form.
Americans Will See Total Solar Eclipse in 2017
Mark your calendars for August 21, 2017 — when the Moon's umbral shadow will race coast to coast across the United States for the first time in nearly a century.
Astro-Sightseeing in Inner Mongolia
A break from the IAU's two-week-long General Assembly provided an opportunity to tour a radio observatory dedicated to solar research — and to find a surprising statue in the city of Ming'antu.
Tour October's Sky! | August 27th, 2012
Mars is managing to hang on low in the west after sunset, while in the east you'll see the Square of Pegasus and, later on, the giant planet Jupiter.
Neil Armstrong, 1930 - 2012
The man who took humanity's first step on another world is no longer among us.
Running Around China and the IAU
Pluto, quasars, and total solar eclipses over Easter Island were just a few of the topics that came up at the close of the first week of the international astronomy conference in Beijing.
NASA Lofts Radiation-Belt Space Probes
Two space probes launched toward the Van Allen radiation belts today. They’ll help scientists observe and predict the behavior of ultrafast, and potentially harmful, charged particles.
A Changing Landscape for U.S. Astronomy
The budgetary writing is on the wall: the National Science Foundation doesn't have enough money both to operate all of its existing facilities and to build big, expensive new ones. Something's got to give.
NASA Keeps Focus on Mars
NASA announced this week that its next Discovery mission will follow Curiosity to the Red Planet, but the project — named InSight — has a much different assignment than the rover’s.
Opening Days of Astronomy's "Olympics"
Every three years, the IAU holds a conference that brings together astronomers from around the world to address current issues — a sort of astronomy "Olympics."
