SUNSET: 
More Frankenstein Images
Donald Olson, Marilynn Olson, Kelly Schnarr, Ava Pope, and Roger Sinnott at Lake GenevaRussell Doescher In the November 2011 issue of S&T, Texas State University physicist Don Olson, and four coauthors, discuss the origin of the legendary horror novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley. Using astronomical references in the written…
SkyWatch 2012: The Planets
Planets change greatly in appearance over time frames ranging from hours to months. That's both due to superficial effects — rotation revealing different sides of a globe — and fundamental changes on a planet's surface or in its atmosphere. A number of amateur astrophotographers have stitched their own images together…
SkyWatch 2012: Time-Lapse Skyscapes
In the article "Moving Pictures" from SkyWatch 2012, Lorenzo Comolli and Alessandro Gambaro explain in detail how to create time-lapse movies of the sky and other night scenes with a digital camera. Some of the authors' best videos are available on their website (click on AstroVideos in the left margin).…
SkyWatch 2012: The Deep Sky in Motion
Due to the vast distances separating deep-sky objects from Earth, few show obvious changes on scales shorter than a human lifetime. But there are exceptions. The Hubble Space Telescope”™s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured these images (approximately true color) of the expanding light echo around V838 Monoc-erotis. We see an…
SkyWatch 2012: Movies and More
SkyWatch 2012 SkyWatch 2012, the annual publication of Sky & Telescope, will soon be available as a digital download. You can also purchase a hardcopy magazine online, and it should appear on newsstands on October 18th. The theme of this year's SkyWatch is motion. Most people in the 21st century…
Observing Geosynchronous Satellites
The October 2011 issue of Sky & Telescope contains an article entitled "Observing Geosynchronous Satellites," by Randy Rhea. It describes how easy and enjoyable it is to observe these high-flying satellites through a telescope. But it's very helpful if you can predict where to find these satellites and/or identify them…
Jim Bell Discusses Asteroids and Mars
Jim Bell discusses asteroids and Mars missions.
Galaxy Zoo: A CItizen-Science Project
Kevin Schawinski the co-founder of galaxy zoo discusses the project and the future of citizen-science projects
The Battle to Control Light Pollution
Listen to a podcast interview with Bob Parks, exceutive director of the International Dark-Sky Association.
The AAVSO Turns 100
Watch an video interview with AAVSO s Director Arne Henden on their upcoming 100th anniversary.
Planetary Sentinel
Anthony Wesley poses with his scope. Wesley is famous for discovering two impacts on Jupiter in the past year.Anthony Wesley In the past two years, Australian amateur astrophotographer Anthony Wesley has discovered not one, but two impacts on Jupiter. That’s two more than the entire worldwide community of professional astronomers…
Peering Beneath Jupiter's Clouds
Scott Bolton is principal investigator of NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter.NASA Sometime in August, NASA’s next major interplanetary mission — Juno — will ride into space atop an Atlas V551 rocket. It’s destination is mighty Jupiter, the King of the Planets. Juno will go into orbit around the gas giant…
Video: Evolution of the Solar System
In 2004, four leading dynamicists met in the seaside city of Nice, France, to try to address unsolved problems in the early evolution of the solar system. Several weeks of intensive work and computer programming produced a model that has been widely cited in the planetary science literature, and which…
SDO Captures Solar Flare March 19, 2011
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this beautiful solar flare over a period of roughly five hours on March 19, 2011. The loop grew to several dozen times Earth's size before erupting into outer space. See the SDO Gallery for more images and movies.
S&T: 70 Years and Counting . . .
Tony FlandersWe will have a complete video discussing Sky & Telescope's history in time for its 70-year anniversary in November 2011. Meanwhile, here are interviews with some of the editors discussing their roles in the magazine: Tony Flanders Alan MacRobert Robert Naeye Sean Walker Pat Coppola
Sky & Telescope Videos
Many topics in astronomy are ideally explained in print — but not all. For instance, it's a lot easier to show how to use a telescope than to put it into words. And watching an author talk about an abstruse topic often helps bring it to life. Below you'll find…
Where The Hot Stuff Is
Rosaly LopesEarth might be the only world in the solar system with complex life, but it certainly isn’t the only world that has experienced volcanism. Thanks to interplanetary missions, scientists have discovered that Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Io, Enceladus, and maybe Titan have experienced volcanic activity. Io and Enceladus…
Great Red Spot Transit Table 2012-2013
Transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot are listed through December 2012.
Astronomy in Antarctica
Observational astronomy has always been a romantic, rigorous profession. Caroline Herschel recorded her brother's observations by candlelight, shivering through the damp British winter. Edwin Hubble and Walter Baade spent long, cold, hours peering through a guidescope, keeping the giant telescope on Mount Wilson on track as it took the pictures…
