SUNSET: 
Sky & Telescope January 2011
FEATURED ARTICLES Planetary Magnitudes A planet's light curve gives important clues to its composition.By Anthony Mallama Where Did Earth's Water Come From? The evidence of ice in asteroids indicates that there may be much more water in the solar system than previously thought.By Kristina Grifantini Hot New Products for 2011…
Sky & Telescope December 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Meade's 8-inch LightSwitch Scope When it comes to "smart" scopes, this one is at the head of the class.By Dennis di Cicco December's Great Lunar Eclipse All of North America experiences a total lunar eclipse on the night of Decmber 20-21.By Alan MacRobert Binocular Sights for City Nights…
Dan Durda Talks About Asteroid Deflection
Dan DurdaWhat would happen if astronomers found a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth? In the December 2010 issue of S&T, planetary scientist Dan Durda of the Southwest Research Institute describes a number of methods that could be used to avert disaster. In a follow-up to Dan’s article,…
Sky & Telescope November 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES The Universe of Archimedes To estimate the size of the universe, Archimedes invented an entirely new way to express big numbers.By Alan Hirschfield Closing in on E.T. SETI hasn't picked up any signals from extraterrestrials yet, but new technologies are greatly increasing the odds.By Seth Shostak Legal Aliens…
Sky & Telescope October 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES NASA's New Airborne Observatory Flown on a Boeing 747, SOFIA will carry infrared astronomy to new heights.By Luke Keller and Jürgen Wolf The Hunt for Super-Earths Astronomers are finding and studying worlds just a little larger than ours.By Sara Seager Beneath the Shroud of Venus With careful planning,…
Naked-Eye Exoplanet Host Stars
As of August, 2010, more than 470 exoplanets have been found. The authors have put together a list of 20 naked-eye stars that host exoplanets. Point out some of these at your next star party, and wave hello — who knows, someone may be waving back. The internet is awash…
Sara Seager Talks about Super-Earths
Sara SeagerThe count of known planets outside the solar system continues to rise. At the time of this writing in mid-August, the tally stands at about 470. But it’s not just the rising number of known worlds that demonstrates the remarkably rapid progress in exoplanet research. Astronomers are finding new…
Luke Keller Talks about SOFIA
Luke Keller NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, better know as SOFIA, is gearing up for its science mission. The flying observatory and its 2.5-meter telescope saw first light from the air this past May. Later this year it will begin science flights in earnest, and in the coming decades…
Sky & Telescope September 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES The Mysterious Lady on the Moon Is the Moon Maiden on Cassini's famous 1679 Moon map an astronomer's secret declaration of love?By Françoise Launay and William Sheehan Binocular Showpieces for Light-Polluted Skies Over a bright city or suburb, some sky sights shine through better than others.By Hugh Bartlett…
More Amazing HiRISE Views of Mars
We couldn't fit enough eye-popping images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in one Sky & Telescope article, so here are more great images to captivate you.
Sky & Telescope August 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Einstein's Ultimate Laboratory A recently discovered binary pulsar gives scientists the most rigorous test yet of general relativity.By Michael Kramer Glimpses of an Evolving Planet A stroll through Earth's past gives astronomers vital clues to what terrestrial-sized exoplanets might look like.By Jeff Hecht In Perfect Focus Modern imaging…
Earth's Past and the Search for Habitable Planets
Ever since Galileo first turned his telescope to the night sky, people have dreamed of discovering life on other planets besides our own. For centuries, very little progress was made. In the mid-twentieth century, after the canals on Mars had proved to be illusions, extraterrestrial life seemed more remote than…
Sky & Telescope July 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Lessons from Solar Twins The Sun's closest stellar analogs hold clues to our own star's past and future.By Jeffrey Hall Deep-Sky Discovery An amateur astronomer unearths a new planetary nebula, hinting that more hidden jewels are lurking out there.By Mike Simmons and Dave Jurasevitch A New Astroscanner One…
Sky & Telescope June 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Flowers of the Night Sky Here's a guide to summer's best and most representative planetary nebulae.By Ted Forte Hubble's Greatest Scientific Achievements A leading astrophysicist reflects on 20 years of great discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope.By Mario Livio Celestron Turns 50 The entrepreneurial spirit of one amateur…
Great Red Spot Transit Table 2010-2011
Transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot are listed through February 2011.
Jeff Hall Talks about Solar Twins
Jeff Hall talks about the search for sunlike stars and what they can tell us about our own Sun.
Sky & Telescope May 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Amateurs Catch a Crucial Nova Two dedicated backyard astronomers alerted professional telescopes worldwide and in space to U Scorpii's eruption.By Mike Simonsen and Alan MacRobert Saving the Night Sky A new mindset and new technology are poised to slow, and perhaps reverse, this bane of astronomy.By J. Kelly…
Sky & Telescope April 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Imagining Other Worlds Space artists help us visualize unseen worlds.By Ker Than Hanging in the Balance There's a small but non-zero chance that our solar system will go haywire some time in the next few billion yearsBy Greg Laughlin The Universal Jet Set A wide variety of objects…
Sky & Telescope March 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES Shedding Light on Dark Stars Bizarre stars powered by dark matter may have been the first to appear after the Big Bang.By Ker Than What Else Is Out There? Planets and other large objects could be lurking far beyond Neptune.By David Jewitt Digitizing History Amateurs help scan a…
Sky & Telescope February 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES NASA Finds Lunar Water NASA's "crash and splash" gambit dredged up water from a lunar crater.By J. Kelly Beatty High-Def Lunar Landscapes Japan's Kaguya spacecraft has recorded some of the most dramatic lunar images ever seen.By Motomaro Shirao Lunar Photography with AviStack A powerful freeware program takes your…
