SUNSET: 
Sky & Telescope January 2010
FEATURED ARTICLES NASA Sets Its Sights on the Sun The Solar Dynamics Observatory will reveal new details about the Sun's powerful magnetic storms.By Laura Layton and Dean Pesnell Finding the First Galaxies Hubble has imaged the most distant galaxies yet. But to see the first galaxies, astronomers need to go…
Spacecraft Imaging for Amateurs: Hyperlink Supplement
An international community of space enthusiasts has become adept at reinterpreting images from planetary spacecraft.
Sky & Telescope December 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Amateur Exoplanets Amateur data was essential to the discovery of two new extrasolar planets.By Robert Naeye A New Infrared Sky NASA is about to launch its WISE mission to survey the sky at wavelengths poorly covered to now.By Peter Eisenhardt and Ned Wright Not Much Eyesight, Plenty of…
Voices from Educational Planetariums
Directors of small planetariums discuss some of the major issues facing their institutions.
Sky & Telescope November 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES The Great 2012 Scare The world won't end on December 21, 2012. Here's what to tell anybody who's worried that it might.By E. C. Krupp Starscape Astrophotography It takes planning, research, and sometime luck to capture memorable skyscapes.By Jerry Lodriguss Celestron's CGE Pro Mount The new CGE Pro…
Sky & Telescope October 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Prelude to Disaster In 2006 RS Ophiuchi produced a powerful nova eruption. However, a much bigger explosion may be coming soon.By Sumner Starrfield, Mike Bode, & Tim O'Brien The New Habitable Zones Microbes could thrive in all sorts of "impossible" places on other worlds.By Chris Impey Sky-Watcher's Newest…
Sky & Telescope September 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Smashing the Distance Record An exploding star establishes a new benchmark for most-distant known object in the universe.By Edo Berger Ice Age Impact Scientists are debating whether a comet triggered the extinction of the large North American mammals.By Ivan Semeniuk The Cosmologist Left Behind Edwin Hubble usually gets…
Great Red Spot Transit Table 2009
Transit times for Jupiter's Great Red Spot are listed through the end of 2009.
Sky & Telescope August 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Catch a Fallen Star For the first time, scientists spotted an asteroid before it hit Earth — and then, incredibly, found pieces of it on the ground.By J. Kelly Beatty What's Wrong with Our Sun? The Sun has gone more than a year without sunspots. Astronomers are wondering…
Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet
This is a sample of one of the many videos you'll get on the Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet DVD from Sky & Telescope. With this DVD, you can explore the Red Planet from the comfort of your chair, and view hundreds of images and videos selected by Dr.…
Sky & Telescope July 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Uncovering Mars's Secret Past A new generation of rovers and orbiters is mapping the Red Planet's minerals — telltale clues to its watery history.By Jim Bell Searching for Exoplanet Moons Astronomers may soon find moons around extrasolar planets, and amateurs might beat the professionals to the puch.By David…
Abell 2199
Abell 2199 contains hundreds — maybe even thousands — of galaxies. We have selected 72 particularly prominent members to display in the chart on page 61 of the July, 2009, issue of Sky & Telescope. You can view data for these galaxies in one of two forms:: A tab-separated text…
Sky & Telescope June 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Ice Worlds of the Ringed Planet NASA's Cassini mission has solved long-standing mysteries about Saturn's icy moons, but raised new ones in their place.By Emily Lakdawalla Lunar Fireworks If all goes as scheduled, in late August two NASA spacecraft will slam into the Moon in the hope of…
Sky & Telescope May 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES The Day the Moon Stood Still Scientists on a supersonic flight experienced 74 minutes of totality during the solar eclipse of June, 1973.By L. Robert Morris Secrets of the Big Bang Europe's Planck satellite will try to determine how inflation powered the universe into existence.By Thorsten Dambeck The…
First Earth-Size Exoplanet
S&T IllustrationIn early February, European astronomers broke new ground in the search for extrasolar planets. They announced the discovery of the first planet outside the solar system with a well-measured diameter that can be described as “terrestrial” in size. The planet is less than twice Earth’s diameter, and it orbits…
Sky & Telescope April 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Shedding New Light on Dark Matter Two instruments may have seen telltale signs from the strange stuff that makes up the bulk of the universe's mass.By Govert Schilling A Worldwide Astronomy Marathon Early April will be amateur astronomy's time to shine for the International Year of Astronomy 2009.By…
Imaging the Orion-Eridanus Superbubble
Click above to download the full 3-megabyte JPEG.Dennis di Cicco / Sean WalkerIn the April 2009 issue, beginning with the photographic spread on pages 66-67, Sean Walker (S&T’s Imaging editor) and I describe our efforts using commercially available equipment and image-processing software to create a huge mosaic covering nearly 10%…
Cosmic Cataclysms
Joan Centrella poses with a scale model of one of the three LISA spacecraft, which are designed to detect gravitational waves from black-hole mergers.Bonny Schumaker (JPL) What are the most energetic events in the universe since the Big Bang? If you ask an astronomy aficionado, there’s a good chance the…
Sky & Telescope March 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES Exoplanets Imaged at Last Two teams of astronomers have finally achieved one of astronomy's holy grails.By Robert Naeye Solar Impact Variations in the Sun's output influence Earth's climate in ways scientists are still trying to discern.By Kristina Grifantini Mercury Gets a Second Look The Messenger spacecraft's return visit…
Solar Impact: The Sun-Earth Connection
Solar physicist Judith Lean (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) studies how solar radiation affects Earth's weather and climate.Judith LeanAstronomers have long known that sunspot numbers vary over a cycle that averages about 11 years. But do these cycles influence Earth's climate? And what about the longer term? Could the measured global…
