Sky & Telescope May 2008

By: The Editors of Sky & Telescope March 20, 2008 0

FEATURED ARTICLES

Reunion with Mercury
January's flyby of this fire-and-ice world was the first in more than three decades.
By J. Kelly Beatty

To the Point with mySKY
Enjoy your own personalized planetarium show under a starry sky with this clever bit of electronic wizardry from Meade.
By Dennis di Cicco

Decoding the Oldest Light in the Universe
Reverberating deep-space echoes reveal the history and composition of the universe, thanks in part to the simple science of sound.
By Gary Hinshaw & Robert Naeye

BEYOND THE PRINTED PAGE

Glimpse the Moon's Far Side
You can see 9% more Moon than just what's on the near side — thanks to lunar libration.
By J. Kelly Beatty

Echoes of the Big Bang
Learn more about how certain aspects of the cosmic microwave background clue astronomers in to some of the universe's fundamental properties.
By Gary Hinshaw and Robert Naeye

A New Day in Precision Cosmology
The date of the Big Bang? The amount of dark matter? The nature of cosmic inflation? These things and more are refined by new results from the WMAP cosmology probe. Here's a full roundup.
By Alan MacRobert

Movies of the World at Night
The World at Night, seeks to cultivate a universal worldview by assembling a collection of stunning photographs of the world’s most beautiful and historic sites set against a nighttime backdrop of stars, planets, and celestial events. The following pages contain Flash movies of some of the most amazing skyscapes ever captured.
By Babak A. Tafreshi & Mike Simmons