We are distressed to hear numerous reports from international readers about delays in receiving their issues of Sky & Telescope magazine. Some readers haven’t received their most recent issues at all.

Here’s what’s happening and what we can (and can’t) do about it.

International Mail Service During the Pandemic

The root of the problem is the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent disruptions in the global economy, including international mail service. The measures being taken worldwide to limit the pandemic’s spread have slowed the processing and delivery of mail in many countries. Some countries have stopped accepting mail from beyond their borders at all.

You can see if your country is affected by visiting printer R. R. Donnelly’s International Shipping Mail & Parcel Updates — COVID-19 page and looking in the third column of the table, the one labeled “RRD AFC, APM, Pub, PP.” As you’ll see, nearly every country has “Delays Expected” in publication deliveries, and quite a few have such deliveries “Temporarily Suspended.” The US Postal Service’s International Mail Service Suspensions page offers additional insight.

How to Replace Missing Issues

Obviously we at Sky & Telescope and the American Astronomical Society can’t do anything about pandemic-related slowdowns or stoppages of mail delivery. But here’s what we can do.

If you’re an international subscriber and have missed any issues since May 2020, please email us at [email protected]. Tell us which issues never arrived, provide your shipping address (a physical address, not a PO box), and we will ship replacement issues to you via parcel service, which isn’t suffering from as many delays and disruptions as mail service.

Please note that we’re offering this on a first-come, first served basis while supplies last. Some back issues are already out of stock or nearly so, which means we won’t be able to satisfy all claims. But we’ll do our best.

Sky & Telescope: The Digital Edition

Here’s something else to consider: If you’re a longtime subscriber, you may have a legacy print-only subscription. Newer subscribers to the magazine also get free access to the digital edition. If you’re a recent subscriber, you may have access to the digital edition and not realize it or not yet have registered for it. Or perhaps you’ve forgotten which email address you provided when you subscribed and have been unable to log in to the digital edition for that reason.

In all cases we encourage you to contact our subscription agency, Omeda, at 800-253-0245 (USA & Canada) or 847-559-7369 (international) to upgrade from print only to print+digital and/or to register for access to the digital edition and/or to update your email address in our system. If you have problems reaching Omeda, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll help sort things out with them.

We’re sorry about the problems our international subscribers are experiencing with the delivery of Sky & Telescope and hope that the explanations and solutions provided above will mitigate and/or compensate for at least some of them.