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In 1874, James Nasmyth and James Carpenter published a remarkable book: The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. Lavishly illustrated with spectacular images of lunar features […]

THE FAMED ANDROMEDA GALAXY, or M31, draws attention at public star parties not only because it is the nearest major member of the Local Group to our Milky Way but [...]

HUMANS HAVE WONDERED about life in the universe since antiquity. Early Greek philosophers argued that the cosmos contained 'a plurality of worlds.' Today we know that exoplanetary systems are indeed [...]

HUMANITY HAS LONG LOOKED AT THE STARS and dreamed of what kind of life might exist elsewhere in the universe. In their book Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings (Camden [...]

Few technological advances have impacted astronomy as much as the digital revolution. That's been true in the professional realm since the 1980s, and it's been true for amateur astrophotographers like [...]

THE FOUR LARGE satellites of Jupiter, discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, have been viewed by more people than any other planetary satellites besides the Moon. They are favorites at [...]

Historic Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, is commonly associated with two notable astronomical bodies: Mars and Pluto. Percival Lowell, who was determined to study the Red Planet and its putative [...]

The 24-inch refractor that stands atop Mars Hill in Flagstaff, Arizona, holds a special place in the annals of astronomy. It was built by the renowned firm of Alvan Clark [...]

Those of us old enough to have cut our teeth on film-based astrophotography can't help but feel a twinge of envy at how easy it has become to capture impressive [...]

IMAGINE SPENDING 12 DAYS AND NIGHTS observing under pristine skies, surrounded by stunning scenery, unique artistic, gastronomic, and cultural delights, and extremely friendly people. Would you feel like you've died [...]

These days the pages of Sky & Telescope are packed with colorful views of solar system bodies. Many come from spacecraft, of course, but amateur observers around the world also [...]

The July/August 2014 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer, which focused on science and religion, underscores once again the common threads among unquestioned faith, pseudoscience, and putative extraterrestrial influences on humanity. [...]

WHOOPEE! They're in! You pick up a batch of your latest astrophotos from the processor. Your blood is racing like overheated oil in a V8 engine. You can't wait to [...]

In my letter ('Those Illusory Canals,' November/December 2018), I erroneously cited philosopher David Lewis's 1986 book On the Plurality of the Worlds, rather than astronomer Camille Flammarion's 1862 work titled [...]

This is just a footnote to Ralph Wilkins fine article on the Herschel Museum in the May 2015 issue (p. 62). While it is widely appreciated that in addition to [...]

UFO articles in recent SI issues remind me of queries that invariably arise when I lecture on the search for life in the universe. While most people are genuinely interested [...]

VETERAN astrophotographers can certainly recall the excitement generated by the introduction of the first ISO 1,000 slide film just a decade ago. Made by 3M (Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co.), [...]