December 1994

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The world's best-selling astronomy magazine offers you the most exciting, visually stunning, and timely coverage of the heavens above. Each monthly issue includes expert science reporting, vivid color photography, complete sky coverage, spot-on observing tips, informative telescope reviews, and much more! All this in an easy-to-understand, user-friendly style that's perfect for astronomers at any level.

Features

To Boldly Go

By Donald F. Robertson

Automated rovers will be the vanguard as astronomers explore the alien landscapes of our solar system.

pg. 34

Inside the Crab Nebula

By Richard Talcott

New Hubble images of this supernova remnant reveal surprising complexities in its gaseous filaments and the area immediately surrounding the Crab Pulsar.

pg. 42

The Debut of Galaxies

By Ron Cowen

Tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time grew, somehow, into the galaxies that dominate today's universe. Astronomers are now hot on the trail of how that growth took place.

pg. 44

Sky Almanac

By Deborah Byrd, Rick Shaffer

Geminid meteors streak across the sky in mid-December, Venus shines brilliantly before dawn, and nature's brightest asteroid achieves naked-eye visibility.

pg. 54

Improving Your Mount

By John Siers, Tom McGraw

Build a permanent pier or put setting circles on a Dobsonian and see how much easier observing can be.

pg. 66

Jupiter's Embattled Cloudtops

By David J. Eicher

Backyard observers around the globe were astronished that they could clearly see and photograph the scars left by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's impacts.

pg. 70

Under the Southern Sky, Part Two

By Luke Dodd

Revel in the beauty of the southern skies with this stunning collection of wide-field and prime-focus astrophotos.

pg. 78

Celestron's Compact Newtonian

By John Shibley

ASTRONOMY test drives Celestron's 8-inch GP-C200, a portable, rich-field Newtonian reflector.

pg. 84

Departments

Behind the Scenes

Something from Nothing

Letters

Viewpoints

NASA's Needed Vision

AstroNews

- Superfast Object in Milky Way
- Galaxy's Halo May Trace Dark Matter
- M87 Jet: Faster than Light?
- Cluster Core Closeup
- Infrared Views of M33
- Clementine's Images On-Line
- Another Comet Goes to Pieces
- One Star Cluster Lost, Another Gained
- Breaking the BL Lac

Amateur News

- Gatherings in Vermont and Missouri
- Amateurs Plan Comeback

Reader Reports

Bright Perseids Delight

Astronomy Books

The Guide to the Galaxy

New Products

- Takahashi Reflector
- Digital Focus Control
- Night Vision Goggles

AstroBytes

New Software Roundup

Readings and Credits

Meetings and Events