July 2004

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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

Jupiter's water worlds

By Robert Pappalardo

The icy surfaces of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto shroud oceans of liquid water, and one of these could harbor life within its depths.

pg. 34

How Earth got its Moon

By Paul D. Spudis

The label "double planet," which often is applied to Earth and the Moon, carries some ironies. The pair that exists today is the result of a gigantic collision between a different, earlier "double planet" pair.

pg. 42

Did NASA fake the Moon landing?

By Ray Villard

A television show more than thirty years after the fact did not disprove that we landed six pairs of astronauts on the Moon. Most Americans believe that statement. Still, you may be interested in how we can prove it.

pg. 48

To the cosmic edge

By Frank Sietzen, Jr.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys have taken the deepest visible-light image ever, capturing thousands of galaxies out to the edge of the universe.

pg. 70

Visions of space

By Andrew Fazekas

Imagine having a ringside seat at the most magnificent cosmic events; space artists provide such a vantage point, allowing anyone to take vicarious journeys through the universe.

pg. 78

Touchdown at Tranquillity

By Robert Burnham

This month, we celebrate the 35th landing of Apollo II on the Moon. So dust off your telescope and follow along as we take a detailed look at Tranquillity Base and its surroundings.

pg. 82

A visit to the planetarium

By Michael E. Bakich

A universe of wonder under a dome near you, a planetarium brings much more than the night sky to visitors. Get a behind-the-screens look at planetaria and see where the field is headed.

pg. 84

Star power

By Steve Edberg

The largest telescope manufacturer continues to improve one of its most popular products. How good can this telescope get? You're about to find out.

pg. 88

Departments

This month in Astronomy

Is there life under the ice?

Letters

Bob Berman's strange universe

Cosmological chaos

Glenn Chaple's observing basics

Clubbin' astro-style

Interview

Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science, NASA

News

— Seeing stars like sand
— Cassini/Huygens zero in on Saturn
— Sun's stellar neighbors run wild
— Microlensing finds a new planet
— Spiral canyons on Mars

The sky this month

Marvelous night for a moondance

Ask Astro

Of time and space, the lowdown on space dust

New products

— ScopeTronix MaxView DSLR
— LPI's "Consolidated Lunar Atlas"
— SmartAstronomy's SmartCase
— Family ASTRO's "Moon Mission"

Book reviews

— The Modern Moon: A Personal View
— Sky Vistas
— Strange Universe

Coming events

Advertiser index

Resources

Reader gallery