April 2008
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
Searching for the shape of the universe
Inflation, an early period of cosmic hyper-expansion, may be the key to proving the universe has six extra dimensions.
Web extra: Can cosmic microwaves “see” extra dimensions?
Exploring the cosmic microwave background may give scientists insight into the shape of inner space.
250 million years ago, did an asteroid nearly end life on Earth?
Scientists may have found the smoking gun.
Web extra: What killed almost everything?
Scientists can choose from a growing menu of proposed causes for the end-Permian extinction. Here are the leading contenders.
Did molecules from space seed life in the cosmos?
Astronomers have detected more than 150 different molecules in interstellar space. Scientists are studying how these molecules might have jump-started life.
Web extra: Riding high in the Atacama
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array will provide radio astronomers an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and resolution.
Spot spring’s 11 best globular clusters
From Omega Centauri to M5, spring’s globulars offer diverse targets for all observers.
Web extra: View spring’s globular clusters
Download this Meade Autostar tour and you’ll be observing great globulars in no time.
How historic observatories will survive
Light pollution and technological advances have forced many classic observatories to redefine their roles.
Web extra: The vintage observatory: thriving in the 21st century
The Antique Telescope Society convenes a workshop at the Cincinnati Observatory Center to address problems facing historic observatories.
How to observe the Sun
With a good solar filter, you can see sunspots, flares, and other hot stuff.
Web extra: How to classify sunspots
Use this guide to determine the type of sunspot you’re observing.
Web extra: The observer’s personal equation
Add precision to your sunspot counts.
Capture images of our local star
Thanks to a wide array of solar filters, shooting high-quality solar images is a snap.
Obsession’s new 18-inch scope
Usually, observers don’t describe 18-inch telescopes as compact and portable. This one, however, is both.
Departments
This month in Astronomy
Web talk
Letters
Bob Berman’s strange universe
Glenn Chaple’s observing basics
Stephen James O’Meara’s secret sky
News
The sky this month
New products
Coming events
Advertiser index
Reader gallery
