August 2009
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
How we’ll return to the Moon
Four decades after the first human landing, we stand on the threshold of a second grand adventure.
Web extra: Return to the Moon
NASA has developed detailed plans for sending humans back to our nearest celestial neighbor.
Next step Mars?
Landing humans on the Red Planet is harder and more dangerous than you might think, but it can be done. Here’s how.
Web extra: What are the health risks of a Mars mission?
The effects of long-term exposure to space radiation and low gravity are still uncertain.
Web extra: Should we go to the Moon first?
The return to the Moon could be a useful steppingstone to Mars – or a costly and unnecessary delay.
What Europe’s Moon mission revealed
Lead Project Scientist Bernard H. Foing explains how SMART-1 served as a steppingstone for future solar system exploration.
Asia’s new assault on the Moon
First-ever lunar missions from Japan and China returned valuable data and laid the foundation for more ambitious exploration.
Web extra: NASA’s next Moon mission
To get more bang for our buck, the space agency launches two missions at once.
Who was the real Charles Messier?
His catalog of deep-sky objects may be world famous, but most people don’t know much about the man behind it.
Orion’s truss-tube scope offers power and portability
With the help of the SkyQuest XX12 reflector, finding faint deep-sky treats just got easier.
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Bob Berman’s Strange Universe
Glenn Chaple’s Observing Basics
Astro News
The Sky this Month
Ask Astro
David H. Levy’s Evening Stars
Stephen James O’Meara’s Secret Sky
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