What's a Blue Moon?
The trendy definition of "blue Moon" as the second full Moon in a month can be traced to a mistake in Sky & Telescope. Fifty-three years later, we set the record straight! By Donald W Olson, Richard Tresch Fienberg,
and Roger W Sinnott
The Rise and Fall of Quasars 1 COVER STORY
Astronomers are on the verge of unraveling the mystery of these cosmic powerhouses.
By G. Mark Voit
Pluto Reconsidered
What exactly did Clyde Tombaugh discover in 1930 — a planet, a planet wannabe, or the Kuiper Belt's top dog? By J. Kelly Beatty
Gamma-Ray Burst Hunters Catch a Whopper
A brief, titanic explosion some 9 billion light-years away flared as bright as 9th magnitude on January 23rd. There's a chance we may see this saure event a second time.
A"Hot"Telescope Gets Even Hotter
Meade's reinvention of the ETX features a "brain" that provides capabilities never before seen in a small telescope. S&T Test Report By Dennis di Cicco
Pillars in the Sky
Atmospheric "diamond dust" can produce towers of light in the heavens.
Astronomical Computing 1 By Rodney Kubesh
An Eccentric of the Very Best Kind
Meet George Alcock, a retired schoolteacher from England who is internationally renowned for his visual discoveries of five comets and five novae.
Amateur Astronomers 1 By Kay Williams
Refractor Red Meets the Herschel 400
Explore the faint and the fabulous with the little telescope that could.
Observer's Log 1 By Jay Reynolds Freeman
A Simplified Hyperbolic Astrograph
Find out how you can banish coma from your astro images. Telescope Techniques 1 By Alejandro Di Baja
Going to the Limit
The work of a Canadian amateur proves that backyard observers can look deeper than professionals could only a generation ago.
Astro Imaging 1 By Bradley E. Schaefer
Spectrum
Everyone's telescope. By Leif J. Robinson
Focal Point
Amateur of the century. By Edmund Fortier
Letters
50 & 25 Years Ago
Star Trails
Imager of the sky. By David H. Levy
Rambling Through the Skies
The bear necessities of the northern sky. By E. C. Krupp
Sky & Telescope's Guide to the Evening Sky
Springtime Sights Near and Far • Northern Hemisphere Sky Map • Binocular Highlight: Globular Cluster M3 • Sun, Moon, and Planets • Southern Hemisphere Sky Map
A Blizzard of Asteroids
On any clear night you can see scores of minor planets with a small telescope. Here's how.
By Roger W Sinnott
Uranus and Neptune in 1999
Bluish Neptune is in Capricornus, just two binocular fields west of Uranus.
By Roger W Sinnott
The Moon Occults Regulus
The first-quarter Moon passes in front of the Lion's Heart 011 May 21st.
By Alan M. MacRobert
SkyWise
By Jay Ryan