Astronomy

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 a user-friendly style that's perfect for astronomers at any level.

Whence came the Moon?

Astronomy

ASTRO LETTERS

DIVE INTO THE GALACTIC CENTER • The Milky Way has an active heart.

HOT BYTES

ASTRONOMERS PINPOINT SINGLE FAST RADIO BURSTS • Two separate groups tracked non-repeating blasts of radio waves back to their home galaxies for the first time.

QUICK TAKES

The Whirlpool Galaxy’s changing light

HOW SMALL IS THAT CONSTELLATION? • HYDRA THE WATER SNAKE, the largest of the 88 constellations, covers 1,302.84 square degrees, or 3.158 percent of the sky. If you don’t think that’s a lot, compare its size to the 10 smallest constellations — Hydra accounts for 272.3 more square degrees than all 10 combined! Here are those most diminutive constellations, in descending order.

Ploonets: When moons go rogue

LIGHTSAIL 2 SETS SAIL

Dragonfly will hunt for life on Titan

PLANETARY EMBRYO SPOTTED

PLUTO’S STRANGE ODYSSEY

Eta Carinae puts on fireworks

What scares astronomers? • Impediments to observing the night sky seem to be mounting.

APOLLO 12 50 years later • This mission launched during a thunderstorm and landed in the Ocean of Storms, but it had smooth sailing the rest of the way.

APOLLO 12 IN 3D • Four months after the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing, Pete Conrad and Alan Bean became the second human crew to visit the lunar surface.

HOW TO VIEW OUR 3D IMAGES

EXPLORE FROM HOME

Mercury transits the Sun • THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.

RISING MOON • Catch a glimpse of the Orient

METEOR WATCH • The Moon mutes the Lion’s roar

STAR DOME

PATHS OF THE PLANETS

COMET SEARCH • Prelude to a pretty spring show

LOCATING ASTEROIDS • Asteroid viewing made easy

The Moon’s violent origin • Apollo astronauts returned 842 pounds of Moon rocks to Earth. These precious samples have revealed a lot about the Moon’s past.

SIMULATING A PLANETARY MASH-UP

Observe the transit of Mercury • If you miss the November 11 lineup, you’ll have to wait another 13 years to try again.

Visions of the 2019 ECLIPSE • The July 2 total solar eclipse inspired many breathtaking images. Here are our top picks.

Nikon’s new astrocamera • With 24 megapixels of resolution, Wi-Fi, and a vast ISO range, the D750 was built to shoot the night sky.

A pair of royal subjects • Cepheus the King holds twin stellar objects of great interest to binocular observers.

A tiny eclipse of the Sun • Don’t miss Mercury as it treks across the Sun’s disk.

NEW PRODUCTS

Why the planets spin • Astronomy’s experts from around the globe answer your cosmic questions.

Cosmic portraits

TANGLED UP IN BERENICE’S TRESSES

Venus rules summer evenings

STAR DOME