HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL FIND in the Sep/Oct 2021 issue of Australian Sky & Telescope magazine — out now. Pick up a copy at your local newsagent, or grab the digital issue. You can also save some money by subscribing to the print or digital editions.
Features:
- Mystery star — Professional and amateur astronomers have banded together to study a strangely behaving young binary star system. Could they be seeing the birth of planets?
- How old are Saturn’s moons? — This deceptively simple question has caused planetary scientists to rethink some basic physics.
- The Milky Way’s dark constellations — Many cultures draw patterns not with stars but with the darkness in between.
- Arecibo’s legacy — The tragic loss of the iconic, giant radio telescope has ended more than 50 years of science and inspiration.
- Buying binoculars for astronomy — Much of the advice you would have heard in the past is now obsolete following recent changes in the equipment marketplace.
Observing & exploring:
- Binocular highlight — Journey through Messier 24’s tunnel into the Milky Way.
- Evenings with the stars — There’s something fishy about Pisces (and bad puns).
- Planets — Bright planets to see, both east and west.
- Meteors — See the Orionid shower by moonlight.
- Comets — Four comets to see this spring.
- Variable stars — Your stepping stone into the Small Magellanic Cloud.
- The Moon — Explore craters with hills in the middle.
- Solar System — Even Saturn sometimes gets the blues (in its atmosphere).
- Deep sky — Observing the Pegasus I galaxy cluster
- Milky Way tour — The Milky Way offers a profusion of bright and dark nebulae, more often than not intertwined.
- Neptune and Pallas — The big blue planet and a big asteroid put on a show.
Regular features:
- Test report — Putting the QHY5III462C planetary camera to the test.
- Astrophotography — Your first night-sky shots may not be perfect, but they can teach you a lot.
- Test report — Knightware’s Deep Sky Planner 8 software helps organise your observing.
- Astronomer’s workbench — Make your own push-to telescope.
- Night life — Events and activities for astronomy enthusiasts.
Australian Sky & Telescope is available from your local newsagent, or subscribe today to the print or digital edition. You can also get this issue singly in digital format.
