Sky & Telescope

Sky & Telescope (S&T) is a monthly magazine about stars, planets, and space. It helps people who enjoy looking at the night sky share what they find. You can read guides for spotting planets, galaxies, star clusters, and other wonders in the night sky.

The magazine also reviews telescopes and other tools used to study the stars. It talks about amateur astronomy, like making your own telescope and taking pictures of the night sky through astrophotography.

Articles are written for readers who love space but aren’t scientists. They often have colorful pictures from amateur and professional photographers, along with tables and charts showing when and where to see special sky events.

History

Sky & Telescope was started by Charles A. Federer and his wife Helen Spence Federer. They created the Sky Publishing Corporation in late 1939 for a magazine called The Sky. This magazine shared ideas for amateur astronomers. In mid-1941, they also created The Telescope, writing about space for everyday readers. The first issue of Sky & Telescope came out in November 1941 from an office at the Harvard College Observatory.

In 2006, the Sky Publishing Corporation was sold to New Track Media. In 2014, New Track’s group was sold to F+W Media. After F+W Media had money problems in mid-2019, the American Astronomical Society took over Sky & Telescope.

For many years before the internet, Sky & Telescope helped connect amateur astronomers around the world. The magazine shared ideas about telescope making through a column called "Gleanings for ATMs" from 1933 to 1990. In December 1995, the magazine published the Caldwell Catalogue, written by Patrick Moore.

The magazine's main competitor is Astronomy.

Editors

The magazine "Sky & Telescope" has had many editors over the years. Charles A. Federer was the first editor, followed by Helen Spence Federer. Later editors included Joseph Ashbrook, Leif Robinson, Richard Fienberg, Robert Naeye, Peter Tyson, and now Diana Hannikainen. Each editor helped make the magazine a great place to learn about stars and planets.

Columns

Sky & Telescope has many popular columns. One is the Celestial Calendar, published every month since 1942. Another is Deep-Sky Wonders, written by Walter Scott Houston from 1946 to 1993 and later by Sue French until 2018. There is also a column called Binocular Highlights, which started in 1994 and became its own special section in 2006. These columns have been turned into books!

Websites

In the late 1990s, Sky & Telescope launched a website showing night-sky sights and the newest astronomy news. After the magazine was bought by the nonprofit American Astronomical Society in 2019, the website address changed to skyandtelescope.org. Now, the website gets about 500,000 visitors each month. There is also a related website, shopatsky.com, where you can buy globes, books, and other astronomy items.

Sky & Telescope can also be read in print or digitally by subscribers using the Nxtbook platform.