December 1995
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
The Mars That Never Was
Forty years ago, space artist Chesley Bonestell fired an entire generation’s imagination with visions of Martian canals, wetlands, and possible primitive life.
Epsilon Eridani: The Once and Future Sun
This young, nearby star bears a close resemblance to the Sun in its early days, and may one day nurture intelligent life.
Our Strange, Scrappy Ancestors
Hubble reveals a new class of very distant, fragmentary galaxies that may be the most abundant kind in the universe.
Gamma-Ray Bursters: Near or Far?
Debate rages over whether these powerful explosions originate in the outskirts of our galaxy, or far across the universe.
Sky Almanac
Geminid meteors will be shooting across mid-December’s evening sky, a fitting encore after watching six planets low in the western twilight.
Test-driving Celestron’s Apo Refractor
This redesigned 4-inch apochromat features superb optics on a sturdy German equatorial mount.
The Secrets of Orion’s Great Nebula
A medium-size scope reveals stunning detail in winter’s showpiece deep-sky object, but the right filters will help you see new shapes and boundaries.
Building an Astronomical Library
The right books can help you get the most out of your astronomy pursuits.
When Galaxies Strut Their Stuff
Face-on spiral galaxies offer observers with small scopes their best look at mottled arms, pointlike nuclei, and star-forming regions.
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