Astronomy Magazines.....Which?

Whats the best Astronomy Mag to subscribe to bearing in mind I'm a beginner? This info is needed as A&S will no longer be dropping tru my letterbox. :

Conor

Sky & Telescope is my choice, having tried the others, though it is an American magazine its content and style put it ahead of the rest, I have just subscribed online and it took about 1 month for the December issue to be delivered by post,
Charles

This could start a can of worms. Personally i like Astronomy now. My advice. Buy a copy of each and then make your mind up.

would also recommend S&T. it is the best magazine i have read on astronomy having started with astronomy now and also read astronomy as well. if you can afford it i would recommend taking out a subscription for 2 reasons:-
1) it might disappear off the shelf before you can get to it.
2) cheaper in the long run as you are paying a fixed price particulary if you go for a 3 year subscription.

i have generally had no delievery problems as it usually shows up about 3 weeks or even a month in advance and they will send you a replacement if it goes missing with no fuss. the articles are very good but may put you off at first, but when you get further into the hobby you can always go back and read them when you understand more. the only negative i thing i would suggest is it's american bias, which is annoying but understandable considering that is it's main market.
Stephen.

hi Conor,

welcome on board the forums ...

as an aside to this topic, David Bell also has a speakers list of 50 people willing to give talks to clubs countrywide. It'd be worth dropping him a note on that. I've been asked to do a talk for Slaneyside in the new year and can give yourselves one too if you'd like (am based in Dublin).

I agree with the others about Sky and Telescope -- it's a really good read and the articles are top notch. I wouldn't be too worried about the level you are approaching it at because that knowledge will come pretty quickly. Sky & T. is the only magazine I get and I've managed to purchase some back volumes to 1976 recently because they are a great reference resource and timeless.

Astronomy Now is definitely the one to try for a year though because the sky notes are relevant to the British Isles, the articles are good, and I like the idea of them focussing on a particular topic each month.

Astronomy, the other US-based magazine, is pretty glitzy and it has had a bit of an overhaul recently to focus more on beginners. Yet it is trying to make a good pitch at Sky & T's market of more serious observers -- at times it works and others, well ...

Astronomy magazine has a good website at www.astronomy.com and is worthwhile linking into for articles which are categorised into "hobby" or "general".

there are some e-zines out there too (such as "Arcturus" logged to this site in the Resources section) and Sky & T. has a few listed at skyandtelescope.com/resources/internet/article_350_1.asp

another link is;

skyandtelescope.com/resources/internet/article_351_1.asp

I would really recommend going into the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's website -- www.astrosociety.org . Have a look at their "Universe in the Classroom" section under educational resources. There's some fantastic articles there that give a good grasp of various concepts. I've always been a fan of their educational programmes.

the bottom line though is, as someone else mentioned, try a couple of different journals.

a good book on the subject of astronomy and observing is "Spacewatching" published by Collins and authored by Robert Burnham, Alan Dyer, David Levy and a few others. It contains lots of useful info on what you'll actually see as well as a series of tours of the night sky (starhops) each comprising of objects for naked eye, binoculars, and telescopes. The Monthly Sky Guide by Ian Ridpath is similar but just has sky tours with only a couple of pages on observational astronomy.

drop me a private message Conor with your address and I'll post you a copy of our Sky-High annual which lists all the astronomical phenomena visible from Ireland in 2004 and has some introductory stuff on astronomy concepts.

best wishes,

John

A simple comment in addition to the excellent advice earlier on in this thread is to check out the free offer by Astronomy Magazine where they will send you the next two months for free as a sampler.

David Eicher is now the chief editor and represents one of the many changes which have occurred at Astronomy Magazine and all for the better. I received the Dec/2003 issue about ten days ago and Eicher wrote in his regular Editor's column that Robert Burnham is back again with the magazine!

Anthony.