In the ‘zines

I got to thinking the other day about where it is that people read about astronomy. There are, especially with the Web, countless places to learn about the beautiful science of astronomy. If you’re an aficionado, you already know about such print titles as Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Stern und Weltraum, Skynews, TheAstronomer, Amateur Astronomy Magazine, Astronomy and Space, Astronomy Now, Ciel et Espace, Coelum, Tenmon Guido (Japan), and many others. And, of course, there are countless really good astronomy sites, written by such avid participants as Daniel Fischer in his Cosmic Mirror site and the ever-busy website for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, plus the sites I’ve got listed in my sidebar.

I often get asked which magazine is my favorite. I’ve read many of them, written for several, and of course, I worked for Sky & Telescope in the late 1990s, so I got a chance to contribute to the medium that way. I spent four years as editor of Sky Publishing’s SkyWatch magazine, and my interest there was to make a magazine that beginners could use to explore astronomy. It was fun and fulfilling, and I still have a number of people mention how much they enjoyed the magazine during my tenure as its editor.

All of these magazines are useful and good. For beginners I’ve always recommended Astronomy Magazine, or the special titles put out by Sky Publishing. It seems that Sky & Telescope is geared to those who have already been bitten by the bug of astronomy a bit harder than the folks who are just getting to know the science. But, that may change. They have a new editor in chief coming on board in June, so who knows what will happen there? Anyway, both are good magazines, so you can’t go wrong with either one. Of course, we’re not limited to just these two — as you can see from my list above, there are many magazines, in many languages, all speaking the same language of astronomy.