Amateur Astronomy Magazine

Amateur Astronomy Magazine The essential quarterly journal for amateur astronomers around the world

The Spring Issue ( #130) of Amateur Astronomy Magazine has been uploaded to the printer and we are working on the additi...
03/10/2026

The Spring Issue ( #130) of Amateur Astronomy Magazine has been uploaded to the printer and we are working on the additional digital content and re-flows.
On the cover are our Star People Trevor Jones and Ashley Northcotte of Astrobackyard in front of one of their beautiful images (Wizard Nebula). Check out the interview and their back story in this issue.
Lots more in this issue with Radio Astronomy - When the Universe Learned to Speak, Moving, Rahabbing and Automating a Used Dome, Deep Sky Hunting: Dark Matters, Ode to a Restless Few, Out of the Way Imaging Targets, Updated Star Calendar, Rediscovering the Local Group Galaxy UGC 4879, Moon Shots, Sketching at the Eyepiece, SkyWatcher HelioStar Review, Solar Activity and our Parting Shots Image Gallery.
If you are not a subscriber, please consider joining us in our astronomical adventures.

I am on working finalizing my new Winter Star Party Presentation and looking forward to the event in a couple of weeks. ...
01/31/2026

I am on working finalizing my new Winter Star Party Presentation and looking forward to the event in a couple of weeks. This year is a Sequel to last year's presentation - 31 Years of Star People - Cosmic Explorers. Over the years we have featured 208 amateur astronomers - an impressive list, and fascinating folks, many of whom have enriched my life through meeting. I hope to see you under the WSP tropical skies. Below is a list of the "Star People" we have featured over the last 31 years.

Joe Lidell, Steve Lucas, Philp Bagnall, Richard Baum, Barbara Wilson, Debbie Byrd, Chris Schur, Jeff Biesh, Don Parker, Mike Kitt, Al Nagler, Mike Planceon, Craig Crossen, Jim Marsh, Alan Hale, Phil Harrington, Tim Hunter, Larry Myers, Mary McGauley, Robert Reeves, Dave Kriege, Gerald De Vaucouleurs, Ken Wilcox, Tony and Daphne Hallas, Christian Legrand, Ed Szezepanski, Laus Brasch, Helga Szmuk, Ronald Royer, Tom Lorenzin, Alister Ling, Lee combs, Tippy D’Auria, Paul Maley, Sue French, Tom Clark, Jack Newton, Michael Covington, Tom Cave, Ana Gui Reyes, Jason Ware, Tom Krajci, Brad Wallis, Robert Provin, Brian Skiff, John Lightholder, Brian Shumaker, Dick Adduci, Riku Henriksson, Jane Houston, Chuck Vaughn, Mark and Phyllis Lang, Selwyn Malin, Peter Michaud, Tom Osypowski, Steve and Amelia Goldberg, Robert Midiri, Steve Coe, Wayne Schmidt, Gordon Garradd, Jim Barclay, Peter Williams, Art Russell, Fr. James Fahey, Robert Gent, Al Kelly, Elaine Osborne, Marc Salameh, Bob Bunge, Don Urban, Kevin Kilkenny, Jim Scala, Nancy Glickman, Tim Printy, Dale Mais, Gil and Kathy Machin, Nancy Thomas, Bob Cook, Giovanni Casano, Roy Bichop, Ed Stewart, Keith Lawson, Randall Wehler, Joe Haley, Lew Gramer, Vic Menard, Lachlan McDonald, Tom McGowan, Tony Buckley, Al Lamperti, Eric Jamison, Jim Ketchum, Paul Shakland, George Fleenor, Herbert Highstone, Mark Haff, Pat Rochford, Rod Molise, Scott Hammonds, Marilyn Michalski, Shane and Becky Ramotowski, Len Philpot, Richard Plasencia, Chris Lord, Remi Trujillo, Jeremy Shears, Kirk Carbo, Faith Jordan, Tom Laskowski, Jack Estes, Terry Mann, Cliff Jones, Pat Freeman, Charlie Warren, Adrianna Sherman, Marty Moyer, Paul LeFevre, Steven Orlando, Alan Chen, Rick Mortellra, Jan Jannssens, Warren Keller, Dave Reneke, Shevill Mathers, Matt Delevoryas, Mike Lockwood, Bill Gates, Russ Genet, Chuck Shaw, Sami Kharusi, Jerry Oltion, Wei Hao Wang, Christopher Go, Babak Tafreshi, Geofrey Notkin, Erika Rix, Wally Paxholka, David Ho, Laurie Allai, Ajay Talwar, Pranvera Hyseni, Randy and Pam Shivak, Alan Dyer, Sara Wager, Paul Gardener, Mike Peoples, David Lane, Bob Moore, Tara Krzywonski, Craig and Tammy Temple, Jeff Johnson, Ann Lecky Hepburn, Stephanie Anderson, Rachel Freed, Bob Denny, Molly Wakeling, Richard Wright, Kevin LeGore, Samara Nagle, Tom and Kathy Wideman, Jon Talbot, Amy Little, Rik and Delores Hill, David Levy, Dodie Ragan, Debra and Peter Ceravolo, Ann Adkins, Ron Brecher, Wanda Conde Silva, Rob Teeter, Scott Kranz, Cathy Waters, Zane Landers, Dean Schwartzenberg, Fabian Rodriguez Frustaglia, Tony Hallas, Richard Berry, Marcella Botti and the Astrophiles of Italy, Jeffrey Horne, Jim Klingshirn, Will Young, Jamie Kenas, Pat Freeman, Chris Fellows, Hap Griffin

The Winter 2026 Issue #129 has gone out to digital subscribers. If you are a digital subscriber, you should have receiv...
12/24/2025

The Winter 2026 Issue #129 has gone out to digital subscribers. If you are a digital subscriber, you should have received an email by now with the link. If you tried the link last night when it first went out, it brought up a prior issue (Sorry!!). The link is now fixed. Please let me know if you have not seen the email (check spam folders) or still have a problem with downloading. I knew there was an initial problem when I received over 1,000 emails in a 2-hour period. I apologize and thank you for all your support this year. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you have a joyous time with family.

I have uploaded the Winter 2026 issue ( #129) to the printer and now working on reflows and additional content for the d...
12/12/2025

I have uploaded the Winter 2026 issue ( #129) to the printer and now working on reflows and additional content for the digital version. On the cover is our "Star Person" Hap Griffin. Ha has a fascinating background and has made numerous impacts on our hobby over the years.
We also have coverage of three different star parties; Okie Tex, AstroFest and Stanton River. The Okie Tex article is a little different spin. Lisa Schwartzenberg and Jean Patterson provide a "spouse's perspective on the event. As the article indicates, star parties can be a very enjoyable venue even for those who are not entirely obsessed with the night sky. Hopefully it will encourage more family participation in these unique venues.
Steven Spears offers insight into how our Universe is measured, Scott Harrington pens a really nice piece on the history and observation of NGC 2313. Deep Sky Hunting delves into "Feint Preys" for our large aperture observers.
Jon Talbot has another installment of Imaging out of the way targets, and tips to optimize capture and processing.
John Oneal covers all things solar and Melissa Kaelin contributes a nice review of the recent November 11th geomagnetic storm and rounds up some spectacular images from her Aurora chasing friends. We also have our regular image gallery and have updated our Star Party calendar for 2026, so that you can start to pen in your favorites on your calendar.
Special thanks, as always to our supporters and contributors. You make this venture enjoyable and engaging.

A couple of night sky field shots from Chiefland AstroFest. The weather has been very cooperative this week.
10/22/2025

A couple of night sky field shots from Chiefland AstroFest. The weather has been very cooperative this week.

Had some fun with the Seestar S50 last night - still learning to use it, but having a blast watching the 10 second subs ...
10/18/2025

Had some fun with the Seestar S50 last night - still learning to use it, but having a blast watching the 10 second subs stack and enhance.

On the Chiefland astronomy Village observing field at Astrofest. Back to the magazine’s roots and my old astronomy commu...
10/18/2025

On the Chiefland astronomy Village observing field at Astrofest. Back to the magazine’s roots and my old astronomy community for many years. Great catching up with friends and enjoying time under clear dark skies.

The Summer issue has been uploaded to the printer and we are well under way with re-flows and additional content for the...
06/11/2025

The Summer issue has been uploaded to the printer and we are well under way with re-flows and additional content for the digital version. Another great mix thanks to our talented contributing writers sharing their passion and experiences.
One the cover is our Star Person: Patrick Freeman. I have known Pat for a long time and he has been doing some really good astrophotography from his new home in the Chiefland Astronomy Village, now that he has retired.
We start off with John O’Neal’s coverage of NEAF and NEAIC, then John’s quick and easy DIY light panel and review of the ML Astro SHG-700 spectroheliograph.
Stephen Spears authors a compelling article about Fritz Zwicky – the rebel genius.
We have several pages in memory of Dave Tosteson, who touched many lives through this hobby and in his practice as a family doctor. Dave will be sorely missed by all and leaves a void on the observing fields. We will continue his series with articles we have in the hopper. This issue’s Deep Sky Hunting offering is “Of Fish and Fire”.
We have some amazing “moon shots” courtesy of Richard Hill and Richard Sanderson.
Scott Harrington pens a nice take on the recent TSP in his article “A First Timer’s Trip to the Big Ol Texas Star Party”. Scott also contributed a terrific observing article on V1331 Cygni.
We have our updated Star party Calendar so that you can start planning your astro vacations and Melissa Kaelin covers “The Aurora Experience”.
Of course we have our Solar Activity update (John O’Neal), some spectacular solar images for that gallery and some amazing shots from subscribers in our Deep Sky Gallery.
Best wishes for a wonderful Summer under the stars, and if you are not already a subscriber, please consider joining us as we explore the universe through various venues in this hobby.

A bit of sad news I have been holding for a few days. Dave Tosteson, author of our Deep Sky Hunting features passed away...
05/09/2025

A bit of sad news I have been holding for a few days. Dave Tosteson, author of our Deep Sky Hunting features passed away at his home on May 5th after a fairly brief struggle with brain cancer. Dave was a dear friend amazing observer, writer and simply one of the nicest people I have ever met in addition to being a wonderful observing companion as anyone who had the rare pleasure of joining him under dark skies knows. He will be greatly missed by me, our readers and the entire astronomy community who knew him. I took the attached image of him at the eyepiece of his 32" scope where we were neighbors on the upper field at TSP a few years ago.

The Spring Issue (126) of Amateur Astronomy Magazine is at the printer and we are working on the final version of the di...
03/15/2025

The Spring Issue (126) of Amateur Astronomy Magazine is at the printer and we are working on the final version of the digital version. The digital version should be uploaded around 3/20 and the print version mailed the beginning of April.
I think everyone will enjoy this issue with a nice mix for imagers and observers alike. On our cover is our Star Person Jamie Kenas. Jamie has some phenomenal astrophotography to share – as well as his excellent wildlife photography. Get the whole back story in “Star People”
We have extensive coverage of the Winter Star Party, which was another wonderful week under the southern skies. I bloviate extensively enjoying imaging, observing and sampling targets in the new Smart Eye from Pegasus, and John O’Neal gives an alternate perspective on all the activity. Our image gallery focuses on a nice mix of images from attendees at the event this year.
Bill Williams covers the “King of the Southern Gems” – the Gum complex in Vela. It is a massive and fascinating section of southern sky and we enjoyed it photographically as well as visually with the help of Mike Lockwood’s “Night Vision telescope” and monocle.
Deep Sky Hunting focuses on some spectacular spiral galaxies including the elusive Sag. Dwarf Spheroidal galaxy. Scott Harrington does a deep dive into “NGC 5253 – The Self-Contradictory galaxy in Centaurus”. John O’Neal does a product review on the Altair Astro GP-CAM 678 in addition to his Solar Activity article and Solar gallery collection from various solar imagers.
Jon Talbot contributes another “Adventures in Astro-Imaging” with Out of the Way Targets and Melissa Kaelin joins our contributing editors and has another wonderful collection Aurora and article on the recent “Rare Aurora formations.
We also updated our Star Party calendar so you can start planning your astro travels.
If you are not a subscriber, please consider joining us. We are having way too much fun to keep it all to ourselves.

I am working on my new presentation, which I will give at The Winter Star Party later this month. The Title - "30 Years ...
01/02/2025

I am working on my new presentation, which I will give at The Winter Star Party later this month. The Title - "30 Years of Amateur Astronomy Star People - Cosmic Explorers". It has been more challenging than I originally thought to distill the 140 or so candidates we have profiled over the last 30 years down to 25 - 30 for this presentation. As I review the incredible list - all have been fascinating in various ways; many early profiles have progressed to really ambitious undertakings in the hobby and the bitter sweet part are the ones I came to know as friends and have passed on from this life. Digging through our files brought remembrances of moments of joy shared, mixed with sadness. That said, overall the exercise has been inspiring; triggering many great memories, and I think the final mix will be entertaining and an enjoyable retrospective for anyone who attends. I hope many of you can join me under the balmy tropical skies at WSP this year. It is hard to beat observing and imaging on the beach along the Gulf this time of year. And don't get me started on the seafood.

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