Above: A highly cropped view of RCW 38, featured in an ESO article in the current issue, and which I'll need to plan a trip far south to ever see for myself. Image from https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2503/.
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (May-June 2025) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
Another edition heavy on content provided by major astronomical observatories and agencies (original content still in the works). As always, an excellent collection and afternoon read.
We hear/read a lot about the recent feats of the James Webb Space Telescope, from which is remain warming (just slightly, in the interest of detector sensitivity) to read how the data from Hubble Space Telescope continues to complement the science and analysis being performed by Webb, such as in the NASA articles "Webb peers deeper into mysterious Flame Nebula" and "Webb exposes complex atmosphere of starless super-Jupiter."
Above: I'm an American. Of course it's in the middle (and apologies if I, er, cut you off). Light pollution map as of the data available on 8 March 2025. See the excellent/astronomically depressing details at lightpollutionmap.info.
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (March-April 2025) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
The March-April 2025 cover. Click to go to the issue.
Two very young children, COVID, and life in general kept me indoors most evenings (and away from observing) for much of 2020-2021. What I do vividly remember around mid-March 2021 was taking out the garbage a little bit earlier in the morning than usual and seeing a massive celestial caravan moving from west-to-east through a crystal-clear sky. At that moment, I was astounded at the progress SpaceX had made with Starlink, as I'd never seen anything that massive and coordinated and that fast in the sky before (and that includes seeing a space shuttle undock from the ISS over the course of two full orbits, which itself I won't soon forget).
I personally do not know any amateur astronomer who considers that caravan "progress" (feel free to correct me). The good fight from darksky.org, the now-defunct SELENE-NY, whose web presence ended around 2019 (last snap – web.archive.org/web/20190101182128/http://selene-ny.org/; skipping what might be a hacked site, a link and mention is, for instance, skykeepers.org/activism.html), and other local, national, and international organizations seems most up-the-hill as we progress upwards. If it were easy for astrophotographers to plant their gear just past the edge of GEO, it would likely be a different situation. But that's a long time in waiting (because they spent all their money on gear and can't affords rockets and space platforms).
In the defense of progress, very little in the nighttime sky will get a crowd of 200 people looking at the exact same location faster than a pinpoint of light hauling in front of a field of stars. I have no doubt that the sight of a satellite can be a gateway for someone into the hobby (or into one of the many associated professions).
The problem remains far worse here on the ground, as even the darkest of dark skies are seeing light pollution either slowly or rapidly advance (see the cover article above). The tension continues.
Above: IC 2163 and NGC 2207 from combined Hubble and Webb data, processed by Joseph DePasquale (STScI). From the website: These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes using Hubble's WFPC2 and Webb's MIRI instruments. See webbtelescope.org for more info.
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (January-February 2025) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
The January-February 2025 cover. Click to go to the issue.
I mentioned to our fearless leader Michele that issues with new content and issues with curated content remind me of a comment by the great jazz/fusion guitarist Steve Khan. Issues with new content are like albums with new music, where you're trying to expand repertoire and introduce new themes. Issues made of content from other sources are like albums of standards, where you're specifically trying to develop your improvisational skills In this case, it's all about curation, framing, and presentation, which is excellent in this issue (I have no doubt that the exobiological/technosignature bent of articles over the past few years will not end, perhaps with a focus on the nonsensical New Jersey drone reports from this month).
I'm also very happy to see the recent increase in the number of international conferences and symposia being included in issues (not at all unfamiliar to readers of The Reflector or Amateur Astronomy Magazine).
