Category: free astronomy magazine

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Free Astronomy Magazine – January-February 2025 Issue Available For Reading And Download

IC 2163 and NGC 2207

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).

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Free Astronomy Magazine – November-December 2024 Issue Available For Reading And Download

Above: Among other events to look forward to, 2025 should be excellent for more aurora with our Sun being in/just past solar max. Even lousy fish-eye lens aurora pics from the light polluted near-suburbs of Rochester with no forethought into optimizing the capture should still be completely reasonable this coming year.

The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (November-December 2024) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).

Running past the finishing line for the year with a slew of exceptionally well-presented NASA, ESA, CSA, ESO, and NOIRLab articles that go from the Kitt Peak Visitor Center to Barnard’s Star to the very, very edge of it all.

Also looking into 2025 for notable space and space science missions, for which Suni and Butch's return to Earth is a major event for the household (as Suni's tour of the ISS was on our dinner playlist for months), ESA's BepiColumbo will finally settle into Mercury's orbit in early December, NASA's own Lucy will be flying by asteroid Donaldjohanson (get it?) in late April, and a bunch of other missions will be reaching milestones.

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Free Astronomy Magazine – September-October 2024 Issue Available For Reading And Download

Above: One doesn't need a complete Dyson Sphere to collect Dyson-level solar energy. In the above, a Dyson Swarm would work just fine (and it has a nice Utility Fog-ish thing going on). From wikipedia.

The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (September-October 2024) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Arabic at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).

"We're reporting on Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb, Hubble, and Webb."

"Hubble is off!"

"Then we'll report on Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb, and Webb."

A poor take on a Monty Python skit

I would have found a way to pay for the JWST cost overruns myself at this point. Speaking of costs (free magazine or not), I note that the number of events (and advertisers) have nudged upward as of late, with notable events including:

The original article for this issue is a deep-dive into the findings, and possible relevance, of the work published in the article “Dyson sphere candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE.” A notable remark by our fearless leader Michele lies in the sentence:

"Today, we know that the growing efficiency of technologies, the miniaturization of components, and the development of nanotechnologies allow for increasing energy savings."

www.astropublishing.com/5FAM2024/

When considering with the amount of accessible solar energy we currently do NOT use…

"A total of 173,000 terawatts (trillions of watts) of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That’s more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy use."

phys.org/news/2011-10-vast-amounts-solar-energy-earth.html

It's quite an exercise to think of what a civilization might be trying to accomplish by harnessing the entirety of a star's output that hitherto unknown physics might not somehow make easier.

Browser-readable version (and PDF download): www.astropublishing.com/5FAM2024/