Free Astronomy Magazine – November-December 2021 Issue Available For Reading And Download

Above: The highly-updated (spiced up) banner image for Amazon Prime's provision of the UFO TV Series.

The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (November-December 2021) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure at www.astropublishing.com.

The magazine rounds out the year with a bit of a change from the usual assortment of astronomy and space science news, instead providing a lengthy article the harkens back to the olde days for readers of a certain age/scifi enthusiasts of a certain historical bent. This month, Michele Ferrara considers the scifi classic "UFO" (wiki) – a mostly down-to-Earth (pun intended) series about aliens and our secret protection from them.

Having started my foray into the genre at the perfect placement of first-airings of "Star Trek:TNG" and my local PBS affiliate's (WCNY) showing of Tom Baker-era "Dr. Who" at 7:30 M-Th (perfect for pre-night-night Lego'ing), I was a good 10 years away from ever even having a chance to see UFO on the tele. Like all of those series of that time, watching it "now" vs. "then" makes you realize (1) how good special effects are today than they were yesterday and (2) how philosophical writers of those past times could also be and how, once you've been properly brainwashed by a solid Liberal Arts education, it's possible to come away from an episode with more to think about than just the timeline of the series.

The same is true of the "Golden Girls." You've had to have lived a little before you understand what your yia yia and great aunts were laughing about so much while watching when you were 8 or 9, even if you then wish you didn't know that they got that particular humor while rewatching at 20 or 25.

And, with that, enjoy the issue, see what the writers predicted correctly about the state of technology in the few decades or so ahead of the time that the series was written, and be ready to be brought back away from Earth in 2022.

Browser-readable version: www.astropublishing.com/6FAM2021/

Jump to the PDF download (16.8 MB): November-December 2021