Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 6

Peter Tyson
Spectrum
Founded in 1941
by Charles A. Federer, Jr.
and Helen Spence Federer

The Essential Guide
to Astronomy

Decades on the Shelf
Hed.GillSans.30
One day recently, I was cleaning out my mother's attic when I
came upon a large, dust-covered cardboard box. Inside, neatly arranged, lay
several dozen issues of Sky & Telescope that my brother, John, had saved in
the mid-1970s when he was a teenager. Standing there in that dark, cramped
space, cobweb strings dangling from the roof beams, I traveled back to
another era: Apollo-Soyuz, the ﬁrst Space Shuttle ﬂight (in air), the Viking
lander on Mars.
Of course, some S&T readers put my brother to shame when it comes to
preserving past issues. Two long-time S&T contributors, Roger Sinnott and
Dennis di Cicco, have preserved every single issue since they began subscribing in 1957 and 1963, respectively, and I've heard from other readers
who've done the same. Why save so devotedly?
"It's great reference material," Dennis says. "Techniques even 40 or 50
years old are still applicable or spark ideas." Roger concurs: "Old articles on
how to set up, use, and get the most out of a telescope contain valuable, timeless advice. For those
who grind and polish their own mirrors and lenses,
those old issues contain a wealth of exotic optical
designs worth trying."
Observing articles also remain timeless. "A
galaxy or star cluster that Walter Scott Houston
described seeing with his 10-inch reﬂector in the
1950s will look pretty much the same in a 10-inch
today," Roger says. "The laws of optics guarantee it!"
And then there's nostalgia, naturally. The old
advertising is fun to look at, and many amateur
astronomers surely enjoy revisiting the observation,
The crew of Apollo-Soyuz
project, or photo that they themselves once congraced the cover of the July
tributed to the magazine. Most pointedly perhaps,
1975 issue.
subscribers conserve back issues because S&T has
been right there with them through the ﬂowering and maturity of one of
their foremost passions, which the magazine itself might have ﬁrst kindled.
If they toss out those issues, they'd be tossing out a part of themselves.
For my brother, as for many young would-be astronomers, S&T indeed
provided formative inspiration. John saved every penny of his allowance the
summer before 9th grade to buy a 4¼ -inch Edmund Scientiﬁc reﬂector for
$75. He went on later to found a company that uses lasers to measure material deformation and strain. His biggest client over the years? NASA.
"I loved my S&Ts every month," John recalls. "They allowed me to
dream - to dream about space and the future. S&T opened my mind to the
incredible work of huge numbers of people, to study the skies, to develop
tools, and to understand the physics. I still love it."
Why have you saved your old S&Ts? We'd love to hear from you at
letters@skyandtelescope.com. ✦

EDITORIAL

Editor in Chief Peter Tyson
Senior Editors J. Kelly Beatty, Alan M. MacRobert
Equipment Editor Sean Walker
Science Editor Camille M. Carlisle
Web Editor Monica Young
Observing Editor Susan N. Johnson-Roehr
Senior Contributing Editors Robert Naeye, Roger W. Sinnott
Contributing Editors Jim Bell, Trudy Bell, John E. Bortle, Greg Bryant,
Thomas A. Dobbins, Alan Dyer, Tom Field, Tony Flanders, Ted Forte, Sue
French, Steve Gottlieb, David Grinspoon, Ken Hewitt-White, Johnny Horne,
Emily Lakdawalla, Rod Mollise, Donald W. Olson, Joe Rao, Dean Regas,
Fred Schaaf, Govert Schilling, Gary Seronik, William Sheehan, Mike Simmons, Alan Whitman, Charles A. Wood, Robert Zimmerman
Contributing Photographers P. K. Chen, Akira Fujii, Robert Gendler,
Babak Tafreshi
ART & DESIGN

Design Director Patricia Gillis-Coppola
Illustration Director Gregg Dinderman
Illustrator Leah Tiscione
PUBLISHING AND MARKETING

Advertising Sales Director Peter D. Hardy, Jr.
Advertising Services Manager Lester J. Stockman
IT Manager Denise Donnarumma
Consumer Marketing Joseph Izzo
F + W, A C O N T E N T + E C O M M E R C E C O M P A N Y

Chairman & CEO David Nussbaum
CFO & COO James Ogle
VP / Group Publisher Phil Sexton
Chief Digital Ofﬁcer Chad Phelps
Senior VP / Operations Phil Graham
VP Communications Stacie Berger
Director of Magazine Marketing & Fulﬁllment Mark Fleetwood
Editorial Correspondence (including permissions, partnerships, and

content licensing): Sky & Telescope, 90 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA
02140-3264, USA. Phone: 617-864-7360. Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail: editors@
SkyandTelescope.com. Website: SkyandTelescope.com. Unsolicited proposals, manuscripts, photographs, and electronic images are welcome, but
a stamped, self-addressed envelope must be provided to guarantee their
return; see our guidelines for contributors at SkyandTelescope.com.
Advertising Information: Peter D. Hardy, Jr., 617-864-7360, ext. 2133.

Fax: 617-864-6117. E-mail: peterh@SkyandTelescope.com
Web: SkyandTelescope.com/advertising
Customer Service: Magazine customer service and change-of-address

notices: skyandtelescope@emailcustomerservice.com
Phone toll free U.S. and Canada: 800-253-0245.
Outside the U.S. and Canada: 386-597-4387.
Product customer service: skyprodservice@SkyandTelescope.com
Phone toll free: 888-253-0230.
Subscription Rates: U.S. and possessions: $42.95 per year (12 issues);
Canada: $49.95 (including GST); all other countries: $61.95, by expedited
delivery. All prices are in U.S. dollars.
Newsstand and Retail Distribution: Curtis Circulation Co.,

730 River Rd., New Milford, NJ 07646-3048, USA. Phone: 201-634-7400.
SKY & TELESCOPE (ISSN 0037-6604) is published monthly by Sky & Telescope,
a division of F+W Media, Inc., 90 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA 02140-3264, USA.
Phone: 800-253-0245 (customer service/subscriptions), 888-253-0230 (product orders),
617-864-7360 (all other calls). Fax: 617-864-6117. Website: SkyandTelescope.com. © 2015
F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Boston, Massachusetts,
and at additional mailing ofﬁces. Canada Post Publications Mail sales agreement
#40029823. Canadian return address: 2744 Edna St., Windsor, ON, Canada N8Y 1V2.
Canadian GST Reg. #R128921855. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sky &
Telescope, PO Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Printed in the USA.
The following are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.: Sky & Telescope and
logo, Sky and Telescope, The Essential Guide to Astronomy, Skyline, Sky Publications,
SkyandTelescope.com, http://www.skypub.com/, SkyWatch, Scanning the Skies, Night
Sky, SkyWeek, and ESSCO.

Edi i Chief
Editor in Chi f
6

April 2015 sky & telescope

http://www.SkyandTelescope.com http://www.SkyandTelescope.com http://www.SkyandTelescope.com/advertising http://www.SkyandTelescope.com http://www.SkyandTelescope.com http://www.skypub.com/

Sky and Telescope - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - April 2015