October 2009
Volume 5.  Number 7.  Issue 40

COVER STORY

Ice Age Impact
Scientists are debating whether a comet impact triggered the extinction of large North American mammals 12,900 years ago and put Earth into a 1,400-year deep freeze.
By Ivan Semeniuk

NEWS & FEATURES 

News Notes

• New Class of Planetary Nebula
• More of Mercury Revealed
• Three Free-Floaters

and more...

Mission Update
By Jonathan McDowell

Cosmic Relief
My God, It's Full of Moonlets!
By David Grinspoon

Discoveries
Charting the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
By David Ellyard

Insight
Ten things you may not know about globular clusters

The Mystery of V838 Monocerotis
Stars colliding? A sun swallowing its planets? A stellar outburst discovered seven years ago by an Australian amateur continues to puzzle astronomers.
By Greg Bryant

What's Wrong With Our Sun?
The Sun has gone more than a year with hardly any sunspots. Astronomers are wondering what lies ahead.
By Robert Zimmerman

Smashing the Distance Record
An exploding star establishes a new benchmark for the most distant known object in the universe.
By Edo Berger

The Moon's Far Side: Nearly a New World
Out of sight, out of mind? New types of terrain lurk just around the Moon's edge.
By Charles A. Wood

PRODUCTS & REVIEWS

New Product Spotlight

• Alberio Planetarium's Starmap
• Tele Vue's 10-mm Ethos eyepiece
• Star Testing Astronomical Telescope
• and more...

AS&T Test Report
The CCDelightful QSI 540wsg
With its big chip and guider port, this camera delivers high performance and high elegance.
By Richard Tresch Fienberg

OBSERVING & EXPLORING

Binocular Highlight
M33 - The Triangulum Galaxy
By Les Dalrymple

Tonight's Sky
The Hour of Aquarius
By Greg Bryant

Sun, Moon, and Planets
A Trio of Planets in the Dawn Sky
By Greg Bryant

Celestial Calendar
U Scorpii About to Go Nova?
By Bradley Schaefer

Celestial Calendar
Comet Howell reaches perihelion
By David Seargent

Exploring The Moon
Naming Names
By Charles A. Wood

Suburban Star-Hop
Lyra's Dandy Doughnut
By Ken Hewitt-White

Deep Sky Delights
Live Fast, Die Young...
By Les Dalrymple

Double Star Notes
Gems from the Stream
By Ross Gould

Targets
Arion's Dolphin
By Sue French

ACTIVITIES & PEOPLE

Moving Pictures
Use your digital SLR camera to create high-definition time-lapse movies of the night sky.
By Lorenzo Comolli and Alessandro Gambaro

The Deepest South Texas Star Safari
Each year a dozen or more US amateurs venture to Coonabarabran for a week-long observing fest to marvel at our southern skies and attractions.
By Tony Buckley and Lachlan MacDonald

Community News

Amateur Telescope Making
A Folded Maksutov-Herschelian
By Ed Jones

Telescope Workshop
Making A Good Dob Better
By Gary Seronik

Ask AS&T

Gallery

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Spectrum
Cosmic Collisions
By Greg Bryant

Subscription Offer
Subscribe and receive a free Solar System DVD! See our offer

Manufacturer & Dealer Directory

Focal Point
In Defense of the Cheap Scope
By Paul Schroeder

Index to Advertisers