Astronomy Magazines

[Dave In Vermont]

Let go of Sky & Telescope and de-forest the Earth now solely with Astronomy Magazine in the US. And a digital subscription to Sky News from Canada, which is a great magazine. Give it a look.

Dave

[Herrman]

I subscribed to S&T for years, but gave up on it a while back. Deliveries from US were erratic; sometimes a magazine would go missing, and often issues would appear on the shelf in Smiths, before arriving through my letterbox. I think the magazine itself had become tired, introspective, and aimed heavily (and not surprisingly, I guess) at the American market. The format of Sky at Night magazine seems to be more interested in style than content, which is fairly typical of anything the BBC's involved with. Overall, Astronomy Now provides good value for money; editions generally contain a goodly number of articles, covering a broad range of subjects. I do sometimes notice typos, and wonder why "whopping" has to precede most references to speed, distance, or age, but apart from that I look forward to it dropping on the doormat.

Not directly relevant, but I also get the RASC yearbook and calendar. The former's packed full of useful data and articles, and the calendar has great pictures.

I'm sure not everyone will agree with my comments about these magazines, but I thought I get my 10 New Pence worth in!

Best, Herrman

[Mark at Beaufort]

I don't read either magazine on a regular basis. Steve/FLO you could also look at the newsletter that is produced by the Federation of Astro Societies. It does to every member Society so has a wide circulation.

[Colinlp]

My last issue arrived today and I thoroughly enjoyed most of it, even the adverts have changed, they must have known my subs had ended

[George Jones]

I live near the west coast of Canada, so adverts probably will not affect me.

Even though I don't currently have a subscription, I have subscribed on to Astronomy Magazine for many years, starting in 1977. When I don't subscribe, I purchase it every month. I often purchase Sky & Telescope, but not as often as Astronomy Magazine, and I have never subscribed.

[goodricke1]

I get all my information online these days I'm afraid.

[David Smith]

I ditched my subscription to S@N back end of last year in favour of Sky & Telescope. Halved the cost of a years subscription in one swift move! Much cheaper to buy a product that has to be shipped half way around the world than one that is printed in our back yard - go figure

[psamathe]

As a novice and thinking about the ads, I do find them useful.  If an advert does get my attention I will tend to visit their web site and that will affect my readiness to use the company.  And I can't easily identify which ads get my attention and which don't.  Single product large ads don't (as normally not something I'm interested in).  Ads with loads of small boxes with loads of products with small text don't either.  Ads without a phone number (or without a phone number on the web site) don't - even though I might only use e-mail, no phone number is something I regard as rather negative.

But I suspect that as I become more experienced (and get more gear and more familiar with what gear is needed and what is available) I will skip the ads more and more.

Ian

 

[Sp@ce_d]

Just renewed my subscription to AN. I used to also get S@N but stopped around a year ago. Interestingly, my nephew recently picked AN over S@N when we asked him which one he wanted a gift subscription for too.

[Grotemobile]

I would like to get a astronomy mag subscription , but I don't think I will bother after reading this. 

[Dave Lloyd]

I tend to just pick up whatever is in the shop at the time.

[swag72]

I'd like to see the adverts change from time to time ............. usually the equipment adverts that are in the mags are just the same month after month.

I'm not sure how often as a retailer you are able to change these, or if there's a minimum run specified when the advert is placed? If they were different more often I think that would give people a good incentive to look, as it stands at the moment there's little point in looking at the retailer adverts as they're the same as the month before

[PeterCPC]

S@N and AN.

Peter

[employee2-4601]

Picked up a copy for All About Space for the first time the other day. Not sure if it's my cup of tea - the articles I've read so far seem a little sensationalist, though if it gets people interested in space and astronomy that's no bad thing  (if I were to classify this, S@N and AN, I would describe AAS as being for the very casual hobbyist, S@N for the intermediate enthusiast and AN for the hard-boiled armchair physicist based on the areas they focus on and the level of detail the articles seem to go into). What are other people's opinions of it?

 

Getting back to the subject of adverts, I also would be interested to know how long an advert stays in a particular magazine. Most astronomy magazines seem to have had the same Celestron ad on the back cover for the past few months, for example.

 

I wouldn't object to seeing an FLO advert in any magazine as I've always had a good experience with them (online only, though) and I'm always happy to share that sort of info with others.

[Highburymark]

Astronomy Now is the pick of the mags for the enthusiast in my view. I agree with the comments above about the repetition of adverts in the astronomy press - but they reflect a general appetite from readers for more equipment coverage. One telescope test a month isn't much - and it doesn't tell the wider story about what's happening in the marketplace. I've made this point in a couple of other threads and will shut up now. 

[Paul M]

Only read S&T these days but I've not renewed this time round so the last issue is due in the summer.

Mixed emotions, but I struggle to concentrate on any magazines now. 

[DirkSteele]

I was a regular reader of Sky & Telescope for about 15 years (from mid 90s onwards) and subscriber for about 10 years though I let that lapse back in 2007/08.  I enjoy reading all the magazines (just love the subject of astronomy too much not to), but these days it is more of an ad-hoc thing when it comes to purchases.  I tend to have a quick flick through all the magazines available in the shop and then pick the one that looks most interesting.  Looking at my purchases over the last few years, I would suspect that Astronomy Now is magazine most frequently acquired and I must say I vastly prefer it now than I did say a decade or more ago (I believe they have upped their game quite a bit).  Though we are probably talking 4-5 magazines a year.  Perhaps S@N is aimed a little lower on the experience base and both US mags are good but much more North America focused.

 

I am one of those readers who reads it cover to cover though and does look at all the ads (combination of OCD and always excited by what I can spend my money on next).

 

While the internet is great resource I do hope the magazines continue for years to come as they are a great aggregator of important information, written by very experienced individuals who we can all learn from.

 

[Piero]

Sky & Telescope for me BUT I subscribed to their electronic version. As mentioned above, a lot of information can also be retrieved on SGL and CN, the subscription to a magazine can be very useful to learn the sky and how to observe. The electronic version is also very cheap.

[AWR]

I read both SaN and AN on an ad-hoc basis.  I tend to flick through them both in the shop and buy whichever has something which interests me (or something I can use in school).  I guess that I have probably bought more AN over the years but SaN is enjoying a bit of a run at the moment.

Andrew