The Great Debate Redux: S&T or Astronomy Magazine

[dschultz@hamline.edu]

Hi all: I am life-long reader of S&T but not as impressed with it as I used to be. For those with knowledge of it and Astronomy Magazine, which do you prefer and why?

[Deane Clark]

I know S&T has gotten skinnier over the years, and I suspect Astronomy has too. Just a result of the media shift to apps and the internet. I still get S&T, but I don’t get around to reading that much of it. What I do read I like. I guess I just want it to still exist.

[Sureshks]

I too have been subscribing to both S&T and Astronomy for many years, since 1985.

Astronomy magazine was originally designed to be pointed more towards beginners. Though over the years the content has gotten a bit more advanced. The writing has always seemed to be at a slightly lower grade level than S&T. Their owner, Kalmbach Media, is geared more toward science education for the masses as their mission. In the past they published Odyssey, a science magazine for children. They still own Discover magazine as well.

S&T has always been considered for more advanced amateur astronomers, with observing lists of more difficult objects, more technical articles for imagers, "new product" features, and more sophisticated science articles. Astronomy has also delved in to these subjects more in recent years. But not as consistently as S&T. It will be interesting to see how S&T evolves now that they are owned by the American Astronomical Society.

These days, most people get their astro news over the internet, e-mail digests, or via apps. So perhaps it doesn't matter if you still subscribe to S&T and Astronomy. Still, it is always a highlight to receive these magazines each month, and quickly flip thru their pages. Just like you did many years ago...

I guess it all depends on the reader as to which they prefer. I cannot imagine not having both!

Suresh

[bhamil]

I thought I would chime in on this debate as I get both of them. Frankly, it is simply hard to keep up with reading both of them. I also seem to find they clearly benchmark off of each other - meaning if one has an article on a topic, that topic often will appear in the other publication shortly thereafter. Nevertheless, if you have to choose, I would go with S&T. Their contributing editors are “one of us.” Meaning, dedicated amateur astronomers.

Currently, Astronomy is on sale for $13.99 with an auto rate lock / auto renewal. Just call me if you cannot find that offer. I’m really bad about checking private messages from the forums. Plus I would rather talk to club members than email them anyway!

[SEmert]

I also subscribe to both. It's hard to quantify, but I prefer S&T over Astronomy a little. Part of it is that S&T has "The Astronomer's Workbench" column and features amateur telescope maker projects more often that Astronomy. To me, they both seem to have a similar mix of astronomical research articles, although S&T's articles may go just a tad more in-depth. Another consideration is that S&T is now owned by the American Astronomical Association, so going forward one could speculate that they may increase the scientific orientation of the magazine over time.

To the positive side of the discussion for Astronomy, they do have a good set of columnists, most especially Bob Berman (who we got to meet a couple years ago at the ALCON hosted by the MAS in Bloomington.

Personally, I get enough out of both that I am going to continue subscribing to both magazines - especially since I used the new club procedure to renew my subscriptions for the longer subscriptions (missing out, alas, on the super sale rate Brandon just mentioned!).

[petemn2004]

I had a subscription from Sky & Telescope since 1974. Sky & Telescope had changed quite a bit in the past few years. They have had their struggles. I dropped them in 2016 and since 2014 I now get Astronomy magazine.

Mark

[Deane Clark]

I had a subscription from Sky & Telescope since 1974. Sky & Telescope had changed quite a bit in the past few years. They have had their struggles. I dropped them in 2016 and since 2014 I now get Astronomy magazine.

Mark

How would you say S&T has changed lately? I haven’t noticed a big change other than getting thinner, a redesign, and maybe an increased focus on imaging, which seems logical with all the new products and imagers out there.

[petemn2004]

I started subscribing to Astronomy magazine in 2011 while I still had been receiving Sky & Telescope since 1974.

I wanted to par down my subscriptions and I found the articles in Astronomy magazine to be much more interesting compared to those in the later years of the last decade of Sky & Telescope.

Some articles I thought were interesting in Astronomy magazine just this year:

January:
In Pursuit of Planet 9
Tour 5 Great Australian Observatories

February:
Our first Interstellar Visitor
Lowell Observatory Turns 125
Astronomy’s Electronic Revolution

March:
30 Years: Hubble's Greatest Hits
How the Ritchey-Cretien Telescope was Born

April:
Jim Lovell – Remember Triumph Over Tragedy
Apollo 13 in 3D

May:
Is the Big Bang in Crisis?
V.M. Slipher’s Expanding Universe
Warm and Not so Fuzzy (Spitzer Space Telescope)
Expanding the Worlds of Galaxies

Astronomy magazine has done an in-depth article for each Apollo mission on the month that mission happened 50 years ago. For the Astronomy July 2019 issue the story of the Apollo 11 mission was covered extensively. In the Sky & Telescope issue for July 2019, Apollo 11 was barely mentioned.

Alan Stern, the instigator and Principal Investigator for the New Horizon mission to Pluto and Ultima Thule, wrote quite a few articles on these subjects for Astronomy magazine.

I wanted to get down to one subscription and for me it is Astronomy magazine.


Mark

[Deane Clark]

I don’t know if it’s a sign of anything, other than the COVID effect perhaps, but I just noticed the August 2020 S&T does not contain a Tele Vue ad . As far back as I can remember, they’ve always had an ad inside the front cover.