TWAN in Beautiful Universe and SkyWatch 2011


2011 January 9: The 2011 edition of Beautiful Universe, an annual publication of Sky&Telescope magazine, features a TWAN image on the cover (Mt. Palomar Starry Night by Wally Pacholka) and over 30 pages of TWAN images, as well as an article by TWAN director Babak Tafreshi who is involved with this edition as a major contributor. The Beautiful Universe brings the world’s best astrophotography to readers around the world. There are 82 stunning images in the 2011 edition from starryscapes of TWAN to impressive deep sky images and snapshots of Saturn by Cassini spacecraft. The editor of this edition of Beautiful Universe is Sean Walker and two other major contributors are Linda J. Spilker of NASA’s Cassini mission and Robert Gendler one of today’s most recognized deep sky photographers.

SkyWatch is another annual publication of Sky&Telescope which focus on practical astronomy and review sky events of the year. The 2011 edition of SkyWatch features a TWAN photo on the cover: Sky Photographer by Amir Abolfath. It has also published several other TWAN images in the inside pages including Alamut in Moonlight by Oshin Zakarian which is featured as the Photofinish page. Tony Flanders is the editor of this edition of SkyWatch and major contributors are Alan Dyer with a 16-page guide on how to photograph the night sky, Sue French with a season by season guide to observing deep sky objects, Alan MacRobert and Fred Schaaf with a month by month guide to the night sky in 2011, Stuart Goldman who introduces online sources for astronomy, and Charles Wood with a tour to telescopic observation of the Moon.

There is a growing collaboration between TWAN and Sky&Telescope magazine. Widely considered as the most respected general astronomy magazine in the world, Sky&Telescope has a history of continues publication for 7 decades which promoted and advanced practical astronomy. The American magazine has many readers around the world and is perhaps the most internationally known astronomy publication which covers all aspects of amateur and general astronomy. Dedicated science journalist and amateur astronomer Robert Naeye is the editor in chief of Sky&Telescope since 2008.

In 2007 before the official start of TWAN (as a project of Astronomers Without Borders) a long senior editor at Sky&Telescope magazine and experienced astrophotographer Dennis di Cicco was invited as one of the first TWAN team members and in 2008 Sky & Telescope became one of the first publications to announce TWAN project. Later Mike Simmons, the co-founder of TWAN and president of Astronomers Without Border, became a contributing editor at the magazine and a year later TWAN director Babak Tafreshi was invited to be a contributing photographer at Sky&Telescope. For the International Year of Astronomy 2009, Sky&Telescope allocated the 2009 edition of Beautiful Universe to two IYA2009 project: The World at Night (with over 30 pages and the cover photo) and From Earth To The Universe (FETTU). In 2010 the magazine generously supported one of TWAN exhibits in the US (for PATS 2010).

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