Australian Sky & Telescope - April 2016__

REGULARS

5Spectrum
By Jonathan Nally

10 News notes

40 New product showcase

74 Astro Calendar

FEATURES

8 A new era of astronomy
The discovery of gravitational
waves hasn’t just opened a new
window on the cosmos — it has
smashed the door wide open.
By Robert Naeye

16 Jupiter’s not-so-great
Red Spot
After shrinking in size for
decades, is Jupiter’s iconic Great
RedSpotfacinganidentity
crisis?By Amy A. Simon

20 Telescope operators
These men and women are the
expertsthatmakediscoveriesat
big professional observatories
possible.By Katherine Kornei

26 Our two-faced Moon
Planetary scientists still don’t
know why one side of Earth’s
satellite looks so different from
the other.By Paul D. Spudis

36 The ‘Mars’ telescope is
reborn
Lowell Observatory’s legendary
119-year-old telescope has been
lovingly restored.
ByKlausBrasch&RalphNye

Contents

OBERVING & EXPLORING

42 Binocular highlight

A marathon bino session

By Gary Seronik

44 Tonight's sky

Thecelestialbeautyofclose

stellar pairings

By Fred Schaaf

46 Sun, Moon and planets

Mars versus Antares

By Jonathan Nally

47 Meteors

TheEtaAquariid’sareback

By Con Stoitsis

48 Double star notes

AdozendoublesinCarina

By Ross Gould

49 Comets

AmorningcometinPisces

By David Seargent

50 Variable stars

Atemptingbinoculartarget

By Alan Plummer

52 Targets

ThecolourfulstarsofGemini

By Sue French

55 Going deep

Galaxies in the Beehive

By Ted Forte

58 April’sMarsapparition

Mars moves into its best

showinginadecade.

By Alan MacRobert

April 2016 Vol. 12, No. 3

p. 36 Restoring a classic scope

p.58 Mars observing season is here

4 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE APRIL 2016