February 2018

This month's features:

- Winter Star Cluster - 12 of the best clusters winter has to over, in a tour that can be completed in one night

- TRAPPIST-1 - the latest from one of the most exciting exoplanetary discoveries ever made

- Return to Mercury - looking ahead to this year's BepiColombo mission

- IAPY 2018 - how to enter the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 competition

- Imaging for Science: Part 5 - how to take scientifically useful images of space rocks

Equipment reviews

Altair 60 EDF doublet refractor

Explore Scientific Exos2 PMC8 Wireless Go-To mount

Atik 16200 cooled mono CCD camera

Online Bonus Content

Watch our video interview with Michaël Gillon, leader of the team who found the TRAPPIST-1 system

We speak to asteroid expert Tim Spahr about the science of space rocks, and whether they are a threat to Earth.

The Sky at Night team focus on fleeting cosmic events that happen in the blink of an eye

Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through December's night skies in the Virtual Planetarium

Also this month

The importance of eyepieces in The Guide

How to build a stomp rocket launcher

Image processing - making the best of bad images

Monthly Bulletin pages bring you up to date with all the latest astronomical news, as well as Cutting Edge revealing the highlights from brand new research

Our February Sky Guide featuring thin-Moon hunting, Mars and Antares, Jupiter's moons

Our Scope Doctor answers your technical kit questions

Interactive: your letters, tweets, forum posts and readers’ scopes

Gear – a round up of the latest astronomical accessories

What’s On listings – find out what astronomy events are on near you

Hotshots - this month's pick of your very best astrophotos

Beautiful new images from space in Eye on the Sky

The latest astronomy books reviewed