September 2018

– Free mini mag – get ready for the new season

– Dawn’s Sunset – NASA’s mission to the asteroid belt is about to end. What have we learned?

– Colours of the Cosmos – how to strike the right balance when imaging stars

– Music of the Spheres – Holst’s The Planets turns 100. What inspired its compostion?

– Imaging the Ice Giants – how to take photos of Uranus and Neptune

– Dark Sky Portugal – the country’s most beautiful and idyllic locations for stargazing

Equipment reviews

Omegon ProDob N 203/1200 telescope

Sky-Watcher EQM-35 Pro Go-To mount

ZWO ASI094MC Pro cooled, full-frame camera

Online Bonus Content

We speak to astronomer Scott Sheppard, who led the team that discovered new moons around Jupiter

Watch an episode of The Sky at Night in which Chris visits Australia’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory to learn about the beginnings of the Universe

Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through September’s night skies in the Virtual Planetarium.

Also this month

Making sense of the celestial coordinate systems

How to build a working model of the Sun, Earth and the Moon

Image processing – creating a shot of Mercury orbiting the Sun

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 September Sky Guide featuring Mars at perihelion, Comet 46P/Wirtanen and Saturn’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