Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2025 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known.
Articles for the 2025 edition include:
This iconic publication made its first appearance way back in 1962, shortly after the dawning of the Space Age. Now well into its seventh decade of production, the Yearbook continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy and who has a desire to extend their knowledge of the Universe and the wonders to which it plays host. The Yearbook of Astronomy is indeed an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the skies.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2025 will be released on 30 August 2024. It can be ordered directly from the publisher Pen & Sword Books Limited. Readers in the United States and Canada should order their copies from Casemate IPM. It is also available at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2024 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known.
The Yearbook of Astronomy 2024 continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy. It remains an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the Universe.
Articles for the 2024 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2024 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2024 was released on 2 August 2023. It can be ordered directly from the publisher Pen & Sword Books Limited. Readers in the United States and Canada should order their copies from Casemate IPM. It is also available at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known.
The Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy. It remains an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the Universe.
Articles for the 2023 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 was released on 1 August 2022. It can be ordered directly from the publisher Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
The Yearbook of Astronomy 2022 is the Diamond Jubilee edition of this iconic publication, the annual appearance of which has been eagerly anticipated by astronomers, both amateur and professional, ever since this invaluable book first appeared in 1962. As the preface to the 1962 edition informed its readers, the post-war years had seen a tremendous growth of interest in astronomy and space research. Doubtless fuelled by the dawn of the Space Age, the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 marked a significant change in the course of history. This epoch-making event, coupled with the subsequent flights of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (April 1961) and American astronaut Alan Shepard (May 1961), served to engender a public interest in astronomy and space that has continued to grow and expand to this day.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2022 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known.
The Yearbook of Astronomy 2022 continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy. It remains an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the Universe.
Articles for the 2022 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2022 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2022 was released on 30 October 2021. It can be ordered directly from the publisher Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2021 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year's eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. The ongoing process of improving and updating what the Yearbook of Astronomy offers to its readers is continued in the 2021 edition with the introduction of apparition charts for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which ensures that charts are now included for all the major planets in our solar system.
Articles for the 2021 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2021 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2021 is published by Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2020 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year's eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. The 2020 edition of the Yearbook of Astronomy now includes diagrams showing the positions of Mercury and Venus at sunrise or sunset throughout each apparition, as well as finder charts for Uranus and Neptune.
Articles for the 2020 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2020 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2020 is published by Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available online at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
The 2021 edition of the Yearbook of Astronomy will include finder charts showing the positions of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn throughout the year. To give readers of the 2020 edition a preview of these charts, we have prepared downloadable PDF files for these planets in 2020. There are two charts for Mars. The first shows its progress as a morning-sky object during the first half of the year, starting in Libra and ending in Pisces, a span of more than 120° along the ecliptic. The red planet slows down as it approaches opposition in October 2020, and the second chart is a close-up view of the region of Pisces and Cetus where Mars may be found between July and December 2020. Jupiter and Saturn are both near the border between Sagittarius and Capricornus in 2020, so the charts for Jupiter and Saturn are shown side by side and at the same scale, allowing direct comparison.
The 2019 edition contains authoritative sky charts and detailed monthly sky notes that plot a clear path though the year's lunar phases, eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as featuring a variety of articles covering a wide range of astronomy- and space-related topics, and much more.
Articles for the 2019 edition include:
Bursting with up-to-the-minute information, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2019 is, as ever, essential reading for anyone fascinated by the night sky.
Yearbook of Astronomy 2019 is published by Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available online at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
The 2020 edition of the Yearbook of Astronomy will include diagrams showing the positions of Mercury and Venus at sunrise or sunset throughout each apparition. To give readers of the 2019 edition a preview of these diagrams, we have prepared a downloadable PDF file of the same diagrams for all of the apparitions of Mercury and Venus during 2019.
The 2020 edition will also include finder charts for Uranus and Neptune. We have prepared a downloadable PDF file of the same charts for the 2019 apparitions of Uranus and Neptune. The charts show the paths of the planets throughout the year. The position of each planet is indicated at opposition and at stationary points, as well as the start and end of the year and on the 1st of April, July and October where these dates do not fall too close to an event that is already marked. On the Uranus chart, stars are shown to magnitude 8; on the Neptune chart, the limiting magnitude is 10. In both cases, this is approximately two magnitudes fainter than the planet itself. Right Ascension and Declination scales are shown for the epoch J2000 to allow comparison with modern star charts.
The 2018 edition marks a new chapter in the history of the Yearbook of Astronomy. It is the first edition published by Pen & Sword Books Limited.
Articles for the 2018 edition include:
Yearbook of Astronomy 2018 is published by Pen & Sword Books Limited. It is also available online at Amazon and at other online book retailers.
The Yearbook of Astronomy has been an indispensable publication for amateur astronomers for over half a century so when it emerged that the 2016 edition was to be the last one, immediate action was needed to save the book. However, at around this same time, Pen and Sword Books approached Brian Jones about any astronomy book projects he could put their way. They quickly agreed to Brian's suggestion that they take on the Yearbook of Astronomy, starting with the 2018 edition.
Although the announcement of a new publisher for the Yearbook of Astronomy was welcome news, this left a one-year gap in the ongoing series of books. In late November 2016, Richard Pearson and Brian decided to self-publish the Yearbook of Astronomy 2017. During the following three months a series of monthly sky notes and star charts was drawn up, information relating to lunar phases, eclipses, comets and minor planets in 2017 was collated, and a number of excellent articles were sourced from contributors who were eager to play their part in saving the Yearbook of Astronomy. The hard work paid off and by late March 2017, the book was on sale.
Articles in the 2017 edition include
Copies of the 2017 edition are still available at Starlight Nights.
The 2018-2021 editions of the Yearbook of Astronomy include a Glossary at the back of the book. However, due to the increasing length of the Glossary, it has been decided to remove it from the book and instead publish it on the Yearbook of Astronomy website in the form of a downloadable PDF.
Readers of the Yearbook are invited to read through the Glossary and, if they feel that any important terms or definitions are missing, they may submit new entries. These should include the word or term itself along with the accompanying descriptive/explanatory text. If approved for use, they will be inserted into the online Glossary, and the name of the contributor will be added to this page. We reserve the right to edit contributions to conform to the style of the Yearbook.
Please send any proposed new Glossary entries to us via the Contact page on this website.
The Yearbook of Astronomy is much more than just an annual guide to the night sky. Since the very first edition in 1962, over 500 articles have appeared in its pages. They cover a wide range of astronomy- and space-related topics, and have been written by many experienced astronomers, both professional and amateur.
Given the potential value of these articles to the reader, we have compiled a full index which lists the articles by author.
The index, which is provided here in the form of a downloadable PDF, includes all of the articles which have appeared in the main 'Article Section' of the Yearbook as well as the shorter articles contained in the Monthly Sky Notes section from the 2018 edition onwards. If you check through the index, you are sure to find something that will have you seeking out one or more previous editions of the Yearbook of Astronomy!
The Editor would be grateful if readers could notify him of any errors via the contact form on this web site.
Copyright © 2018–2024 by Brian Jones
and David Harper
Yearbook cover images from 2018 onwards copyright © 2018–2024 by Pen & Sword Books
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Unauthorised reproduction in part or in whole in any format is prohibited without the written consent of the authors.
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