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Sky & Telescope: All 68 Years of It

December 29, 2009
by the Editors of Sky & Telescope

Some months ago, due to a complex chain of circumstances, our PDF archive of S&T back issues became inoperable. The archive was quite limited, reaching back only to July 1996, when we started all-electronic production of the magazine. Nonetheless, it was very useful — including to the editors of Sky & Telescope, for whom the back issues are an essential resource.

It's unclear exactly when the PDFs will become available again (for a small fee, as they were before), but meanwhile we are making the index to all articles since Issue #1 available right now. In some ways this is even more valuable than the back issues themselves, which are easily found in any good library. And it increases the value of your own back set.

Various different index mechanisms exist, but only one is ready for publication: a unified, searchable table of contents for every article we have ever published. The complete index, stretching back to November 1941, is huge, so we're making it available only as a space-efficient .csv file that can be browsed in any text editor or loaded by almost any database program, including Microsoft Excel.

We are also publishing an index to the last decade, 2000 through 2009, in three different forms. Please tell us which ones you like best.

Click here for a 2.7-Mb index of 2000-2009 in HTML format.
Click here for a 600-Kb index of 2000-2009 in Text format.
Click here for a 1-Mb index of 2000-2009 in Excel format.
Click here for a 4.4-Mb index of 1941-2009 in CSV format.

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First comments (from 23)

Index, Masthead

Posted by Mike Weasner December 29, 2009 At 12:45 PM PST
Thanks for making the index available. I have all issues from Jan 62 to the present on my bookshelf. I still love and prefer the old masthead with the script "Sky and" and block letters "Telescope". Wish it would make a comeback!

New Index

Posted by Gary Carradine December 29, 2009 At 01:20 PM PST
This index is a really good thing!! It will undoubtedly make it much easier to find that article I read "when was that?" FYI ... I still like the old S & T logo used back in the mid 80s the best. Also, I would like to see the return of the binder folders that used the wire in them (circa 1980s), versus the ones currently available. Any idea where they can be purchased nowadays? Thanks for the index ... keep up the GREAT work.

Master Index

Posted by Anthony Ayiomamitis December 30, 2009 At 01:34 AM PST
This is an excellent resource and which will assist incredibly those who refer back to their issues for articles and data. Many thanks to everyone involved to make it possible. By the way, my vote goes to the CSV version which dates back to 1941. Anthony.

Back Issues - Electronically?

Posted by Steve December 30, 2009 At 07:50 AM PST
Any thought to producing a CD/DVD with back issues in a searchable format? It'd be great to be able to reference back to articles from 15 years ago, etc, without having to order a specific back issue.

S & T Index

Posted by Frederick N. Ley December 30, 2009 At 10:32 AM PST
Being a subscriber since 1971 and having accumulated older issues, I find that an index of this nature is a very welcome tool to have. Research becomes much easier when attempting to track down those elusive articles of yesteryear.

S&T Index

Posted by Roy Robinson December 30, 2009 At 04:53 PM PST
Thanks so much for making this index available. I just downloaded the 1941-2009 version, and it will be useful for finding those old telescope-making articles about which I'm particularly interested. In case this starts a contest of some sort among your long-time subscribers, I have every issue from July '56 to the present (except for those last 10 pages of the Jan. '10 issue, of course.) Very unfortunate, that. I did download the .pdf pages and have them stuck into the back of the issue.

S&T Index

Posted by Ken Boquist December 31, 2009 At 08:30 AM PST
It really is nice having the index. It was inconvenient having to go through each year's index in order to find a specific article. I second Steve's comment about providing S&T on a CD/DVD ROM. It would be wonderful if S&T could provide the complete S&T magazine going all the way back to the beginning on a CD/DVD ROM. Unfortunately for me, there is no library within reasonable distance from me that actually has a complete set of S&T going all the way back to the beginning, so I can't look up the older articles. I know National Geographic has (or had?) a CD set containing every issue published, and I bought that when it came out. Of course, cost would be a consideration given the limited circulation of S&T, but I hope S&T will at least consider this!

S&T Index

Posted by Nolan Leake December 31, 2009 At 11:49 AM PST
Thanks for the searchable CSV index. This will be a great resource for your subscribers. For pre-7/96 articles, is it possible to get those from you by your scanning them in and sending them by pdf at a reasonable charge?

S&T Index

Posted by Kevin J Kilburn January 1, 2010 At 04:53 AM PST
This is a superb asset to Manchester Astronomical Society and the Society for the History of AStronomy. Both societies have nearly complete S&T collections going back to the 1950's. Searching for historical subject is particularly useful. Secetary SHA

Subscriber since 1976

Posted by Jason January 1, 2010 At 06:50 AM PST
Began subscribing as a 9th grader in 1976 and later acquired all issues back to vol.1, no.1 and beyond that to some issues of The Sky and The Telescope. I really miss the older style and content of the magazine. The sensational headlines, pictures, and covers are amateurish in the bad sense of the word. Please bring back the 'real' S&T that represents the best of what amateur astronomy is all about.



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