THE COLOR photographs of the Great Nebula in Orion on the opposite page were made to demonstrate the performance of a remarkably simple and relatively inexpensive camera of the cryogenic type that was invented three years ago by Bill Williams of 2 Heather Lane, Mahwah, N.J. 07430. At the time Willia..
I SPENT MY FORMATIVE years in what was then rural San Diego County. Our front porch opened onto an expanse of foothills so wild that we often startled coyotes away from our front yard when we retrieved the morning paper. The night sky was absolutely dazzling, and the millions of stars overhead entic..
IT IS UNLIKELY THAT MANY observers would regard the night sky as a natural spectacle in color. On clear moonless nights two colors predominate: the purplish black of the background sky and the silver of the stars. The patient observer can spot a few reddish stars such as Antares, and a number of blu..
THE CLEAREST COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS of Saturn and Mars ever to reach the attention of this department appear below. Another, of Jupiter, adorns the cover of this issue. All are the work of Robert B. Leighton, a nuclear physicist at the California Institute of Technology who insists that in the field of a..
THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW show four splendid wide-field views of the night sky. They also demonstrate how effectively an amateur can use an ordinary 35-millimeter camera for making pictures of stars and nebulae. All the exposures were made on September 24 from Mount Pinos in California's Los Padres Nati..