Sky & Telescope February 2025 Magazine

In the February 2025 issue of Sky & Telescope, we’re celebrating our 1,000th issue and welcoming our new Editor in Chief, Diana Hannikainen! The first images from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in our 973rd issue wowed audiences around the world, but how amazing would it be to put one’s own personal spin on the data from this revolutionary telescope? This month, we provide a guide to doing just that, so you can try your hand at processing your own JWST images. Webb isn’t the only wildly successful, recent space mission. The Gaia mission has also produced incredible results over the past decade, including sussing out three especially elusive black holes, with more to come. But who says the space telescopes get to have all the fun? We’ll grab our telescopes and do things the old-fashioned way, like Angelo Secchi in his rooftop observatory over the Church of Saint Ignatius. Who’s up for a look at a few of winter’s best reflection nebulae? The Pleiades anyone?