Sky & Telescope May 2026 Magazine

Collaborative Imaging, Spring Outreach, and Compound Telescopes

In the May 2026 issue of Sky & Telescope, meet a group of collaborative astrophotographers from the Amateur Astronomers Association. Together they’re creating incredible deep-sky images by pooling their talents and sharing time on remotely operated telescopes in dark-sky regions in both hemispheres. On the topic of using multiple telescopes, some astronomers are jumping ship on the aperture wars. Instead of trying to build one or two giant telescopes, new projects like MOTHRA and Dragaonfly are combining many smaller telescopes to work as one, greatly improving their capabilities for a drastically reduced cost. We also have a selection of excellent targets to point those telescopes at and share with the public in this issue. And please, “stop trying to shoot down Venus!”