Night Sky magazine is for people who are just starting out in astronomy. It can be a tough hobby to start up, so the people behind Sky and Telescope magazine decided to give budding amateurs a helping hand.

Night Sky has columns about what objects are visible in the sky, how to use a telescope, and others to advise the novice. It also has a wonderful, witty, informative, brilliant (etc.) column called "Straight Talk", which mixes common astronomical misconceptions with good science. Duh, it's my column.

The columns are short (800-1000 words), which makes them more difficult to write, of all things. I have to get to the point quickly, which is not something that I usually do. Still, either I keep it short, or my editor will gleefully delete 300 words. Usually that includes my bio, so I try to keep it under my word limit.

The premier issue was in May 2004, and I wrote about the Moon Illusion. You can read the full article online at Night Sky too. The next article is about star colors, and I'll be covering lots more topics from there. This is my first regular column in a magazine, and I'm very pleased to be doing it.