This news came as a surprise: my old friend Bob Naeye will be the new Editor-in-Chief of Sky and Telescope magazine!
Criminy, where to start? OK (and I hope I have all this in correct chronological order), Bob was an editor at Astronomy magazine, and when I was a fledgling writer just spreading my wings (barf gag) he edited contributions I made to Ask Astro, their Q&A section. His edits were always right on the money, always improving what I wrote. Not only that, but he was easy-going and fun to work with.
Then he moved on to Mercury magazine, the publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. I sent them one or two articles, and again his editing was great.
Sometime around this era (2002) he won the David Schramm award for best writing in high-energy astronomy, for his article about the Chandra X-ray Observatory titled “Superman’s Telescope”. I voted for him, by the way. I worried a bit about favoritism, but although there were good entries that year, his was clearly the best.
Then he became an editor at Sky and Telescope, and was once again one of their best writers and editors. Eventually, he wanted to move on, and went to Goddard Space Flight Center to work on their public outreach there. I enthusiastically endorsed this move by NASA; and it was cool to see his byline on press releases from there (which were always, of course, top-notch).
Last I heard he was still there, so this news of his going back up to Cambridge to be the E-C of Sky and Tel is a surprise, but a great one! Sky and Tel is an honorable and venerable magazine, supporting amateur astronomy for many decades. I’ve written for them many times (and I’m still around, guys, hello?) and getting Bob back will only make them even better. Rick Fienberg, the outgoing EiC, is also an old friend and I’m glad to see he is staying on with the mag as a contributing editor.
So again, congratulations, Bob! It’s always nice to see good things happening to good people.
