Sky Publishing had announced the availability of The AAVSO Variable Star Atlas (S&T, Nov 1980, pg 413) and in January I sent in my $$$. This was my first real star atlas, so it was very exciting stuff! It came in a box containing 178 12"x14" unbound sheets.
 

Star & Sky magazine ceased publication with its February issue. I liked this magazine even more than S&T because of all of its various columns dedicated to different aspects of observing. Only 26 issues were ever published.
 

Friday, March 13 marked the bicentennial of the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel of England.
 

Sky Atlas 2000 was released (S&T June 1981, p 538) and immediately became THE standard atlas of the amateur astronomer.
 

Aaah, the early eighties -- back when the skies were good! OK, maybe the skies weren't quite THIS good... Steve Chomniak and I found this site 20km north-east of Oshawa at Enfield. Along with Scott Ramsay, we had many good sessions in this hayfield until 1984, when we switched to Long Sault Conservation Area to get farther from the steadily brightening lights of Oshawa.

I returned to the GSOS in 1996 to observe Comet Hyakutake and found this rural area littered with many high wattage yard lights. Oshawa had grown too, and its light pollution had long since ruined this site (and Long Sault). As if this were not enough, I also found that our beloved tree (at right in the picture above) had been cut down.
 

Voyager 2 encountered Saturn,
and then headed for a fly-by of Uranus in 1986.

JPL Image