[2] The publication today specializes in articles on solar physics, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, geophysics, and instrumentation for these fields.

[5] These early issues ran to hundreds of pages, and consisted mostly of letters sent by astronomers to Schumacher, reporting their observations.

[1] The journal proved to be a great success, and over the years Schumacher received thousands of letters from hundreds of contributors.

Petersen, who died in 1854, was later aided as editor by the Danish astronomer Thomas Clausen, who had also previously worked at the observatory.

The editor from 1854 was the German astronomer Christian August Friedrich Peters,[3] who had taken over as director of the observatory at Altona.

Following Peters's death, Adalbert Krueger served as the new director of the observatory and editor of the journal from 1881 until he died in 1896.

[11] After the war, Astronomische Nachrichten was edited by Hans Kienle, director of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam.

One of Kienle's students, Johann Wempe [de] (1906–1980) succeeded him as editor in 1951 and held the post for 22 years.

[12] From 1949, and officially from the 1950s until the reunification of Germany in 1990, the journal was published in the German Democratic Republic, behind the Iron Curtain.

[14] The back catalogue of the journal includes 43,899 articles in 99,565 pages in 328 volumes, published over a period of over 180 years.