Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
Johannesburg Centre

August 1997 Meeting

The Johannesburg Centre will be hosting the Annual General Meeting of the ASSA and hence will not be holding their normal meeting in August.

The ASSA Annual General Meeting is usually very informative as the annual reports of the directors of all the sections are presented at the meeting. The outgoing president also presents a talk, usually on her/his particular field of astronomical interest.

Non-members and visitors are very welcome to attend.

Date : Wednesday 13 August 1997

Time: 20h00

Venue: Library Building at the observatory.

Beginner’s Class

Before the ASSA Annual General Meeting, Ed Finlay will be holding another informal discussion aimed at beginners. This will start at 19h00. The topic is ‘Meteors/Meteorites’.

Deep-Sky Viewing

Saturday evening deep-sky viewing at Tom Budge’s farm, Protea Ranch, Vlakplaats, will be on the following days :

2 August 1997 6 September 1997
4 October 1997 1 November 1997

Future Events

Ed Finlay is trying to organise a trip to Sutherland later in the year. We hope to give you more information about this in the next issue of Canopus.

General

We are looking for a front page picture for Canopus. One of the ideas was to use the complete constellation Argo Navis. Carina (the Keel), whose brightest star is Canopus, was once part of the great sprawling Argo Navis. Carina is now separate (as are Puppis (Ship’s Stern) and Vela (Ship’s Sails)). If anyone can give us (Brian or Val Fraser) a diagram of the complete ship, showing the position of it’s major stars, we could perhaps use this for the Canopus front page. Other ideas are also welcome.