 |
Johannesburg Centre,
Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
|
 |
|
|
Editorial April approaches swiftly - we are already one quarter into 2000 - how time seems to be flying at present. Our Autumn skies are quite beautiful when the curtains of cloud are opened. As mentioned in the previous issue's editorial, the recent rains are a mixed blessing but they really do help to clear all the muck and dust out of the sky with definite benefits to those of us of an Astronomical persuasion. The Canopus undergoes a slight change in format from this month to try to cut down the production and postage costs which have become ( please forgive the pun ) quite astronomical. If we are successful, we will reduce our printing costs slightly, but will almost halve our monthly postage costs. This should have a positive effect on our annual subscriptions and enable us to do more in the way of Centre projects such as the cleaning up of the Jacobs Dome and instrument. We have some interesting articles for our readers this month. Danie has added a footnote to Brian's Minor Planet article from last month's issue and Chris Stewart has furnished a snippet about how easy it is to lose something of value without even trying - both of these under Letters to the Editor. Danie revisits V651 Monocerotis after recent contact from a colleague in Mexico, and Brian supplies the Sky calendar as well as an article on GRBs. Want to know what they are??? - Read the article. A small personal observation - I really take my hat off to our ASSA colleagues in the Natal coastal areas. Having just spent 9 nights in Winkelspruit - 2 of which were clear - I have been trying to figure out how they manage to do any good observing through all that extra atmosphere. Both clear nights were really clear - not a cloud in sight, and yet the stars did not appear as clear and bright as we normally see them up here on the reef. Maybe this is just an occurrence at the coast itself, and clears up a little further inland, but I really think we are lucky up here not to have that extra 1800 metres of atmosphere between us and the stars. |
| ||||||
