Editorial

Here we are again at the start of another Johannesburg Centre Astro-Year. The AGM went off quite smoothly ( and speedily if the truth be told ) and once the admin was taken care of, everyone tucked in at the braai. Subsequent viewing was largely forestalled by the arrival of a ( very ) cold front with a fair amount of wind chill factor thrown in for good measure. Turnout was sparse, due no doubt to the Wintery conditions forecast for the evening.

You have a new committee and the new office bearers will be allocated their posts at the next monthly committee meeting. Their duties will be announced at the monthly meeting of the 9^th of August. The committee members are shown in the table below, which will be updated with duties/contact details in the September issue of Canopus.

Danie has supplied us with our variable of the month - R Centauri - together with a light curve display and a sky chart to locate the star. This is an interesting star with a large variance and most data about it has been supplied by amateurs. You'll need a telescope or good binoculars for this one.

Bill Wheaton has submitted an update on the 2MASS project which has produced an amazing amount of data about Stars in general and "cool" Stars more particularly. The data is available on the web and also on DVD-ROM and is very comprehensive. This project was responsible for the discovery of a new type of star and this was allocated a new letter (L) in the famous "OBAFGKM" spectral sequence. This project has most certainly been worth the time and money invested in it. Brian has supplied us with the Heavenly Happenings for the next 2 months and an article about the eclipse due in 2001 - time to start planning for your observing position for this and the next eclipse nearer home in 2002.

The speaker for August is Professor Ron Buta. He is one of the world's leading experts on galaxies and is currently working with David Block. He will be talking to us about galaxies and this will be a presentation that none of you should miss. He really is a presenter of note!!

What would you like to read about in Canopus? Please drop your editor a line on any subject(s) you'd like to see, or even better … if you a budding journalist, and have an article you'd like to submit, send it through. I can almost guarantee you it'll be published as is.

The Editor

The 2000/1 Committee of the Johannesburg Centre