Editorial

As February nears, we see Venus approaching it's brightest. Many people have commented on this apparition, including "non-astronomers" who have noticed this very bright "Star" in the Western sky each evening. A moderate sized telescope will show quite good shape and this will become more pronounced as Venus reaches peak brightness. I have never seen it, but many Astronomers have reported that in a very dark area without any light pollution, it is possible to see that Venus can cause a shadow to be cast. Seeing it as it now appears, I am perfectly ready to believe this. Have any of you out there actually witnessed this phenomenon? Write in and tell us if you have, and we'll include your descriptions in a future issue of Canopus.

The first meeting of the year was very well attended, and included the draw for the short tube refracting telescope. The results are published under the notices section of this issue.

Brian has supplied some interesting articles as well as his "State of the Skies" information. He covers the sometimes widespread ignorance regarding Astronomy and what we as Astronomers should do to improve the situation.

Chris Stewart has picked up in interesting snippet of information regarding another of our eminent honourary members - Patrick Moore, as well as supplying useful website addresses for seeing some good images of the Lunar Eclipse which took place early in January. Your editor attempted some Astro-photography during this event with rather uninspiring results. Using a 135mm lens with an old Minolta SR1V camera ( totally mechanical - no electronics ), I managed images taking up a tiny part of a 35mm frame. Connecting the camera to a 10" Meade LX6 on the other hand, filled the frame with only a small portion of the moon's surface which was also undesirable.

Trevor Gould has supplied a write-up on last Year's Easter Expedition in the wastelands to the North of Verneukpan for the purpose of the recovery and identification of Meteorites, as well as a little piece to make you all chuckle. Eric Brindeau has also decided that we need some light relief and passed on a little Astronomical humour.

Once again a plea for articles - this is Your magazine, and it is preferable that the articles published therein are supplied by the membership of the Johannesburg Center. Any appropriate article submitted will be sure to be published - who knows - it could be the start of a career in writing or journalism!!!

The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za

 The 2000/1 Committee of the Johannesburg Centre