Editorial

Midwinter - and eclipse fever is upon us. Of course, by the time you read this editorial, the eclipse will be long over but still very fresh in the memories of the many people who have taken the time to travel up to Zambia or Zimbabwe to see it in totality. Now we have been really lucky in that one of the eclipse travelers contacted us before going to press and we were able to insert a whole extra section covering the highly successful trip to Lusaka by many of our members.

Mars and Venus are still dominating the night and morning respectively and are looking magnificent at present. Mars reached opposition on the 13^th and really looked good through the telescope after our monthly meeting on that same night. One obviously doesn't see the sort of detail you'll get from the HST but it's exciting looking though the 12" all the same.

Brian has supplied the tables of the state of the heavens for the next couple of months and Evan has submitted and interesting set of websites in his Web between the Worlds. Eben van Zyl follows up his Age of the Universe article from the June issue with one on "Ages of the Globular Clusters" and as previously mentioned, Raymond Barbour has supplied an article on the June 21^st Eclipse.

As Mars is still a item of major interest ( besides the eclipse that is ) we have picked up a couple of news releases from the various NASA sites and included them here for your perusal and enjoyment.

And once again July has arrived and together with it our A.G.M. We are again having it on a Saturday ( the 14^th ) and would really encourage all of you to attend. After the formal meeting, we will braai and also open the domes if sufficient interest is shown. Mars will be easily visible later in the evening and the winter skies are generally pretty good for a variety of viewing as well. The Centaur and it's surroundings include many items of interest and beauty including Omega Cen. and the Jewel Box.

A nomination form and questionnaire have been included as a loose insert. Please fill in both and bring them along with you on the 14^th.  If you can't make the A.G.M., please post or fax the completed questionnaire to us as we could really use the information thereon to plan the year ahead. There is space to nominate more persons for the committee if you wish to do so, just add the name(s) below those nominees already printed on the sheet.  Remember, you may only nominate persons who have agreed that they will be available to serve on the committee.

The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za

 The 2000/1 Committee of the Johannesburg Centre