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Johannesburg Centre,
Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
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Editorial Spring is once again upon us, although nights are still quite fresh, and with it, one of the Astronomer's major irritations, cloud, now makes it's regular appearance. Even if only one little cloud is in the sky while you're observing, guess where it will park - right where you're looking. When it's not cloudy, the sky is looking very good at present and Venus is still up there in the evenings like a laser pointer and some of the other planets are starting to creep up into the morning skies. Orion is also looking very good in the mornings. For those of you who follow satellites, the International Space Station and Hubble have made some bright passes ( especially the former ) in both morning and evening. Once it is completed, the ISS will be the 3rd brightest object in the sky, easily outshining Jupiter and Venus - amazing! We've gleaned a few articles from the NASA websites and email lists and can now ease your minds regarding the asteroid predicted to collide with the Earth sometime in the future - this will now occur until sometime in the 2800s, by which time I guess we needn't worry overly much. Our descendants will sort it out! Brian Fraser supplies the tables of astronomical occurrences as well as forwarding a report on another Supernova discovery, and Eben van Zyl lets us in on how Henrietta Swan Leavitt formulated her theories surrounding Cepheid variables. Bruce Dickson has done some tests on filters and presents the results; Chris Stewart explains some of the niceties of Physics and Evan Dembskey presents another in his series on "The Web between the Worlds". ECLIPSE chasers - remember we have a solar eclipse on 4th December. If you would like to be there, contact a committee member, or Brian Fraser for further details on how to get to the area of interest. Time and accommodation is running out - so don't delay or you will miss this big event. Bearing in mind our printing costs, this will be the last issue sent to those of you who have not yet paid your 2002/2003 subscription. To ensure that you don't miss any issues, renew and advise us before the 20th of September and you will remain on the mailing list - if you delay, you will miss at least 1 issue. ( remember, we don't reprint CANOPUS after the print run is completed!!! ). The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za |
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