Editorial

The 21^st of June is an important day in the Astronomical Year, being mid-winter's day here in the Southern Hemisphere, Prince William's Birthday ( for those who celebrate it ) and most importantly, 21^st June 2003 was an especially important day for those of us in the Jo'burg Centre because it was the day of our Grand Solstice Cleanup where we rolled up our sleeves and concentrated on cleaning up our Observatory site which has become somewhat less than we'd like it to be of late. We had a fair turnout and split our efforts between several different activities. There are a few pictures of the slaves in harness in the issue being driven unmercifully by our slave-masters Lerike, Dave and co.

Earth is rapidly overtaking Mars and as this will be the closest approach in many a year, it is most highly recommended that you brush the dust off your favourite telescope and have it all spruced up and ready for action on the last couple of weeks of August. This is when it will be at it's closest - and best visible around midnight during that period (You can catch up on your sleep later in the year!!! ). Included in the issue is an image showing relative sizes of Mars during the approach and it is quite amazing just how big it will be appearing in your eyepieces during this apparition.

Eben van Zyl continues his "Variable Stars" theme with the fourth in his current series (thanks Eben, these articles are very informative and helpful) and our Chairman Dave Gordon updates us again with another Chairman's Chat. Melvyn Hannibal lets us in on the latest visit to Swinburne and well as taking us back to the Mercury transit for a short series of photos of the event and Brian Fraser as always lets us know about the next 2 month's Heavenly happenings, as well as submitting a short piece on Marsha Ivins. If you have access to the Internet, here is an address worth remembering - www.heavens_above.com .  You can find out all sorts of interesting things at this site including predictions as to when you will be able to view some of the larger satellites such s the ISS and the Hubble Space telescope.

A.G.M…Please remember to arrive in hordes at the Observatory for our Annual General Meeting on the 9^th of July. It is important that as many of you as possible attend this meeting in order to vote in your new committee, and tell us what you would like to be done during the coming Centre Year.

The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za

* - Edited from the printed edition due to space constraints

 The 2002/3 Committee of the Johannesburg Centre