Editorial

Well, here we are into the last two months of the year again - Tempest Fugit - or something along those lines.  Maybe the new cosmologists are right - the Universe really is speeding up, and now at last, us mere mortals have finally begun to notice it.

Mars is still a bright evening object, and though not presenting as large a view as 2 months ago, is still an impressive sight in a medium to large sized telescope.  But Mars is not alone in the sky - Venus has begun duty as the “Evening Star” and Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the morning heavens.  Of course - Venus has a beauty all of it’s own - but Jupiter, with its little “solar system” of moons, and Saturn with those incredible rings are worth tonnes of study and viewing time just by themselves.

Eben van Zyl has submitted an article on the Minor Planets, and our Chairman Dave Gordon entertains us with an article on how to go about obtaining magnificent astro-photos with a couple of “magnificent” examples supplied to show just how easy it can be.

Your editor has gleaned some articles from the NASA and ESA mailing lists, and Brian Fraser supplies us with the heavenly happenings for the last 2 months of 2003, as well as an article regarding the re-discovery of the long-lost minor planet Hermes.  All in all, our main focus has been on Minor Planets this month.

Please members - articles are needed for Canopus - preferably articles written by yourselves the members.  We managed to put out one issue of our magazine in the last 12 months that did NOT depend on articles and stories supplied by the space agencies - and it was a real pleasure editing that issue.  It never feels quite the same pulling in stories that have already been published on the Internet - no matter how interesting and informative they are.

The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za

 The 2003/4 Committee of the Johannesburg Centre