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Johannesburg Centre,
Astronomical Society of Southern Africa
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Editorial Autumn approaches, apparently wearing galoshes or high waders - the Moon is tipped over and this, according to some local legends, means that “she” is pouring water out onto the Earth. After the last few weeks I can believe this as our February rainfall figures have been a tad on the high side. The side effect of all this rain is the cloud canopy which has been overhead for much of this time - however, another, and maybe better side effect has been the crispness of the sky on the few occasions when we have had clear nights. During this time I have seen a couple of great images taken of Jupiter & Saturn with a Meade LPI. Venus is still very bright in the early evenings and looked quite good not too far from the young moon in the last week of February and the two Gas Giants are still outstanding. And talking of the Gas Giants, have any of you seen the beautiful image of Saturn that was recently taken by Cassini as it approaches finals for the 2nd largest planet - a really magnificent shot available on the JPL website amongst others. Mars has faded from its previous rosy splendour and is now a somewhat sickly copy compared to August last year. The Fourth Rock from the Sun is still very much in the news and the two rovers are apparently producing some really good science. Eben van Zyl has submitted an interesting piece on what we Earthlings have to do to Mars which is the first in a short series on the Red planet and our Chairman Dave Gordon submits another couple of articles related to his travels ( or is it travails?? ) in the Americas. Brian Fraser has, as always, supplied us with the Heavenly Happenings over the next couple of months, as well as some chuckles. By the time you read this issue, Hobby-Ex will have come and gone and if you visited - you will probably have seen our stand and will also have been reminded about ScopeX on the 24th of April. And it really IS the 24th of April, no matter what you may have read in MNASSA. The Editor - chris@penberthy.co.za |
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