Conference warhed::astronomy

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 25-JAN-1997 00:17:42.58
To:	[email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - 01/24/96

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
JANUARY 24, 1997

WORLD's LARGEST MIRROR CAST

A week ago opticians at Steward Observatory cast the world's largest
one-piece mirror blank, a whopping 8.4 meters (27.5 feet) across.  It
all happened inside a giant oven that rotates about seven times per
minute.  The 41,500 pounds (19,000 kg) of glass reached its melting
point on January 18th and assumed a curved shape close to the desired
final surface.  Now the 20-ton blank will slowly cool, with the oven
still spinning, for at least two months. A second blank will be cast
later, and when finished the two mirrors will form the heart of Large
Binocular Telescope. For more details go to the Steward Mirror Lab's
WWW site at http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/mlab/lbtcast.html

A PLETHORA OF PLANETARIES

Here's a nugget from last week's meeting of the American Astronomical
Society in Toronto. Raghvendra Sahai showed off snapshots of several
planetary nebulae, which are massive layers of gas that have been
ejected by stars into space.  Though barely resolved from the ground,
the nebulae show a variety of loops, jets, and streamers when seen by
the Hubble Space Telescope. Some of the erratic swirls may owe their
origin to precessing jets or winds from the central stars. In that
case, Sahai suggests, the stars may be wobbling because they have
brown-dwarf or Jupiter-like companions.

HALE-BOPP vs. THE MOON

Most of this week strong moonlight will play havoc with seeing the
coma and tail of 3rd-magnitude Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1). But its
starlike nucleus should still be apparent to you in binoculars, if not
to your unaided eye. The comet is beginning to pick up northward
momentum, moving about a half degree higher in declination daily and
improving its elongation from the Sun. By week's end observers in
northern locations will see the comet climb over the eastern horizon
more than three hours before sunrise.  On January 21st, just before
the Moon entered the morning sky, Contributing Editor John Bortle
noted that the comet had a tail about 1.5 degrees long.  Here are
Comet Hale-Bopp's equinox 2000 coordinates for this week at 0 hours
Universal Time:

                   R.A. (2000) Decl.
                  ---------------------
January 26        19h 26.8m  +12d 47'
        28        19  31.2   +13  39 
        30        19  35.8   +14  32 
February 1        19  40.5   +15  29 


MERCURY IN THE MORNING

As a final note, right now the planet Mercury is 25 degrees from the
Sun and making a modest appearance in the east-southeast sky before
dawn.  That's a little added incentive to brave the predawn cold to
hunt for the comet.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

JAN. 26 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp hangs low in the east just before the first light of 
dawn this week. Look very far to the lower right of Vega and a little 
above Altair. The comet is visible to the naked eye under dark, clear 
conditions; binoculars will give a much better view. Look for a fuzzy 
"star" with a short, broad, upward-pointing tail. The comet will brighten 
for the rest of the winter and be at its best in late March and early 
April.

JAN. 27 -- MONDAY

  * If you get up before or during early dawn Tuesday morning, look high in 
the southwest for the waning gibbous Moon. Orange Mars is to its upper left.

JAN. 28 -- TUESDAY

  * Before and during dawn Wednesday morning, the waning gibbous Moon is 
almost midway between bright orange Mars to its right and fainter blue-white 
Spica to its left.

JAN. 29 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Mars is at the aphelion of its orbit, 1.666 a.u. from the Sun.

  * The eclipsing variable star Algol should be at minimum brightness, 
magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered on 
11:21 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (convert to your time zone). It takes 
several hours to fade and rebrighten.

  * Before and during dawn Thursday morning, the waning gibbous Moon shines 
above Spica.

JAN. 30 -- THURSDAY

  * Some basic constellation spotting: Look for Orion shining high in the 
southeast in early evening. In its middle, look for a nearly vertical row 
of three stars, Orion's Belt. The Belt points down toward brilliant white 
Sirius and up toward fainter orange Aldebaran. On past Aldebaran in the 
same direction is the little Pleiades star cluster.

JAN. 31 -- FRIDAY

  * Last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).

FEB. 1 -- SATURDAY

  * Saturn's brightest moon, Titan, is visible in a small telescope about 
four ring-lengths west of the planet this evening through Tuesday evening.

  * Algol is at minimum light for a couple hours centered on 8:10 p.m. EST.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY is just above the east-southeast horizon during late dawn. It's 
several degrees to the upper right of even-lower Venus.

VENUS is getting lost in the glow of dawn barely above the east-southeast 
horizon (to Mercury's lower left).

MARS, in Virgo, rises in the east by 10 p.m. and shines bright orange high 
in the south in the early morning hours. In a telescope, it has grown to 
10 1/2 arc seconds in apparent size.

JUPITER, URANUS, and NEPTUNE are hidden in the glare of sunrise.

SATURN, in Pisces, is the brightest "star" in the southwest after dusk. It 
sets around 9:30 p.m.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is low in the southeast before 
sunrise.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1996 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA16392 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 25 Jan 1997 01:14:47 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA01216 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 25 Jan 1997 01:19:26 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA03507 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 25 Jan 1997 01:21:11 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA08632 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 16:19:05 -0500 (EST)
% Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 21:18:29 GMT
% From: Ron Baalke <[email protected]>
% To: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% Subject: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - 01/24/96
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon"  1-FEB-1997 09:29:29.38
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for January 31st

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
JANUARY 31, 1997

VIRGO'S EXTRAGALACTIC STARS

Central to our mental map of the cosmos is the notion that stars
reside solely in galaxies. But evidence is now in hand that trillions
of stars in the Virgo Cluster lie beyond the gravitational embrace of
the group's individual galaxies. As Henry C. Ferguson (Space Telescope
Science Institute) explained to the American Astronomical Society this
January, he and his colleagues have actually resolved individual stars
in a 2-arcminute-wide field 50 arcminutes east of M87, the giant
elliptical galaxy at the cluster's core. After subtracting star counts
from control frames, the group found an excess of about 600 stars,
each nearly one billion times too faint to see with our eyes on Earth.
If the interlopers are indeed at the Virgo Cluster's distance of about
65 million light-years, their colors and magnitudes would match those
expected for old low-mass stars in their brightest red-giant phase.
Furthermore, they would lie at least one million light-years from M87
-- half the distance between our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

MORNINGS WITH COMET HALE-BOPP

Anticipation is building for the brightening Comet Hale-Bopp, which
this week exits Aquila and enters Sagitta, hanging low in the east
before sunrise. SKY & TELESCOPE Contributing Editor John Bortle
reports that on the morning of January 29th, the comet was magnitude
2.8, with a coma 8 arcminutes in diameter and sporting a 2-degree-
long, slightly curved tail. You'll find the comet very far to the
lower right of Vega and a little to the upper left of Altair. Here are
Hale-Bopp's equinox 2000.0 coordinates for this week at 0 hours
Universal Time:

                   R.A. (2000.0) Decl.
                  ---------------------
February  1        19h 40.5m   +15d 29'
          3        19  45.5    +16  28
          5        19  50.7    +17  29
          7        19  56.1    +18  33

MIRA AT ITS BRIGHTEST

Mira, the prototype red long-period variable star in Cetus, was
predicted to be at its maximum brightness around February 15th.
However, as early as January 20th it was shining very bright at
magnitude 2.8, already brighter than its average peak of 3.4.
Variable-star observer Alan Whitman reports that the star is the
brightest he's ever seen it. Having a brightness cycle that averages 
332 days long, Mira is now high in the southwest in early evening, 
located about 12 deg southwest of Alpha Ceti.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

FEB. 2 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp hangs low in the east just before the first light of 
dawn this week. Look very far to the lower right of Vega and a little 
to the upper left of Altair. The comet is visible to the naked eye under 
dark, clear conditions; binoculars will give a better view. Look for a 
fuzzy "star" with a short, broad, upward-pointing tail.

The comet will brighten in the dawn for the rest of this winter. It will be 
at its best in the dawn sky in March, and in the evening sky from late March 
through mid-April.

  * Mira, the prototype red long-period variable star, was predicted to be 
at its maximum brightness around February 15th. However, as early as January 
20th it was shining very bright at magnitude 2.8, already brighter than 
its average peak of 3.4. Did the peak come early, as sometimes happens with 
Mira-type variables, or is Mira having a truly remarkable maximum?

Go out and see for yourself! Mira is in Cetus high in the southwest in early 
evening. It's plotted on the all-sky constellation map in the center of the 
February Sky & Telescope. On the same pages is a comparison-star chart for 
estimating Mira's magnitude.

FEB. 3 -- MONDAY

  * A public memorial for Carl Sagan will be held at Cornell University, 
where he taught since 1968. Another will take place February 17th at 
the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. For more information go to 
http://www.transatlantech.com/tps/articlearchive/headlines/headln-122796.html.

FEB. 4 -- TUESDAY

  * It's still the depth of winter, but already the stars are showing hints 
of spring. By 9 p.m. the Big Dipper, best known for its appearance in the 
spring and summer sky, is standing on its handle well up in the northeast. 
At about the same height due east, Leo is rising -- another forerunner of 
spring.

FEB. 5 -- WEDNESDAY

  * This morning and tomorrow morning during dawn, Venus and Jupiter will 
appear only 0.5 to 0.7 degrees apart. Off to their upper right is fainter 
Mercury. But finding them won't be easy; they're very low in bright 
twilight. Use binoculars to scan barely above the east-southeastern horizon 
about 20 minutes before sunrise. Wednesday morning they're far to the lower 
left of the waning crescent Moon. On Thursday morning the very thin crescent 
hangs just a little above them.

FEB. 6 -- THURSDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars R Lyncis and V Canum Venaticorum 
should be at their maximum brightnesses (7th or 8th magnitude) around this 
date.

FEB. 7 -- FRIDAY

  * New Moon (exactly new at 10:06 a.m. Eastern Standard Time).

FEB. 8 -- SATURDAY

  * Can you spot the hairline crescent Moon? Look low in the west-southwest 
about 50 or 60 minutes after sunset. The Moon is just over one day old.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY, VENUS, JUPITER, URANUS, and NEPTUNE are deep in the glow of sunrise.

MARS, in Virgo, rises in the east around 9:30 p.m.  It shines bright orange 
high in the east-southeast by midnight, in the south during early morning 
hours, and in the southwest at dawn. In a telescope, Mars has grown to an 
apparent size of 11 arcseconds.

SATURN, in Pisces, is the brightest "star" in the southwest during and 
after dusk. It sets around 9 p.m.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the southeast before sunrise.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id KAA25713 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 10:23:35 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id KAA26875 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 10:28:20 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id KAA31411 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 1 Feb 1997 10:30:15 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id TAA15276 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 31 Jan 1997 19:06:13 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 31 Jan 97 19:05:31 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for January 31st
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon"  7-FEB-1997 20:31:18.98
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for February 7th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
FEBRUARY 7, 1997


HUBBLE SERVICING MISSION

If all goes according to plan, this week a crew of seven astronauts
will head skyward aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery to rendezvous
with -- and work on -- the Hubble Space Telescope.  This visit is not
quite so urgent as last repair mission was, when many failed
components needed replacing. However, during four spacewalks, astronauts 
will install two new instruments.  The one dubbed NICMOS (Near-Infrared
Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) will finally permit the
observatory to explore the universe at infrared wavelengths longer
than 1 micron.  The other detector package, called STIS (Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph) can obtain the spectra of many objects
simultaneously.

As luck would have it, the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph -- one
of the instruments being replaced -- suffered a serious malfunction on
February 5th that filled its interior with smoke.  To prevent further
contamination elsewhere, the instrument will remain switched off until
it is removed.  Other items to be replaced this time include a Fine-Guidance
Sensor for tracking targets, two tape recorders, and a few other
subsystems.  For a firsthand account of the mission, see astronomer-
astronaut Steve Hawley's article in SKY & TELESCOPE's February issue,
or check it out electronically at www.skypub.com/news/hstsm2.html.

TAILING COMET HALE-BOPP

OK, sleeping late is no longer a good excuse! Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995
O1) continues to get brighter and higher in the predawn sky. Even
those of you with serious light pollution will have no trouble picking
this distant visitor out between the bright stars Deneb and Altair.
Current reports put the comet's magnitude at about 1.5, and you'll see
a tail ranging anywhere from 1 to 15 deg long, depending on your sky
conditions.  Through binoculars the comet has a dazzling nucleus and a
satisfying U shape that portends a fine showing in the weeks ahead.
Perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, does not occur until April
1st! Here are Hale-Bopp's equinox 2000.0 coordinates for this week at
0 hours Universal Time:

                   R.A. (2000.0) Decl.
                  ---------------------
February  9        20h  1.8m   +19d 40'
         11        20   7.8    +20  50 
         13        20  14.2    +22   3 
         15        20  20.9    +23  18 

If you're worried about obstructions along your eastern horizon or
can't use coordinates, try this trick.  Sometime this week in early
evening, track down the star Gamma Leonis, the brightest star in Leo's
curved Sickle.  Comet Hale-Bopp will be close to that spot in your sky
10 hours later.

SIKHOTE-ALIN ANNIVERSARY

This week marks the golden anniversary of what is arguably the most
spectacular meteorite fall ever seen.  At 10:40 a.m. on February 12,
1947, a incredibly bright fireball seared its way across the sky of
eastern Siberia and rained up to 100 tons of iron meteorites onto the
rugged landscape.  Because it was so well documented, the Sikhote-Alin
fall proved a great boon to meteorite science.




THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

FEB. 9 -- SUNDAY

  * Saturn shines to the upper left of the waxing crescent Moon in the 
west-southwestern sky during and after dusk. Look roughly a fist-width 
at arm's length from the Moon.

  * Early Monday morning, telescope users in northeastern North America 
have a chance to try timing an occultation of the 10th-magnitude star 
GSC 2471 1267 in Gemini by the 12th-magnitude asteroid 451 Patientia. See 
the February Sky & Telescope, pages 73 - 75.

  * Comet Hale-Bopp glows in the east just before the first light of dawn 
this week. Go out an hour and 40 minutes before sunrise (find your sunrise 
time in a local newspaper) and look rather low in the east, about two-thirds 
of the way from Deneb to Altair. (Deneb is roughly 25 degrees to the comet's 
upper left.)

Hale-Bopp should be visible to the naked eye under dark, clear conditions. 
Look for a fuzzy "star" with a short, broad, upward-pointing tail. Any light 
pollution in your sky may hide much or even all of the comet. But binoculars 
will reveal it even through light pollution and will give a fine view under 
almost any conditions.

The comet will brighten in the dawn for the rest of this winter. It will be 
at its best in the dawn sky in March, and in the evening sky from late March 
through mid-April.

FEB. 10 -- MONDAY

  * Saturn shines a few degrees below the waxing crescent Moon during and 
after dusk.

FEB. 11 -- TUESDAY

  * Look far to the lower right of the Moon in early evening -- by about 
two fist-widths at arm's length -- for Saturn looking like a pale yellowish 
star.

FEB. 12 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Some doorstep astronomy: The very bright star nearly straight overhead 
in early evening this week is Capella, in the constellation Auriga, the 
Charioteer. Capella is the same temperature, and therefore the same pale 
yellow-white color, as the Sun. But it consists of two giant stars several 
times larger than the Sun. They are orbiting each other about as far apart 
as the Sun is from Venus, with a period of 3 and 1/2 months.

FEB. 13 -- THURSDAY

  * First-quarter moon (exact at 3:57 a.m. Friday morning Eastern 
Standard Time).

FEB. 14 -- FRIDAY

  * The Moon shines near the orange star Aldebaran tonight, with the 
Pleiades not far away. The Moon occults Aldebaran for the Middle East, 
central and northern Asia, parts of Japan, and parts of Alaska (on 
February 15th Universal Time).

FEB. 15 -- SATURDAY

  * Mira, the prototype red long-period variable star, was predicted to be 
at its maximum brightness around this date. However, as early as January 
20th it was shining very bright at magnitude 2.8, already brighter than 
its average peak of 3.4. Did the peak come early, as sometimes happens with 
Mira-type variables, or is Mira having a truly remarkable maximum?

Go out and see for yourself! Mira is in Cetus high in the southwest in early 
evening. It's plotted on the all-sky constellation map in the center of the 
February Sky & Telescope. On the same pages is a comparison-star chart for 
estimating Mira's magnitude.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY, VENUS, JUPITER, URANUS, and NEPTUNE are hidden in the glow of 
sunrise.

MARS, in Virgo, rises in the east by around 9 p.m.  It shines bright orange 
well up in the southeast by midnight, high in the south during early morning 
hours, and in the southwest at dawn. In a telescope, Mars has grown to an 
apparent size of 11.5 arcseconds.

SATURN, in Pisces, is the brightest "star" in the west-southwest during and 
after dusk. It sets before 9 p.m.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the southeast before dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id VAA10306 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 7 Feb 1997 21:26:25 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id VAA25325 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 7 Feb 1997 21:30:58 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id VAA04764 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 7 Feb 1997 21:33:01 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA05327 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 7 Feb 1997 14:34:38 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 07 Feb 97 14:34:00 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for February 7th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 15-FEB-1997 01:18:43.24
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for February 14th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
FEBRUARY 14, 1997

HUBBLE SERVICING MISSION

Early on February 14th, a pair of spacewalking astronauts aboard the
Space Shuttle *Discovery* successfully installed two new instruments on
the Hubble Space Telescope. The one dubbed NICMOS (Near-Infrared
Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) will explore the universe at
infrared wavelengths longer than 1 micron.  The other package, called
STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) will obtain the spectra of
many objects simultaneously.  Project scientists say the instruments
have passed a "liveness" test, but that it will be several weeks before
all their systems can be checked out.  STIS, for example, operates
with a high-voltage power supply that can't be turned on until air
inside the instrument has been completely evacuated.  Look for the
first press conference to show off new results in early May. For a
firsthand account of the mission, see astronomer-astronaut Steve
Hawley's article in SKY & TELESCOPE's February issue, or check it out
electronically at http://www.skypub.com/news/hstsm2.html.

HALE-BOPP BURPS

Contributing Editor David Levy reports that Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995
O1) is now magnitude 1.7, about midway between the range of magnitudes
being reported by various observers worldwide.  At this rate the comet
should brighten to magnitude -0.5 or better by the end of March.  On
February 12th, viewing through a 16-inch telescope, Levy also spotted
a secondary condensation -- probably a burst of dust -- located 20"
from the primary nucleus in position angle 190 deg.  Through
binoculars the comet has a dazzling nucleus, a distinct U-shaped dust
tail, and a longer ion tail several degrees long.  Here are Hale-
Bopp's equinox 2000.0 coordinates for this week at 0 hours Universal
Time:
                   R.A. (2000.0) Decl.
                  ---------------------
February 15        20h 20.9m   +23d 18'
         17        20  28.0    +24  37
         19        20  35.6    +25  58
         21        20  43.6    +27  22

HIPPARCOS RESULTS

Today European astronomers announced a series of results from the
Hipparcos mission, though the full data set will not be made public
until June.  Launched in August 1989, the spacecraft spent several
years measuring the positions of stars down through magnitude 11 with
unprecedented accuracy.  Among the new findings is that the Pleiades
star cluster appears to be about 10% nearer than previously thought.
Hipparcos data pegs the distance at 360 light-years.  Also Cepheid
variables, the pulsating stars that astronomers use to gauge the
distances to other galaxies, are intrinsically more luminous -- and
thus farther away -- than believed.  This implies that the universe
may be larger than previous estimates by about 10%, and also that the
most distant (and thus oldest) stars are no more than about 11 billion
years old.  Cosmologists should find that good news, since they now
estimate that the universe as a whole is some 12 billion years old.

SPACE INTERFEROMETER LAUNCHED

The VLBI Space Observatory Programme's MUSES B satellite was launched
from Kagoshima Space Center in Japan on February 12th in the first
tryout of the powerful new M-5 rocket. Once in space, the spacecraft
was renamed Haruka, which means "far away," a nod to the 21,000-
km-high apogee of its highly elongated orbit. Haruka's 8-meter-
wide radio antenna will serve as one element of an interferometer with
a diameter bigger than the Earth. Ground-based antennas on five
continents will also participate in the observations, scheduled to
begin in May after an initial checkout of the satellite. The
telescopes will make high-resolution radio images of maser sources in
galactic star-forming regions and of quasars in other galaxies.

RETURN TO EUROPA

On February 20th at 17:03 Universal Time the Galileo spacecraft makes
a second close flyby of the Jovian moon Europa, passing by at a
distance of 587 km.  Two wide-angle images are planned, as well as 25
high-resolution closeups that will resolve details down to 21 meters
across.  Other observations will include snapshots of Jupiter's ring,
the small satellites Thebe and Amalthea, and several magnetospheric
measurements.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

FEB. 16 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp glows in the east just before the first light of dawn 
this week. Go out an hour and 40 minutes before sunrise (find the time in a 
local newspaper) and look about halfway from Deneb to Altair. The comet is 
near this halfway point early in the week, and a bit to the lower left of 
the point later in the week.

Hale-Bopp should be visible to the naked eye under dark-sky conditions. 
Look for a fuzzy "star" with a short, broad, upward-pointing tail. Any light 
pollution in your sky may hide much or even all of the comet. But binoculars 
will reveal it even through light pollution and will give a fine view under 
any conditions.

The comet will brighten in the dawn for the rest of this winter. It will be 
at its best in the dawn sky in March, and in the evening sky from late March 
through mid-April.

FEB. 17 -- MONDAY

  * When you're out for Hale-Bopp before dawn, what else is in the sky? 
Before first light at this time of year, we see the stars as they're 
arrayed in the evening skies of late May and early June. Arcturus is the 
brightest star high overhead when you face south or southwest. Vega is 
more than halfway up the sky in the east-northeast, with lesser Deneb off 
to its lower left. Mars currently blazes in the southwest, roughly a third 
of the way from Spica to Regulus.

FEB. 18 -- TUESDAY

  * The eclipsing variable star Algol should be at minimum light, magnitude 
3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered on 1:06 a.m. 
Wednesday morning Eastern Standard Time. It takes several additional hours 
to fade and rebrighten.

FEB. 19 -- WEDNESDAY

  * The brilliant white star Sirius shines at its highest due south around 
8:30 p.m. local time. Here's a binocular observing project: Around that 
time look directly below Sirius, by somewhat less than the width of a 
binocular's field of view, for a dim little patch of speckled haze. 
This is the open star cluster M41, a swarm of 100 young stars about 2,500 
light-years away.

FEB. 20 -- THURSDAY

  * The Galileo spacecraft makes its second close flyby of Jupiter's ice 
moon Europa today.

FEB. 21 -- FRIDAY

  * A little to the upper left of the full Moon this evening is the 
1st-magnitude star Regulus, nearly overwhelmed by the Moon's glare. 
Try binoculars.

  * Algol is at minimum for a couple of hours centered on 9:55 p.m. Eastern 
Standard Time.

FEB. 22 -- SATURDAY

  * Full Moon occurs at 5:27 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY, VENUS, JUPITER, URANUS, and NEPTUNE are all deep in the glow of 
sunrise.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, rises in the east around 8 or 8:30 p.m.  It 
shines bright orange well up in the southeast by midnight, high in the 
south during early morning hours, and in the west-southwest at dawn. In a 
telescope, Mars has grown to an apparent size of 12.5 arcseconds. It will 
reach opposition on the night of March 16th.

SATURN, at the Pisces-Cetus border, is the brightest "star" in the 
west-southwest during and just after dusk. It sets around 8:30 p.m.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the southeast before dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id CAA21091 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 15 Feb 1997 02:14:10 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id CAA13106 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 15 Feb 1997 02:15:03 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id CAA06192 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 15 Feb 1997 02:17:17 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id RAA08228 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 17:29:32 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 14 Feb 97 16:25:46 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for February 14th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 22-FEB-1997 00:06:48.12
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for Feb 21

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
FEBRUARY 21, 1997

HUBBLE SERVICING COMPETE

The shuttle *Discovery* and her crew of seven astronauts touched down
at the Kennedy Space Center early this morning after an 11-day mission
during which they upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope. In four planned
space walks *Discovery's* crew installed an infrared camera, an
imaging spectrograph, a guidance sensor, two data recorders, and
several other electronics modules. The astronauts then carried out a
fifth space walk to repair some of the telescope's protective
insulation, which they found to be peeling away in places after seven
years of exposure to the harsh space environment. Hubble scientists
are now busy checking out the new scientific instruments and
spacecraft systems and hope to resume making astronomical observations
within the next few weeks.

HALE-BOPP HITS 1.0

Even bright moonlight can't dampen the growing enthusiasm for Comet
Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1), which observers say has reached a total
magnitude of 1.0. S&T Contributing Editor John Bortle alerts you all
to a giant curved fountain that can be easily seen in binoculars on
the southeast side of the dazzling nucleus, inside the 2-degree-long
dust tail. Telescopically, Bortle reports, the inner coma's structure
is almost too complex to describe. There's also a longer ion tail on
the north side.

Beginning this week we will skip giving you precise coordinates, because
the comet is rather obvious in the predawn sky even if viewed from
urban skies. To see it you'll need to be up roughly 1.5 hours before
sunrise. You'll find the comet about 20 degrees above the east-
northeast horizon; it's clipping the lower wing of the constellation 
Cygnus and is to the lower-right of the bright star Deneb.

RETURN TO EUROPA

The Galileo spacecraft made a second close flyby of the Jovian moon
Europa on February 20th, passing by as planned at a distance of 586
km. High-resolution closeups of the icy surface will be beamed to
Earth in the coming weeks. They should resolve details well under 100
meters across. Other observations included snapshots of Jupiter's
ring, the small satellites Thebe and Amalthea, and magnetospheric
measurements. Galileo's next major objective is a return visit to
Ganymede, which takes place on April 5th.

SN 1987A's ANNIVERSARY

About 166,000 years ago, a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud became a
supernova, violently spewing its outer layers into space and sending
an incredible burst of light in all directions. That flash of light
reached Earth 10 years ago this week, on the night of February 23-24,
1987, and briefly reached magnitude 2.9. In the years since this
supernova, designated SN 1987A, has been a boon to astrophysicists who
study the lives and deaths of stars. They now suspect that the
exploding star had once been a blue star with about 20 times the Sun's
mass. In time it swelled into a red giant, lost a lot of mass through
a stellar wind, then contracted and heated up as a blue supergiant.
Eventually its core collapsed, triggering the explosion. For the
complete story on SN 1987A, see supernova expert Robert Kirshner's
article in the February issue of SKY & TELESCOPE.

OTHER MILESTONES

This past week saw two significant milestones in the annals of amateur
astronomy. First, S&T Contributing Editor David Levy logged his
10,000th observing session. And Jack Horkheimer, known to millions of
viewers as the Star Hustler, broadcast his 1,000th episode.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

FEB. 23 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp glows in the east-northeast before the first light of 
dawn this week. Go out an hour and 45 minutes before sunrise (find your 
sunrise time in a local newspaper) and look below or to the lower right 
of Deneb. The comet is in or near the lower wingtip of Cygnus.

Hale-Bopp should be visible to the naked eye even in rather mediocre 
sky conditions. Look for a fuzzy "star" with a short, broad tail. Any 
light pollution in your sky will diminish what you can see of the comet. 
But binoculars will give a fine view under any conditions.

Hale-Bopp will brighten in the dawn for the next month. It will be at its 
best in the dawn sky during March, and in the evening sky from late March 
through mid-April.


FEB. 24 -- MONDAY

  * The eclipsing binary star Algol should be at its minimum brightness, 
magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 
6:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

  * The red long-period variable star S Ursae Majoris should be at its 
maximum brightness (8th magnitude) this week.

  * Mars shines near the waning gibbous Moon after they rise together in 
midevening. They should be a striking sight low in the east by 9 p.m. 
(depending on where you live in your time zone). They travel together 
across the sky for the rest of the night.

FEB. 25 -- TUESDAY

  * Can you still see Saturn's moons in a telescope? The planet is low in 
the west right at the end of twilight. This evening through Friday evening 
its largest and brightest moon, Titan, is three or four ring-lengths to 
Saturn's east.

FEB. 26 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Some doorstep astronomy: This is the time of year when Orion is at its 
very highest at nightfall. Look south right after dark for a more-or-less 
rectangular star pattern with a diagonal row of three stars in its middle: 
Orion's Belt.

FEB. 27 -- THURSDAY

  * More on Orion: The bright orange star in Orion's upper left corner is 
Betelgeuse; the bright white one in the lower right corner is Rigel. Both 
are giants many times larger and more luminous than the Sun.

FEB. 28 -- FRIDAY

  * If you're out before dawn for Comet Hale-Bopp, you get a preview of 
the evening constellations of June. Tomorrow morning the Moon will be 
shining in the south. The orange star to its lower left, by a little more 
than a fist-width at arm's length, is Antares in Scorpius. Lower in the 
southeast is the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius.

MAR. 1 -- SATURDAY

  * Antares is to the Moon's lower right before and during dawn Sunday 
morning.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and VENUS are hidden in the glow of sunrise.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, rises in the east around 7:30 to 8 p.m.  It 
shines bright orange well up in the southeast by 11 p.m., high in the 
south during early morning hours, and lower in the west-southwest at dawn. 
In a telescope, Mars has grown to an apparent size of 13 arcseconds. It 
will reach opposition on the night of March 16th.

JUPITER is beginning to appear very low above the east-southeast horizon 
as dawn brightens. Look for it very far below Aquila.

SATURN, at the Pisces-Cetus border, is the brightest "star" low in the 
west as evening twilight fades.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn sky.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the southeast before dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA24476 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 22 Feb 1997 01:02:25 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA28321 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 22 Feb 1997 01:07:08 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA05639 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 22 Feb 1997 01:09:31 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id RAA13195 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 21 Feb 1997 17:31:17 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 21 Feb 97 17:24:44 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for Feb 21
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 28-FEB-1997 22:27:13.62
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bullletin for February 28th  (corrected)

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
FEBRUARY 28, 1997

DOES 51 PEG's PLANET REALLY EXIST?

According to David Gray, an astronomer at the University of Western
Ontario, the planet-sized companion to the star 51 Pegasi does not
exist!  This is the star that started the current rush of extrasolar-
planet discoveries in 1995. Astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz
then claimed that subtle shifts in the star's spectrum showed that the
star was nodding back and forth relative to Earth, the effect of
an object with at least half Jupiter's mass circling nearby every 4.2
days. But Gray, who is an expert on stellar spectroscopy, believes
that 51 Pegasi is causing the effect itself.  He found that the shape
of an absorption line was tilting one way, then the other, in lock
step with the putative planet's orbit. Orbital motions can't change
the shape of a spectral line, only its position. "Therefore," Gray
wrote in *Nature* for February 27th, "the planet hypothesis is no
longer an adequate interpretation of the data."

Instead, says Gray, 51 Pegasi seems to undergo complex pulsations that
somehow tilt the lines back and forth. However, planet-hunters are
rising to 51 Peg's defense, arguing that the pulsations Gray envisions
can't become strong enough to reproduce the observed behavior.  The
outcome of this debate will affect the viability of planets presumed
to circle three other stars too.

HALE-BOPP GLEAMS AGAIN

According to veteran observer Charles Morris, on the morning of
February 28th Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) was magnitude 0.5 with a gas
tail stretching some 20 degrees and a dust tail half that long. Morris
says the comet was then significantly brighter than it had been just
two days before. A prominent fountain coming off the nucleus and its
resulting dust plume are easily visible in binoculars. And now that
the Moon has waned itself away, early morning views should be
excellent. To see Comet Hale-Bopp you'll need to be up at least an
hour before sunrise. You'll find it above the east-northeast horizon,
to the lower-right of the bright star Deneb in the constellation
Cygnus.

PIONEER 10's ANNIVERSARY

March 2nd marks the 25th anniversary of the launch in 1972 of Pioneer
10.  The "Energizer Bunny" of interplanetary spacecraft, Pioneer 10 is
almost exactly 10 billion kilometers from Earth, more than 9 light-hours
away.  The spacecraft made history with its close flyby of Jupiter in
December 1973.  Together with Pioneer 11, which arrived the following
year, these 570-pound spacecraft took many pictures of Jupiter and its
major moons. But the twin spacecraft will be most remembered for their
measurements of the fields and charged particles in Jupiter's immense
magnetosphere.

Incredibly, Pioneer 10 maintains contact with Earth using just an 8-
watt transmitter, but the electricity supplied by the plutonium-fueled
generators on board is weakening. Even so, the spacecraft is still
returning data on the intensity of galactic cosmic rays, using the
instrument developed by space pioneer James Van Allen. Some 30,000
years from now the spacecraft will pass in the general vicinity of
Ross 248, a 15th-magnitude star in the constellation Taurus.

NO HIT IN HONDURAS

An international team of meteorite specialists have found no evidence
for a 50-meter-wide impact crater in Honduras, despite local reports
to the contrary following a spectacular bolide last November 22nd
(March issue, page 12).  According to astronomer Maria Cristina Pineda
de Carias of the National Autonomous University of Honduras in
Tegucigalpa, the fireball remained luminous down to an altitude of 14
kilometers and had an apparent magnitude of -15 to -20 -- many times
brighter than the full Moon.  Any meteorites from this event probably
fell in rugged, inaccessible terrain near the Honduras-Guatemala
border, though none have been recovered yet.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MARCH 2 -- SUNDAY

  * Last-quarter Moon.

  * Comet Hale-Bopp glows in the east-northeast before the first light of 
dawn this week. Go out an hour and 40 minutes before sunrise (find your 
sunrise time in a local newspaper) and look well below Deneb. The comet may 
equal Deneb in brightness! It should thus be visible even in very mediocre 
sky conditions. Look for a fuzzy "star" with a short, broad tail. Light 
pollution in your sky will diminish what you can see of the comet, especially 
the tail. But binoculars will give a fine view under any conditions.

Hale-Bopp will brighten in the dawn for the next couple of weeks. By March 
21st its best viewing time will have shifted to evening right at the 
end of twilight, when the comet will glow in the northwest. That's where 
it will be when at its best, from late March through mid-April.

MARCH 3 -- MONDAY

  * Have you ever seen the zodiacal light? For observers at midnorthern 
latitudes, this is the best time of year to spot it around the end of dusk. 
As the last of twilight fades out in the west, look for a huge, narrow 
pyramid of dim, pearly light extending upward from the western horizon 
through the constellations of the zodiac. What you're seeing is 
interplanetary dust lit by sunlight.

MARCH 4 -- TUESDAY

  * No matter how bad your light pollution is, you can't miss Sirius, the 
brightest star in the nighttime sky. Look high in the south after dark 
this week. Sirius is white because it is hotter than the Sun, and it's 
one of the closest stars to the solar system at a distance of only 8.6 
light-years.

MARCH 5 -- WEDNESDAY

  * During dawn tomorrow morning, Jupiter shines below or to the lower right 
of the thin waning crescent Moon. Look just above the east-southeastern 
horizon.

MARCH 6 -- THURSDAY

  * Have you seen Mars yet this season? It's well up in the east by 9 p.m.

MARCH 7 -- FRIDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars V and R Cassiopeiae should be at 
maximum light (7th or 8th magnitude) around this date.

MARCH 8 -- SATURDAY

  * New Moon. A total eclipse of the Sun occurs over parts of Mongolia and 
central Siberia (on March 9th Asian time). The Sun is partially eclipsed over 
much of East Asia including Japan (March 9th), as well as Alaska (March 8th).

 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and VENUS are hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, rises in the east by the end of evening twilight. 
It shines bright orange well up in the east-southeast by 9 or 10 p.m., high 
in the south after midnight, and lower in the west-southwest at dawn. In a 
telescope, Mars has grown to an apparent size of 13 1/2 arcseconds. It will 
reach opposition on the night of March 16th.

JUPITER is beginning to appear low above the east-southeast horizon as dawn 
brightens. Look for it very far below Aquila.

SATURN, at the Pisces-Cetus border, is very low in the west as evening 
twilight fades.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA16822 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 28 Feb 1997 23:24:06 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA15987 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 28 Feb 1997 23:28:49 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA11292 for <[email protected]>; Fri, 28 Feb 1997 23:31:16 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA03875 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 28 Feb 1997 16:20:46 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 28 Feb 97 16:20:35 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bullletin for February 28th  (corrected)
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon"  8-MAR-1997 00:01:10.22
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for March 7th  (revised)

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MARCH 7, 1997

A FAR-EAST ECLIPSE

Some diehards will go to the ends of the Earth to see a total solar
eclipse, and that's just where you'll find them this week. On March
9th the Moon's shadow will cross the Earth from central Asia up
through Mongolia and Siberia -- not exactly a late-winter tourist's
paradise. Yet several amateur groups are there, vying for a glimpse
of the Sun's corona during about 2.5 minutes of totality. Around
1:05 UT, the time of greatest eclipse, residents well southeast of the
centerline in Japan will see 60% to 70% of the Sun's diameter covered.
The next total solar eclipse occurs on February 26th next year, in the
much warmer climes of the Caribbean.

HALE-BOPP HITS 0.0

By most accounts, Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) has reached magnitude
0.0, which means it is outshining Comet Hyakutake at its peak last
year. And it's still three weeks until Hale-Bopp's perihelion on
April 1st. Meanwhile, the comet is beginning its gradual slide in the
east before dawn -- and beginning to poke above the northwest at
sunset, especially for viewers at far northern latitudes. In fact,
right now the comet never sets for those of you in Alaska or
Scandinavia. Hale-Bopp's gas tail can be glimpsed for some 20 deg in
dark skies, and its dust tail is roughly half that long. To see Comet
Hale-Bopp in all its glory you'll need to be up at least 1 1/2 hours
before sunrise, though its starlike inner coma can still be seen in
twilight. You'll find it not far above the northeast horizon, to the
lower-left of the bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus.

HUBBLE UPDATE

The Space Shuttle *Discovery* and its crew did their job. Now
scientists and engineers are well into the checking and calibration of
the Hubble Space Telescope's new systems. This "orbital verification
began in February, and the first observations with the Space Telescope
Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera/Multi-Object
Spectrograph (NICMOS) were performed in early March. Reports are that
the instruments were having some problems with radiation in an orbital
zone called the South Atlantic Anomaly, but are otherwise working
well.

ALDEBARAN OCCULTATION

On the evening of Friday, March 14th, observers in Europe will be
treated to a lunar occultation of the bright, 1st-magnitude star
Aldebaran. The Moon will then be nearing first quarter, so the star's
disappearance on the dark limb should be dramatic. Unfortunately this
is a daylight event in the eastern U.S. The occultation occurs in
early evening for Europe. For more information, including a listing
of occultation times for American cities, check out the Web site of the 
International Occultation Timing Association Web site at
http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm.

SUNSPOT VIGIL

Veteran observer Casper Hossfield reports that the Sun was spotless
for most of last week. But a prominent spot was just coming over the
eastern limb on March 6th that may develop in to something worth
watching.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

 Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MARCH 9 -- SUNDAY

 * Comet Hale-Bopp glows brightly, shining at 1st magnitude or better, 
in the northeastern sky before the first light of dawn this week. Go out 
an hour and 40 minutes before sunrise (find your sunrise time in a local 
newspaper). The comet is so bright that it should be visible even through 
very mediocre skies. Look for a fuzzy "star" with a broad, upward tail.

Hale-Bopp is now becoming visible in the evening sky as well! Look low 
above the northwestern horizon as twilight fades out. The comet will rise 
higher in the dusk during the next two weeks, and it will shine at its 
best there in late March and early April.

The farther north you are the better; skywatchers at the latitudes of the 
northern United States have a better view than those in the southern U.S. 
Observers in the Southern Hemisphere miss out entirely (until late April 
or May).

Light pollution in your sky will diminish what you can see of the comet, 
especially the tail. But binoculars will give a grand view under any 
conditions. Don't miss this rare sight!

* On March 9th Asian time, a total eclipse of the Sun crosses parts of 
Mongolia and Siberia. The Sun is partially eclipsed throughout eastern Asia 
and in Alaska (on March 8th Alaskan time).

MARCH 10 -- MONDAY

 * Look low in the west about 40 minutes after sunset for the thin waxing 
crescent Moon, cup-shaped. Far below it is Saturn, disappearing into the 
sunset glow.

 * During early dawn tomorrow morning, a telescope shows the 6th-magnitude 
star 19 Capricorni 3 arcminutes south of Jupiter. Don't mistake it for a 
misplaced satellite of Jupiter!

MARCH 11 -- TUESDAY

 * Mercury is in superior conjunction with the Sun.

MARCH 12 -- WEDNESDAY

 * Some basic star-finding: Look southwest around 8 p.m. for the bright 
constellation Orion. In its middle is a nearly horizontal row of three 
stars, Orion's Belt. The belt points roughly to bright Sirius at lower 
left, and roughly to Aldebaran at upper right.

MARCH 13 -- THURSDAY

 * More basic star-finding: Look south around 7 or 8 p.m. to spot Sirius, 
the Dog Star, the brightest star in the sky. Off to its upper left is 
Procyon, the Little Dog Star. To Sirius's upper right is the constellation 
Orion.

MARCH 14 -- FRIDAY

 * Around the middle of the day, the dark limb of the nearly first-quarter 
Moon occults 1st-magnitude Aldebaran for most of eastern and central North 
America. See the map and timetable in the January Sky & Telescope, pages 
90 and 91; more details are at http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm.

MARCH 15 -- SATURDAY

 * First-quarter Moon. Orion shines to the Moon's lower left.


 ============================
 THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and VENUS are hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, reaches opposition on the night of March 16th. 
This week it rises in the east in evening twilight and shines bright orange 
well up in the east-southeast by 8 or 9 p.m. It's high in the south around 
midnight and low in the west at dawn. In a telescope, Mars has grown to an 
apparent size of 14 arcseconds, its maximum for the year. It will be closest 
to Earth (and 14.2" in diameter) on March 20th.

JUPITER is beginning to appear low above the east-southeast horizon as dawn 
brightens. Look for it very far below Aquila.

SATURN, at the Pisces-Cetus border, is disappearing very low in the west 
as evening twilight fades.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before the 
first light of dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA13345 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 00:56:17 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA00319 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 01:00:56 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA12637 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 8 Mar 1997 01:03:35 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id SAA02590 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 7 Mar 1997 18:09:47 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 07 Mar 97 18:08:32 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for March 7th  (revised)
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 14-MAR-1997 20:57:42.94
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T News Bulletin for March 14th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MARCH 14, 1997

MARCH EQUINOX

Spring returns to the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn to the Southern,
at 13:56 Universal Time (8:56 a.m. Eastern) on March 20th. At that
moment the Sun is directly on the celestial equator as it moves
northward in declination.

HALE-BOPP SPINS ITS MAGIC

Recent observations by European astronomers using the 1-meter
telescope at Pic du Midi show that Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) rotates
every 11.47 hours, but that the spin rate actually varies by about a
half hour over a three-week period. This complex rotation, which
may include precession, is combining with a prominent jet or jets of
dust to create the multiple bright shells that have been observed on
the sunward side of the nucleus. The comet will be closest to the
Earth this coming weekend (197 million km) and to the Sun on April 1st
(137 million km).

Meanwhile, the comet is obvious in both the morning and evening skies
from mid-northern latitudes. On March 13th, S&T Contributing Editor
John Bortle said that with his unaided eye he traced Hale-Bopp's faint
ion tail out to more than 16 degrees, while the brighter dust tail
extended 9 degrees. Mornings are probably still the better bet, as
this week the waxing Moon will become a problem in the evening. The
comet's total magnitude is now about -0.3. To see Comet Hale-Bopp
you'll need to look at least 1 1/2 hours before sunrise or after
sunset, though its starlike inner coma can still be seen in twilight.
It's about 20 degrees above northeastern horizon before dawn, and the
roughly same height above the northwestern horizon in the evening.

A FAR-EAST ECLIPSE

Results are trickling in from the total solar eclipse that occurred
March 9th over remote parts of Mongolia and eastern Siberia. Paul
Maley reports that members of Johnson Space Center Astronomical
Society attempted to dodge a storm near the Mongolian city of Darhan.
But within 15 minutes of mideclipse heavy snow began to fall, wiping
them out. Maley notes that a group of Buddhist monks nearby prayed for
clouds during the eclipse, presumably to neutralize its negative energy.
"This tactic appeared to have worked," Maley says. Shigemi Numazawa
and his expedition for the Japan Planetarium Laboratory was somewhat
more successful. They obtained images of both the eclipsed Sun and,
during totality, Comet Hale-Bopp. Numazawa's Web site is
http://www1.nisiq.net/~numazawa/mongole.html.

LUNAR PROSPECTOR

On March 12th project officials showed off the completed Lunar
Prospector spacecraft at Lockheed-Martin in Sunnyvale, California.
Costing a total of $63 million, the mission is set begin on September
24th. Lunar Prospector will circle the Moon for a year, studying
magnetic fields, gravity, and surface characteristics. One key
experiment will look for telltale neutrons emitted by water ice at the
permanently shadowed lunar poles.

MARS AT ITS BEST

The red planet reaches opposition on March 17th, when it rises around
sunset and shines all night. Although ever so slightly dimmer than
Sirius at magnitude -1.3, Mars will attract more attention -- partly
because it stares steadily at us with little or no twinkling and
shines with a distinctive, orange-gold light. It will gain special
notice above the almost totally eclipsed Moon on the night of March
23rd.  The Martian disk is now 14" across, tipped slightly so that its
north pole is in view.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MARCH 16 -- SUNDAY

  * The comet of the decade is on display each clear night! Comet Hale-Bopp 
is shining at magnitude 0 or brighter, roughly as brilliant as the brightest 
stars in the sky.

This week we finally start to see the comet as high in the evening sky as 
it is before dawn. Just look northwest right after the end of twilight (an 
hour and a half after sunset), or northeast just before the first light 
of dawn (an hour and a half before sunrise). Look for the fuzzy "star" with 
a tail.

The comet will rise higher in the evening sky for another week or so and will 
shine there at its best in late March and early April.

The farther north you are the better. Skywatchers at the latitudes of the 
northern United States have a better view than those in the southern U.S.  
Observers in the Southern Hemisphere miss out entirely (until late April 
or May).

Light pollution and moonlight will diminish what you can see of the comet, 
especially the tail. But binoculars will give a grand view under any 
conditions.

  * Mars is at opposition tonight.

  * The eclipsing variable star Algol should be at minimum light, magnitude 
3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered on 8:30 p.m. 
Eastern Standard Time.

MARCH 17 -- MONDAY

  * The waxing gibbous Moon is in a starry part of the sky this evening. At 
comet-watching time right after dusk, Pollux and Castor are above the Moon 
and Procyon is nearly the same distance under it. The brilliant white star 
much farther below the Moon is Sirius.

MARCH 18 -- TUESDAY

  * Three dramatic solar-system objects grab skywatchers' attention after 
dusk this week: Comet Hale-Bopp in the northwest, the Moon, and bright orange 
Mars rising low in the east. Bring out the telescope!

MARCH 19 -- WEDNESDAY

  * This evening the waxing gibbous Moon forms a nearly equilateral triangle 
with Pollux (to its upper right) and Procyon (to its right). The triangle's 
corner that's marked by the Moon points down to Regulus and, farther on, 
bright orange Mars.

MARCH 20 -- THURSDAY

  * The Sun moves north across the celestial equator at 8:56 a.m. Eastern 
Standard Time. This equinox marks the beginning of spring in the Northern 
Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

  * Mercury and Saturn are in conjunction low in the west after sunset, 2 
degrees apart. Use binoculars.

  * Mars is nearest Earth tonight. It's 98.6 million kilometers away and 
14.2 arcseconds in apparent diameter.

  * Late tonight telescope users in the West and Southwest can see whether 
an 8.4-magnitude star in Virgo is occulted by the 13th-magnitude minor 
planet 377 Campania. The occultation should happen within a few minutes of 
8:19 Universal Time March 21st and last for up to 7 seconds. See the map 
and table in the February Sky & Telescope, page 73.

MARCH 21 -- FRIDAY

  * This evening the nearly full Moon shines in the east-southeast between 
Regulus (above it) and brighter orange Mars (to its lower left).

MARCH 22 -- SATURDAY

  * The Moon and Mars shine close together in the eastern sky this evening.

  * Get ready for the deep partial eclipse of the Moon visible tomorrow night 
from throughout the Americas. See the March Sky & Telescope, page 82, or on 
the World Wide Web go to http://www/skypub/com/eclipses/m970323a.shtml.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and SATURN are very low due west as evening twilight fades this 
week. They're just 2 degrees apart on March 19th and 20th. Look for them 
with binoculars about 25 minutes after sunset. Mercury is by far the 
brighter of the two. No other bright starlike objects are in the area. 
Each evening Mercury gets higher, Saturn lower.

VENUS is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, shines brilliant orange in the east during 
evening, high in the south in the middle of the night, and in the west 
before dawn. Mars is at opposition on the night of March 16th and nearest 
to Earth on the 20th. In a telescope it appears 14 arcseconds wide, its 
maximum for the year. This is still pretty small as Mars oppositions go.

JUPITER is low above the southeast horizon as dawn brightens. Look for 
it very far below Aquila.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before the 
first light of dawn.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)

Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id VAA10806; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 21:53:01 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id VAA06246; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 21:57:40 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA21098; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 22:00:05 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA08306 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 14 Mar 1997 14:37:35 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 14 Mar 97 14:36:34 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for March 14th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 21-MAR-1997 21:47:21.50
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T's News Bulletin for  March 21

SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN

MARCH 21, 1997

HALE-BOPP AT ITS PEAK

The Great Comet of 1997 is now entering "prime time." The twin-tailed 
spectacle is obvious in both the morning and evening skies from midnorthern 
latitudes. Comet Hale-Bopp sports a long, thin, faint gas tail and a shorter, 
broader, brighter dust tail. The interplanetary interloper comes closest to 
Earth on March 22nd, though it will be on the far side of the Sun and 197 
million kilometers away at the time. Over the following two days the comet 
sails just 5 deg. north of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. The comet's total visual 
magnitude is now about -0.5. To see Comet Hale-Bopp at its best you should 
look at least 1-1/4 hours before sunrise or after sunset, though its starlike 
inner coma can still be seen in twilight. It's about 20 deg. above the 
northeastern horizon before dawn, and roughly the same height above the 
northwestern horizon in the evening.

For more information about Comet Hale-Bopp from the editors of SKY & 
TELESCOPE, including images and finder charts, see SKY Online's Comet Page at 
http://www.skypub.com/comets/comets.html.

A DEEP PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

Skywatchers almost everywhere in the Americas will have a fine view of the 
Moon being eclipsed on the night of March 23rd, if the weather is clear. 
Viewed from Europe and Africa, the Moon will be in the western sky before or 
during dawn on the morning of the 24th. Adding to the scene will be the bright 
orange planet Mars about 12 deg. above or to the upper right of the Moon. Here 
are Eastern Standard Times of the major events: Partial eclipse begins at 9:58 
p.m.; mid-eclipse is at 11:39 p.m.; partial eclipse ends at 1:21 a.m. March 
24th (convert these to your local time zone). For a more complete timetable 
and a diagram showing the path of the Moon through the Earth's shadow, see SKY 
& TELESCOPE's online eclipse preview at 
http://www.skypub.com/eclipses/m970323a.shtml.

LIFE ON MARS REVISITED

Planetary scientists gathered in Houston, Texas, this week to debate the 
likelihood that life existed on Mars billions of years ago. The focus of their 
attention was a Martian meteorite designated ALH 84001. Last August, 
scientists from NASA and Stanford University built a case for microscopic 
fossils within the 4-pound stone, and at the Houston meeting more that 30 
papers detailed new studies of the rock. The life hypothesis hinges in part on 
the origin of bits of carbonate minerals within which the putative fossils 
were found. Several presenters maintained that the carbonates formed slowly at 
temperatures below the boiling point of water. But others argued that the 
minerals came together while at several hundred degrees -- much too hot to 
sustain any known organisms.

Meanwhile, several research teams have searched for chemical fingerprints of 
life, and whether ultramicroscopic structures are fossilized microbes or just 
flecks of mineral. As NASA scientist Doug Blanchard summed up, "It's still too 
early to conclude about life on Mars -- no one knows the truth just yet." NASA 
and the National Science Foundation plan to distribute more samples of the 
unique meteorite next month, to begin a new round of tests by scores of 
scientific teams worldwide.

A BINARY'S DUST DISK

Using a coronagraphic camera on Mauna Kea, astronomers have found what may be 
a gigantic disk of dust, some 2 trillion kilometers in diameter, surrounding 
BD +31 643, an 8th-magnitude binary star 1,100 light-years distant in the 
constellation Perseus. Dust disks or shells have been indirectly discerned 
around dozens of stars via infrared spectral measurements. But, until now, 
astronomers had only managed to "photograph" such a feature around one main-
sequence star, Beta Pictoris. In Nature for March 6th, Paul Kalas (Max-Planck 
Institute for Astronomy) and David Jewitt (University of Hawaii) surmise that 
the newfound disk would require a Jupiter's worth of planetesimals, which 
create dust by smashing into one another, to sustain itself. If each of these 
putative colliders were a typical large rocky asteroid, 100 km across, at 
least a billion such objects must swarm around the binary's two B-type stars. 
Kalas's upcoming Hubble Space Telescope observations will inspect the 
enigmatic disk with 10 times better resolution than the discovery image.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MARCH 23 -- SUNDAY

  * THE GREAT COMET OF 1997 is at its best and brightest for the next three 
weeks! Comet Hale-Bopp is shining at magnitude 0 or brighter, roughly as 
brilliant as the brightest stars in the sky. Go out right after dark and 
look northwest. There it is -- a big, fuzzy "star" with a tail.

The farther north you are, the higher the comet will appear. Observers in 
the Southern Hemisphere miss out until late April or May.

Any light pollution or moonlight will diminish what you can see of the comet, 
especially the tail. But binoculars will give a grand view under any 
conditions.

* A SPECTACULAR PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON occurs tonight! The sight 
will be a head-turner, with a dramatically darkened and reddened full Moon 
appearing to wear a brilliant white cap around the time of mid-eclipse. 
Adding to the scene will be bright orange Mars about 12 degrees above or to 
the upper right of the Moon.

The eclipse will take place high in a dark evening sky as seen from nearly 
all of the United States and Canada. In South America, eclipse time falls 
later in the night. In most of Europe and Africa, the partially eclipsed 
Moon will be low in the western sky before sunrise March 24th.

Here are Eastern Standard Times of the major events: Partial eclipse begins 
at 9:58 p.m.; mid-eclipse is at 11:39 p.m.; partial eclipse ends at 1:21 
a.m. March 24th. Convert these to your time zone.

For more information see the March Sky & Telescope, page 82, or on the World 
Wide Web go to http://www/skypub/com/eclipses/m970323a.shtml.

MARCH 24 -- MONDAY

  * During dawn tomorrow, anyone turning a telescope on Jupiter will find the 
4th-magnitude star Theta Capricorni in the same field, about 6 arcminutes 
south of the planet.

MARCH 25 -- TUESDAY

  * At last the Moon is gone from the sky at prime evening comet-watching 
time, right after the end of twilight. With no moonlight in the sky, the peak 
of Comet Hale-Bopp's performance begins in earnest tonight and continues for 
the next two or three weeks.

MARCH 26 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Have a comet block party! While showing the comet to friends and family, 
don't forget the rest of the sky. This week the constellation Orion is in the 
southwest after dusk. Look for the row of three stars in its middle, Orion's 
Belt. They point lower left toward brilliant white Sirius, and upper right 
toward fainter orange Aldebaran. Beyond Aldebaran is the little Pleiades star 
cluster.

MARCH 27 -- THURSDAY

  * More constellations at comet-watching time: look northeast for the Big 
Dipper standing upright on its handle. The two stars at the top of the 
Dipper's bowl point left toward the rather dim North Star, Polaris.

MARCH 28 -- FRIDAY

  * More sky sights after dusk: You can't miss Mars, the brilliant orange 
"star" in the eastern sky. It looks orange because that's the color of 
Mars's rust-colored landscapes. So many people don't realize they can see 
the surfaces of other planets with their naked eyes!

MARCH 29 -- SATURDAY

  * More constellation spotting: A little way off to the right of the comet, 
look for a zigzag pattern of five stars like a flattened W standing on its 
side. The bottom three stars are the brightest. This is the constellation 
Cassiopeia, a legendary queen of Ethiopia.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY shines low in the west as evening twilight fades, getting higher 
daily. Look very far to the lower right of Aldebaran. Mercury has its best 
evening apparition of the year in the last week of March and the first week 
of April.

VENUS is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, shines brilliant orange in the east during 
evening, high in the south in the middle of the night, and in the west 
before dawn. Mars is just past its March 16th opposition. In a telescope 
it still appears 14 arcseconds in diameter. Take the opportunity to 
observe it this large while you can!

JUPITER is low in the southeast as dawn brightens.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before dawn's 
first light.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)

Full details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month 
in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our World Wide 
Web site at http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!

SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178  *  617-864-7360 (voice)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.

% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA00660; Fri, 21 Mar 1997 22:42:31 +0100
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA22656; Fri, 21 Mar 1997 22:48:00 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA18759; Fri, 21 Mar 1997 22:50:56 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA02636 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 21 Mar 1997 15:16:08 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 21 Mar 97 15:05:29 -0500
% Subject: S&T's News Bulletin for  March 21
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MARCH 28, 1997

HALE-BOPP'S SPRING SPECTACLE

Without doubt, Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) is an obvious sight in the
evening sky for any viewer in the Northern Hemisphere.  On April 1st
it comes closest to the Sun, a point 137 million km (0.91 a.u.) away,
while moving 44 km per second.  The comet's coma has brightened to
better than magnitude -0.5, and its pearly dust tail is much more
evident now that moonlight is no longer in competition. Although Hale-
Bopp can still be seen before dawn, it's really at its best in the
evening sky.  The comet's starlike inner coma can even be seen in
twilight. But the tail, which points to the right, is most obvious at
least 1-1/4 hours after sunset when the sky has become completely dark.
Look about 20 degrees above the northwestern horizon.

Comet Hale-Bopp drew worldwide attention unexpectedly last week when a
group in California committed mass suicide. Apparently its members believed
the comet was a long-awaited "marker" signalling them into action.
Historians note that comets have been associated with death, disease,
and other calamities for thousands of years. Several such episodes are
chronicled in "Comets That Changed the World," an article by
astronomer Bradley E. Schaefer in SKY & TELESCOPE's May issue.

HALE-BOPP COMPOSITION CLUES

Astronomers have been using orbiting observatories to divine the
comet's composition, and several results were reported this week.  The
March 28th issue of SCIENCE describes studies made with the Hubble
Space Telescope and the International Ultraviolet Explorer.  That work
shows that water ice is escaping at a rate different from those of
other frozen compounds, so these ices appear to be segregated from one
another within the nucleus.  Spectra obtained with Europe's Infrared
Space Observatory show that Hale-Bopp's coma contains particles of
olivine, a metal-rich silicate mineral common in Earth's mantle and in
the dust cocoons that surround other stars.

MORE HUBBLE TROUBLE

There's new concern about a focusing problem with one of the
scientific instruments installed by astronauts last month in the
Hubble Space Telescope.  NICMOS, the Near Infrared Camera/Multi-Object
Spectrograph, contains three cameras that are cooled to 58 K (-355 F)
by 100 kg of solid nitrogen.  Engineers learned last summer that the
experiment's optical structure had become warped during testing due to
expansion of the nitrogen ice. Initially it was believed that the
three detectors could be focused individually once in orbit.  However,
ongoing tests show that while two of the NICMOS cameras can achieve
focus, the third one cannot.  An investigation is under way, but it's
thought that over time enough of the ice will sublime away to restore
the alignment of the optical bench.  Meanwhile, since the problem
is related to a thermal "leak," it appears the cryogen will be used up
well before its planned lifetime of 4.5 years.

MARCH 23rd's LUNAR ECLIPSE

Skies were generally favorable in the Americas during the partial
lunar eclipse on the night of March 23rd. Although 8 percent of the
lunar diameter remained outside Earth's umbral shadow, several
observers commented on how remarkable similar the Moon appeared to
recent total eclipses that displayed a bright limb during totality.
Observers in western North America had a double treat during the lunar
eclipse, since Comet Hale-Bopp had yet to dip below the northwest
horizon. As the full Moon faded from magnitude -12 to perhaps -5, the
sky darkened and afforded a better view of the comet.

A NEW BINARY SYSTEM

Congratulations to David Levy and Wendee Wallach, who were married inside 
Tucson's Flandrau Planetarium on March 23rd!


THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MARCH 30 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is at its best now and for the next two weeks! Look for 
it fairly low in the northwestern sky right after the end of twilight -- a 
bright, fuzzy "star" with a tail. The comet is glowing at about magnitude 
-1, as bright as the very brightest stars.

Any light pollution in your sky will diminish what you can see of the 
comet's tail. But its head is bright enough to show even through bad city 
light pollution. Binoculars will give a grand view under any conditions. 
A good amateur telescope shows a wealth of bright detail -- arcs and jets 
-- around the comet's nucleus. Don't miss this rare event!

The farther north you are, the higher the comet will appear. Observers in 
the Southern Hemisphere miss out until late April or May.

MARCH 31 -- MONDAY

  * Last-quarter Moon. The Moon's south polar regions are librated (tilted) 
into especially good telescopic view.

APRIL 1 -- TUESDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is at perihelion, 85 million miles from the Sun.

APRIL 2 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Just below the head of Comet Hale-Bopp this evening and tomorrow evening 
is the 2nd-magnitude star Gamma Andromedae.

  * Venus is in superior conjunction with the Sun.

  * Low in the dawn Thursday morning, the waning crescent Moon hangs near 
Jupiter.

APRIL 3 -- THURSDAY

  * Mercury and Hale-Bopp are shining at about the same apparent magnitude, 
-0.3. Mercury is in the midst of its best evening apparition of the year; 
look for it about an hour after sunset, low in the west-northwest. The comet 
is off to Mercury's upper right. Its tail is best seen a bit later as the 
sky grows fully dark.

APRIL 4 -- FRIDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars S Canis Minoris and T Camelopardalis 
should be at maximum brightness (7th or 8th magnitude) around this date.

APRIL 5 -- SATURDAY

  * The eclipsing variable star Algol, a little to the upper left of Comet 
Hale-Bopp's head, should be at minimum light, magnitude 3.4 instead of its 
usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 10:14 p.m. Eastern Standard Time 
(convert this to your time zone). Algol takes several additional hours to 
fade and rebrighten.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY shines low in the western sky as evening twilight fades. It is 
having its best evening apparition of the year.

VENUS is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, shines brilliant yellow-orange in the east 
during evening. It's high in the south during the middle of the night and 
in the west before dawn. In a telescope Mars is 14 arcseconds in diameter 
and shrinking. Take the opportunity to observe it this large while you can!

JUPITER is low in the southeast as dawn brightens.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before dawn's 
first light.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id TAA20511; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 19:33:47 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id SAA25754; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 18:38:34 +0100 (MET)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id SAA22878; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 18:43:22 +0100 (MET)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA00727 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 11:29:14 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 28 Mar 97 11:23:46 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for March 28th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon"  4-APR-1997 22:17:35.20
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	S&T NEWS BULLETIN FOR April 4th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 4, 1997

HALE-BOPP UPDATE

On April 1st Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) passed its closest to the Sun
when 137 million km (0.91 a.u.) away and traveling 44 km per second.
S&T contributing editor John Bortle reports that the comet is
magnitude -0.5. Its twin tails, pointing northward, are each nearly 20
degrees long as viewed from his dark-sky site. This is the last full
week you can view Hale-Bopp at its peak without interference from the
Moon, which returns to the evening sky in the coming days. For the
best views, look at least 1-1/4 hours after sunset when the sky is
completely dark. Comet Hale-Bopp should be obvious about 20 to 30
degrees above the northwestern horizon (depending on your latitude).

ALDEBARAN COVERUP

If you live in western North America and have clear skies on Thursday
evening, April 10th, you can witness a rare, naked-eye occultation of
the bright star Aldebaran by the dark limb of the waxing crescent
Moon. The exact time of disappearance will vary depending on your
location, but it should occur between 4:30 and 5:00 UT (April 11th).
For more information, check out the International Occultation Timing
Association's Web page at http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm.

RETURN TO GANYMEDE

The Galileo orbiter makes its third close pass of the giant Jovian
moon Ganymede on April 5th at 7:10 Universal Time. This flyby will be
at a distance of 3,100 km, and the trajectory will put the moon's
northern polar regions in Galileo's view. During previous visits last
year, the spacecraft discovered that Ganymede has a metallic core and
its own magnetic field, so these polar studies may yield unexpected
surprises. The encounter also includes scrutiny of neighboring
Callisto and Europa, as well as acquiring a map of Jupiter's auroral
displays in ultraviolet light.

"HALCA" SUCCEEDS

A Japanese satellite named HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for
Communications and Astronomy) made its first radio observations in
March with the detection of hydroxyl (OH) maser lines from the
galactic nebula W49N. Since then, HALCA has been teamed with radio
antennas on the Earth to make simultaneous observations of test
targets using a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry
(VLBI). When combined, these data sets should resolve radio sources
with the resolution of a single dish thousands of kilometers across.
HALCA is a component of a major international effort called the VLBI
Space Observatory Programme (http://www.vsop.isas.ac.jp/).

PIONEER 10

A 30-year dynasty has come to a close. On March 31st NASA ended its
support for occasional tracking of Pioneers 6, 7, and 8, which orbit
the Sun between Venus and Mars. Pioneer 6 was in fact the oldest
operating spacecraft, having been launched in December 1965. Also shut
down were the particle detectors on Pioneer 10, now nearly 10 billion
km from the Sun in the outer solar system. Launched in 1972, Pioneer
10 was was the first probe to travel through the asteroid belt and
past Jupiter. Pioneer 10's transmissions will continue to be used 
for training tracking-station operators, but no more scientific data
will be returned.

LYMAN SPITZER JR. (1914-1997)

The world lost one its premier astrophysicists on March 31st, when
Lyman Spitzer died in his Princeton, N.J., home at the age of 82. A
researcher with a variety of interests, he was active in space
astronomy, plasma physics, stellar dynamics, and the interstellar
medium. Under his direction, a Princeton team developed Copernicus, a
32-inch ultraviolet telescope launched in 1972. However, Spitzer will
be remembered most for his determined leadership making the Hubble
Space Telescope a reality. Often a visionary, Spitzer first proposed
an orbiting space observatory in 1946 -- more than a decade before the
first artificial satellites were launched.

MILLENNIUM COUNTDOWN

On April 5th astronomers at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich,
England, unveiled a millennium countdown clock. It will mark the
passing of each of the 1,000 days remaining until the beginning of the
year 2000. How time flies!



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

APRIL 6 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is still at its best! Look for it fairly low in the 
northwestern sky right after the end of twilight -- a bright, fuzzy "star" 
with a tail. The comet is glowing at about magnitude -1, as bright as 
the brightest stars.

Any light pollution in your sky will diminish what you can see of the 
comet's tail. But its head is bright enough to show even through bad city 
light pollution. Binoculars will give a grand view under any conditions. 
A good amateur telescope shows a wealth of bright detail around the 
comet's nucleus.

The farther north you are, the higher the comet will appear. Observers in 
the Southern Hemisphere miss out until late April or May.

APRIL 7 -- MONDAY

  * New Moon (exact at 7:02 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

APRIL 8 -- TUESDAY

  * Look low in the west about 50 or 60 minutes after sunset for the thin 
waxing crescent Moon with Mercury shining to its right. Comet Hale-Bopp is 
off to their upper right. The comet becomes more apparent as twilight dims 
further.

  * The eclipsing variable star Algol (just to the upper left of Comet 
Hale-Bopp's head) should be at its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead 
of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered on 7:03 p.m. Eastern 
Daylight Time (convert to your time zone). Algol takes several additional 
hours to rebrighten.

APRIL 9 -- WEDNESDAY

  * Spot the crescent Moon in the west an hour after sunset. Mercury is far 
to its lower right. Comet Hale-Bopp is farther to the Moon's upper right. 
The comet's head is just below the 2nd-magnitude star Algol this evening and 
tomorrow evening.

APRIL 10 -- THURSDAY

  * The waxing crescent Moon shines near Aldebaran this evening and will 
occult (cover) the star for skywatchers in the Far West. Aldebaran's 
dramatic disappearance on the Moon's dark, earthlit edge will be visible to 
the naked eye. Astronomy clubs west of the Rocky Mountains have a chance to 
publicize an unusual astronomical event that the general public can watch.

David Dunham of the International Occultation Timing Association writes, 
"Anyone with a camcorder can videorecord the event to an accuracy of better 
than 0.05 second. If hundreds of people record the disappearance, the 
lunar profile could be mapped in unprecedented detail, giving information 
that would be valuable for refining the analysis of other occultation 
events. These include solar eclipses, where careful observations have 
revealed small variations of the solar radius that could affect questions 
about the Earth's short-term climate, such as global warming rates.

"In addition, Aldebaran's reappearance [on the Moon's bright edge] might be 
timed using binoculars or small telescopes. The reappearance could be 
videorecorded by holding a camcorder up to the eyepiece."

For more information see the January Sky & Telescope, page 91. A detailed 
timetable and other predictions are on the World Wide Web at 
http://www.sky.net/~robinson/iotandx.htm.

APRIL 11 -- FRIDAY

  * The brightest star rather high in the northwest at the end of twilight 
is Capella. (It's far to the upper right of the Moon.) Below Capella shines 
Comet Hale-Bopp. Off to the comet's left, in front of its head, is the 
little Pleiades star cluster.

APRIL 12 -- SATURDAY

  * As spring advances, Orion retreats. This bright winter constellation is 
now declining in the west-southwest after dusk. (It's below the Moon 
tonight.) Orion's three-star Belt has turned nearly horizontal.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY shines low in the western sky as evening twilight fades. Look 
about 50 or 60 minutes after sunset. It's far to the lower left of Comet 
Hale-Bopp (which will be better seen after twilight fades to darkness and 
Mercury sets).

VENUS is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the head of Virgo, shines brilliant yellow-orange in the east 
during evening. It's high in the south by the middle of the night and 
in the west before dawn. In a telescope Mars is about 13.5 arcseconds in 
diameter and shrinking. Take the opportunity to observe it this large while 
you can!

JUPITER is low in the southeast as dawn brightens.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, low in the dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south before dawn's 
first light.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)



Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA04319; Fri, 4 Apr 1997 23:08:31 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA24300; Fri, 4 Apr 1997 23:14:59 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA21560; Fri, 4 Apr 1997 23:19:54 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id OAA05196 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 4 Apr 1997 14:48:49 -0500 (EST)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 04 Apr 97 14:47:13 -0500
% Subject: S&T NEWS BULLETIN FOR April 4th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

TO: See Below

Subject: S&T News Bulletin for April 11th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 11, 1997

A EUROPAN OCEAN?

Galileo's close flyby of the Jovian moon Europa in February has
provided solid evidence for liquid water or slush under at least part
of the moon's ice crust. The best images show a broken jumble of slabs
kilometers across that have been "rafted" and tipped. Geologists estimate
that this activity could have taken place as recently as 1 million years
ago. Overall, the scene looks like the disrupted pack ice found in arctic
seas on Earth, and it's thought that a large reservoir of water lies
as little as 1 or 2 km below the moon's surface. Calculations suggest
the tides raised by Jupiter are heating Europa's interior, enough to
keep water from freezing. In fact, there could be more liquid water
under Europa's skin than on the entire Earth.

The combination of a subsurface ocean and continuous interior warmth has
heightened speculation that life is -- or at least was -- possible in
Europa's murky waters. Oceanographers point out that vast microbial
colonies thrive on Earth under the sea floor and deep underground,
completely cut off from the Sun. Europa seems to possess similar
conditions. But Galileo is unlikely to settle whether life exists on
Europa -- that will be the task for future exploration.

HALE-BOPP FIGHTS MOONLIGHT

Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) will try to hold its own this week against
strong competition from the waxing Moon. Reports indicate that the
comet is still near magnitude -0.5 with a lovely dust tail that was
nearly 20 degrees long when viewed from a dark site. Even in strong
moonlight, the comet will be unmistakable. Look at least 1-1/4 hours
after sunset when the sky is completely dark. Comet Hale-Bopp should
be obvious 20 to 30 degrees above the northwestern horizon (depending
on your latitude).

NEW LOCAL GALAXY

Galaxies keep turning up where astronomers thought there was only
blank sky, and a new one object has just been added to the 30 members
of what's called the Local Group. Alan Whiting and George Hau
(University of Cambridge) detected a large, extremely dim glow in the
constellation Antlia while examining Schmidt survey photographs. This
newly discovered "Antlia Dwarf" is about 3.3 million light-years away,
half again as far as the Andromeda Galaxy, and it contains only about
a million stars -- enough to make a dim, 16th-magnitude glow. The
Antlia galaxy is centered at right ascension 10h 0.41m, declination 
-27d 20'. It's only the second dwarf elliptical found to lie outside
the gravitational dominance of a larger galaxy in the Local Group.

ASTRONOMY DAY 1997

Saturday, April 12th, is Astronomy Day. As if the attraction of Comet
Hale-Bopp wasn't enough, clubs and planetariums in the U.S. and
elsewhere will be hosting public star parties and other events, all
aimed at "bringing astronomy to the people." Much helpful information
can be found on Astronomy Day by visiting SKY Online on the WWW --
http://www.skypub.com/astroday/adayhbk.html gets you the Astronomy Day
Handbook, and http://www.skypub.com/astrodir/astrodir.html will help
you find an astronomy club or planetarium in your area.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

APRIL 13 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is still in good view this week, despite increasing 
moonlight and despite the fact that it is now moving away from both the 
Earth and Sun. Look low in the west-northwest right after the end of 
twilight. Has it faded visibly from a week or two ago? Has it changed shape?

APRIL 14 -- MONDAY

  * First-quarter Moon.

APRIL 15 -- TUESDAY

  * Early this evening telescope users in the Southeast might see a 
9.3-magnitude star in Gemini being occulted by the faint asteroid 324 
Bamberga. The occultation, which may last for up to 14 seconds, should 
happen within a few minutes of 8:25 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. See the 
finder chart in the April Sky & Telescope, page 80.

APRIL 16 -- WEDNESDAY

  * The waxing gibbous Moon shines to the right of Regulus this evening.

APRIL 17 -- THURSDAY

  * This evening look for Regulus to the upper right of the Moon, and 
brighter Mars farther to the Moon's left.

APRIL 18 -- FRIDAY

  * Mars and the waxing gibbous Moon travel together across the sky all 
night.

APRIL 19 -- SATURDAY

  * Some basic constellation spotting: The Big Dipper is highest on spring 
and summer evenings. Face northeast and look for it very high up. Its bowl 
is on the upper left, upside down as if dumping water. Its handle points 
lower right in a long, curving arc toward the bright yellowish star Arcturus 
in the east.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY is low in the west-northwest during evening twilight early in the 
week. By week's end it drops from view.

VENUS is hidden deep in the glow of sunset.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines brilliant, pale orange in the 
southeast during evening. It's high in the south by about 11 p.m. daylight 
saving time and sets in the west around the first light of dawn. In a 
telescope Mars is 13 arcseconds in diameter and shrinking. Take the 
opportunity to observe it this large while you can!

JUPITER is in the southeast as dawn brightens.

SATURN is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, visible before dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south during early 
morning hours.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA19220; Sat, 12 Apr 1997 01:50:47 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id BAA04596; Sat, 12 Apr 1997 01:58:00 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id CAA31685; Sat, 12 Apr 1997 02:03:06 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA26451 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 11 Apr 1997 15:48:47 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 11 Apr 97 14:48:36 -0500
% Subject: S&T News Bulletin for April 11th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 18-APR-1997 23:42:20.23
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Apr 18

[ASTRO]
SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN

APRIL 18, 1997

COMET HALE-BOPP WEAKENED BY MOON

The glory of Comet Hale-Bopp suffers slightly due to a sky significantly 
brightened by the Moon, which will be full on the night of April 22nd. 
Reports indicate that the comet is still near magnitude -0.5 with a dust 
tail visible to the unaided eye and an ion tail visible in binoculars. Even 
in strong moonlight, the comet will be unmistakable. Look at least 1-1/2 
hours after sunset, after the end of twilight. Comet Hale-Bopp should be 
obvious about 20 to 30 deg. above the northwestern horizon -- depending on 
your latitude.

GAMMA-RAY BURSTERS: FAR OR NEAR?

Astronomers may have come one step closer to solving a 30-year-old puzzle 
-- the nature and origin of gamma-ray bursts. On February 28th, a gamma-ray 
detector aboard the Italian-Dutch spacecraft BeppoSAX was triggered, and 
the satellite's X-ray cameras saw a simultaneous flash in the constellation 
Orion. That alone was reason for interest, however, the news that followed 
has sent observatories worldwide into a flurry of activity. In a March 12th 
IAU *Circular,* Paul J. Groot (University of Amsterdam) and his colleagues 
announced that they observed the X-ray hotspot with telescopes on La Palma 
and found an exceedingly faint light source that faded from view between 
March 1st and 8th. Observations from other observatories confirmed the 
existence of what is likely a distant galaxy. This encourages scientists 
who think gamma-ray bursts originate billions of light-years away.

However, another IAU *Circular* on April 17th reintroduced the uncertainty. 
Patricia Caraveo (Institute of Cosmic Physics, Milan) and her colleagues 
report that a pointlike object seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 
same spot is moving a half-arcsecond per year. This could mean that the 
bursting gamma-ray source may be a relatively nearby object within our own 
Milky Way. Establishing the distances to gamma-ray bursters is crucial 
since that determines how much energy they give off.

AS THE UNIVERSE TURNS?

Does the universe have something akin to a rotational axis? Two astronomers 
may have uncovered this surprising finding by studying radio observations 
of distant galaxies. In Monday's issue of *Physical Review Letters,* John 
Ralston of the University of Kansas and Borge Nodland of the University of 
Rochester report on how the radio signals in the cosmos seem to be 
polarized preferentially in certain directions, suggesting that there is a 
universal axis. If confirmed, this could have significant consequences to 
our understanding of the universe. The researchers explain that the laws of 
electromagnetism may need revising, that the universe didn't expand as 
uniformly as now though, or that light in intergalactic space may travel at 
different speeds for some reason.


THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

APRIL 20 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is still in view this week, though it's fading as it 
moves farther away from both the Earth and Sun. On the other hand, 
moonlight in the sky ceases to interfere with the view starting on Thursday 
evening, April 24th. Look for the comet very low in the west-northwest at 
the end of twilight.

APRIL 21 -- MONDAY

  * The waxing gibbous Moon shines to the upper left of Spica this evening.

  * The red long-period variable stars R Bo�tis and RU Sagittarii should be 
at maximum light (7th magnitude) around this date.

APRIL 22 -- TUESDAY

  * Full Moon (exact at 4:33 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

APRIL 23-- WEDNESDAY

  * Have you been watching Mars for the last month? It's high in the south 
after dark, getting dimmer each week as the Earth moves farther ahead of it 
in our faster orbit around the Sun. To its right, by about two fist-widths 
at arm's length, is the fainter star Regulus. Compare their colors!

APRIL 24 -- THURSDAY

  * This evening the Moon is above the head of Scorpius -- a summer 
constellation already starting to make its appearance.
	
APRIL 25 -- FRIDAY

  * Say goodbye to Orion and Sirius. These winter landmarks are getting 
low in the west and southwest, respectively, as winter recedes ever farther 
into the past.

APRIL 26 -- SATURDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars R Hydrae, T Herculis, and U Cygni 
should be at maximum brightness (6th to 8th magnitude) around this date.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY, VENUS, and SATURN are hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines brilliant, pale orange in the 
south during evening. In a telescope Mars is 12 arcseconds in diameter and 
shrinking. Take the opportunity to observe it this large while you can!

JUPITER, in Capricornus, is in the southeast as dawn brightens.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, visible in binoculars before the 
first light of dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south during early 
morning hours.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)

Full details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month 
in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our World Wide 
Web site at http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!

SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178  *  617-864-7360 (voice)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA25529; Sat, 19 Apr 1997 00:21:53 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA20193; Sat, 19 Apr 1997 00:29:51 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA21200; Sat, 19 Apr 1997 00:35:03 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id PAA12793 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 15:42:25 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 18 Apr 97 15:38:28 -0500
% Subject: Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Apr 18
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for April 25

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
APRIL 25, 1997

A NEW EXTRASOLAR PLANET

A team of eight astronomers has found evidence for a planet around Rho
Coronae Borealis, a 5th-magntiude star about 78 light-years away.
Spectroscopic measurements made over 11 months show that the star's
velocity toward and away from Earth varies by +/- 67 meters per second
over a 40-day period. These values argue for a companion at least as
massive as Jupiter in an orbit only about 40 million km in radius --
1/4 the Earth-Sun distance. Since Rho Cor Bor is a star much like our
Sun, the suspected planet would have a temperature of about 300^
Celsius (more than 500^ F) -- making it an unlikely habitat for life.
The companion's orbit is roughly circular, implying it formed at
roughly that location from gas and dust in the coalescing nebula that
created the star. The observing team was led by Robert Noyes of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

HALE-BOPP's THIRD TAIL

Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) has a tail of sodium atoms that is
distinct from its dust and gas tails. This third tail was first seen on
April 16th in images filtered to isolate the yellow light (D line)
emitted by neutral sodium atoms. The sodium tail is nearly 7 degrees long
but only 10 arcminutes wide. Too faint to be seen in normal photographs, it
lies a few degrees east of the anti-Sun direction. Spectra show that the
sodium atoms are accelerating along the tail and reach 95 km/second at
a point 11 million km from the nucleus. Apparently this acceleration
is linked to the process that gives rise to sodium's fluorescent glow.
Its atoms absorb photons from the Sun but reradiate them in random
directions, an imbalance that provides the accelerating force.

COMET-TAIL WATCH

Space scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency predict that
the ion tail of Comet Hale-Bopp will be particularly susceptible to
the solar wind's influence between April 28th and May 15th. They say
the blue-colored tail could show brightness changes, kinks, and
perhaps moving structures. Also possible are "disconnection events,"
when the ion tail breaks off from the comet's coma and reforms a few
hours later. Scientists have issued this "tail watch" because on the
28th the comet will be within 10 degrees of the plane of the solar
equator. In this region the outflowing solar wind is gusty and the
magnetic field irregular. When the plane is crossed on May 3rd, the
direction of the interplanetary magnetic field will change. Amateur
astronomers are encouraged to monitor the tail's appearance carefully
during this period. Interested observers can access the comet watch
home page at http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/

HALE-BOPP SEEN WORLDWIDE

Comet Hale-Bopp has faded to about magnitude 0, but it is still
obvious and impressive in the evening sky. Observers in the Southern
Hemisphere are getting their first glimpses of it too, spotting it low
on the horizon during twilight. Strong moonlight ceases to be a
problem this week. So look for the comet after sunset; it should be
obvious about 20 degrees above the west-northwestern horizon.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

APRIL 27 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is still in view this week, though it has faded and 
shrunk considerably now that it has been traveling away from both the Earth 
and Sun for about a month. It's getting lower each evening too. Look low in 
the west-northwest right at the end of twilight. Bring binoculars!

APRIL 28 -- MONDAY

  * You know it's spring when right after dusk, the Big Dipper has turned 
upside down as if to dump spring showers. Look for it very high in the 
northeast, tipping on its handle.

APRIL 29 -- TUESDAY

  * Before and during dawn Wednesday morning, the last-quarter Moon shines 
to the upper right of Jupiter. Look southeast.

APRIL 30-- WEDNESDAY

  * The Moon shines to the left of Jupiter before and during dawn Thursday 
morning.

MAY 1 -- THURSDAY

  * The brightest star in the east these evenings is the "Spring Star," 
Arcturus. It's pale yellow-orange -- champagne colored, in the words of 
Sky & Telescope columnist Fred Schaaf.

MAY 2 -- FRIDAY

  * Already the "Summer Star" Vega is making its evening appearance. Look 
for it low in the northeast after darkness has fully fallen.

MAY 3 -- SATURDAY

  * During dawn Sunday morning, a very thin waning crescent Moon is just 
to the upper right of Saturn very low in the east. A few hours later, the 
Moon will occult Saturn during daylight as seen from most of North America. 
This will be a challenging sight to observe with a telescope, because the 
Sun will be only about 30 degrees away, and Saturn has a rather low surface 
brightness compared to the daytime sky. You'll need a very clear, deep 
blue sky. The occultation's southern limit (graze line) is plotted across 
the Deep South on the map in the January Sky & Telescope, page 90.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY, VENUS, and SATURN are hidden in the glare of the Sun.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines pale orange high in the south during 
evening. In a telescope Mars is about 11.5 arcseconds in diameter and 
shrinking. Take the opportunity to observe it this large while you can!

JUPITER, in Capricornus, is in the southeast before and during dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, visible in binoculars before the 
first light of dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south during early 
morning hours.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id UAA25599; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 20:17:49 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id UAA18406; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 20:23:23 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id UAA12676; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 20:28:43 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA11734 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 25 Apr 1997 11:34:27 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 25 Apr 97 11:29:06 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for April 25
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

Distribution:
TO:
[email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGMTS   [email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGMTS
[email protected]@VBORMC@MRG   [email protected]@VB
[email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE   [email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE
[email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGMTS      [email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGMTS
[email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGM   [email protected]@VBORMC@MRGATE@RDGM

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon"  2-MAY-1997 23:21:20.71
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	[ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 2nd

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MAY 2, 1997

GEMINGA's PLANET?

Last week more than 300 scientists met in Williamsburg, Virginia, to
announce the latest discoveries from the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
(CGRO). John R. Mattox (Boston University) and his colleagues have been
using CGRO to time clocklike blips from Geminga, an enigmatic pulsar some
500 light-years from Earth. Their data reveal a 5.1-year cycle that may be
due to a planet with 1.7 times the mass of Earth. Mattox stresses that the
pulsar's shifting emissions have been traced reliably for only one cycle;
they could simply reflect changes in the pulsar's internal structure.
Confirming the planet hypothesis will require further timing data or other
evidence, like an eclipse of Geminga.

Although there are a few other promising suspects, only one other pulsar,
PSR 1257+12 in Virgo, is widely believed to harbor three (and possibly four)
planets. Unfortunately for SETI fans, pulsar planets are unlikely homes
for life; they are bombarded by showers of energetic particles that vastly
dwarf even the most energetic solar flares.

ALL THAT ANTIMATTERS

Meanwhile, a second report from Williamsburg concerned a giant but diffuse
cloud of antimatter in our Milky Way galaxy. William R. Purcell
(Northwestern University) and his colleagues found that gamma rays with
energies of 511,000 electron volts are emanating from a plume in
Sagittarius several degrees west of our galaxy's center. Such gamma rays
are produced when an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron,
merge and annihilate each other. If it lies at the distance of the Milky
Way's center, the cloud spans some 3,000 light-years.

The word "antimatter" may conjure images of destruction, but Earth would
have little to fear from an encounter with a cloud like this one. From the
object's total gamma-ray output, SKY & TELESCOPE estimates that there's
one positron per several hundred cubic meters of space. Were Earth to run
into such a diffuse antimatter plasma, our atmosphere would hardly absorb
one-trillionth of the energy it already gets from the Sun. Nevertheless
the discovery promises to shed light on some of the galaxy's most esoteric
physical processes.

COMET-TAIL WATCH

Space scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency predict that the
ion tail of Comet Hale-Bopp will be particularly susceptible to the solar
wind's influence between April 28th and May 15th. They say the blue-
colored tail could show brightness changes, kinks, and perhaps moving
structures. Also possible are "disconnection events," when the ion tail
breaks off from the comet's coma and reforms a few hours later. Scientists
have issued this "tail watch" because the comet is now within 10 degrees
of the plane of the solar equator. In this region the outflowing solar
wind is gusty and the magnetic field irregular. When the plane is crossed
on May 3rd, the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field will
change. Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor the tail's
appearance carefully during this period. Interested observers can access
the comet watch home page at http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/

TWILIGHT FOR HALE-BOPP

Observers are having an interesting time pinning down the current
magnitude of Comet Hale-Bopp. Depending on whom you ask, this celebrated
comet has faded to anywhere from magnitude 0.0 to 1.0. However, it's still
a cinch to spot after sunset; it should be obvious about 20 degrees above
the west-northwestern horizon as soon as it gets dark.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MAY 4 -- SUNDAY

  * Comet Hale-Bopp is still in view this week, though it has shrunken and 
faded in the last month. Look low in the west-northwest right at the end of 
twilight. Bring binoculars!

  * The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is strongest for several days around now. 
This is the best meteor shower of the year for skywatchers in the 
mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere; few or no Eta Aquarids can be 
seen from north temperate latitudes. As with most meteor showers, rates are 
highest during the hour before the first light of dawn.

MAY 5 -- MONDAY

  * The brightest star high in the east-southeast these evenings is 
Arcturus. This may be the oldest object you have ever seen. It is an elderly 
orange giant star about 10 billion years old, much older than the 
4.6-billion-year age of the Earth, Sun, and solar system.

MAY 6 -- TUESDAY

  * New Moon (exact at 4:46 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

  * Today Comet Hale-Bopp passes through the Earth's orbital plane, only 
about 10 million miles outside the January part of our orbit. Too bad we're 
not there now, to see the comet from 20 times closer than we did a month ago 
when it was at its best!

MAY 7-- WEDNESDAY

  * Can you find the North Star, Polaris? Go out in early evening, face 
north, and look high overhead for the Big Dipper. The two stars forming the 
end of the Dipper's bowl (on the left) point almost directly down to 
Polaris. It's below them by about three fist-widths at arm's length. 
Contrary to popular belief, the North Star is not very bright.

MAY 8 -- THURSDAY

  * During broad daylight this morning, the thin waxing crescent Moon 
occults the 1st-magnitude star Aldebaran for parts of northeastern North 
America. This event may be visible in a telescope, but it will be quite a 
challenge! The Moon will be only about 22 degrees from the Sun and near the 
eastern horizon, so it probably won't be visible to the naked eye. You'll 
need to find it by cautiously offsetting your telescope the correct amount 
of right ascension and declination from the Sun to Aldebaran. For a 
timetable of the occultation, see page 91 in the January Sky & Telescope.

  * This evening the crescent Moon (now plainly visible) is paired with 
Comet Hale-Bopp. Just as twilight ends, look low in the west-northwest. The 
comet is about 4 or 5 degrees (about three finger-widths at arm's length) 
to the Moon's upper right (as seen from North America). They're partway up 
the horns of Taurus. Try binoculars.

MAY 9 -- FRIDAY

  * This evening the crescent Moon shines under the feet of Gemini, a pair 
of starry stick figures standing upright in the west. They're depicted on 
the constellation map in the center of the May Sky & Telescope.

MAY 10 -- SATURDAY

  * Have you been watching Mars fade for the last couple of months? It's 
still brighter than Regulus, which is about two fist-widths to its right. 
Look for them high in the south in early evening. Compare their colors!


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and SATURN are hidden in the glare of sunrise.

VENUS is just beginning to emerge into evening view. Look for it above the 
west-northwest horizon in bright twilight about 30 minutes after sunset.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines pale orange high in the south during 
evening. In a telescope Mars is only 11 arcseconds wide and shrinking.

JUPITER, in Capricornus, is in the southeast before and during dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, visible in binoculars before the 
first light of dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south during the hours 
after midnight.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA24793; Sat, 3 May 1997 00:08:47 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA05344; Sat, 3 May 1997 00:19:09 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id AAA15793; Sat, 3 May 1997 00:24:38 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id RAA11559 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 2 May 1997 17:08:17 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 02 May 97 17:06:36 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 2nd
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 10-MAY-1997 07:12:02.71
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	[ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 9th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MAY 9, 1997

NO LOPSIDED UNIVERSE?

Does the universe as a whole have a preferred direction? Borge Nodland
(University of Rochester) and John P. Ralston (University of Kansas)
made such a claim last month, based on their observation that radio
waves from distant galaxies seemed polarized in a manner that varies
from one side of the sky to the other, thus defining a preferred axis.
But that would violate a cherished cosmological axiom: the universe
should look the same in all directions.

Since then other astronomers have come forward to question the
finding. Sean M. Carroll (University of California, Santa Barbara) and
George B. Field (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) have
reexamined Nodland and Ralston's data and found their result
statistically insignificant. And a group led by John F. C. Wardle
(Brandeis University) used the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope
in New Mexico and the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii to look for
the telltale polarization in 26 quasars -- but they can't see it.
Finally, Stanford astronomers Ronald N. Bracewell and Von R. Eshleman
point out that the suspected axis lies within 30 degrees of known hot
and cold spots in the cosmic microwave background. Those spots exist
because our solar system is in orbit around the center of the Milky
Way, which itself is bound to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Our
motion with respect to the universe at large, they suggest, may
explain the controversial findings.

BIG-EYE UPDATE

The first of the 8.4-meter primary mirrors for the Large Binocular
Telescope has gone back into the oven for a second firing at Steward
Observatory's Mirror Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. The largest single
glass mirror yet made, the disk was cast in January in the lab's
spinning oven. But an inspection revealed that several square meters
of the mirror's surface were thinner than the 28 millimeters required
to polish it safely. So an additional 2 tons of glass were placed atop
the 17-ton blank on April 25th, and the mirror's top will be remelted
over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, on May 13th the second blank for the Gemini telescope left
the Corning glass works in Canton, New York, for France.  There the
8.1-meter, 33-ton blank will be polished. The Gemini telescope is
being built on 2,700-meter-high Cerro Pachon in Chile.

A LAST LOOK AT GANYMEDE

On May 7th the Galileo spacecraft made its fourth and final close
flyby of Ganymede. The miss distance was just under 1,600 km at a
point well north of Ganymede's equator. In additional to imaging
specific targets in the big, icy Moon, Galileo will be examining Io,
Callisto, and Metis from a distance.  Also under way are observations
near the south pole of Jupiter and a survey of the planet's
magnetosphere. These data will be radioed to Earth in the weeks ahead.

TWILIGHT FOR HALE-BOPP

The range of magnitudes being reported for Comet Hale-Bopp still
varies anywhere from magnitude 0.0 to 1.0. This may be due in part to
inexperience among various comet-watchers and Hale-Bopp's nearness to
the horizon. You can still see it in the deepening twilight after
sunset; look low over the west-northwestern horizon. The dust tail is
still obvious, but the Moon reenters the scene this week, and its
light will become a greater hindrance by Thursday or Friday.

Observer Steve Larson (University of Arizona) believes a
"disconnection event" was seen in the ion tail of Comet Hale-Bopp on
May 6th. Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor the tail's
appearance during the next two weeks. Observers can the comet watch
home page at http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/halebopp/



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MAY 11 -- SUNDAY

  * Say goodbye to Comet Hale-Bopp. It's getting very low in the sunset 
(as seen from midnorthern latitudes) as it fades and shrinks. Use binoculars 
to look low in the west-northwest right at the end of twilight. How many 
more days can you follow it? For skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere, 
on the other hand, the comet is finally coming into good view; again, look 
low in the west-northwest at the end of twilight.

MAY 12 -- MONDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars V Cancri and V Coronae Borealis 
should be at maximum light (magnitude 7 or 8) around this date.

MAY 13 -- TUESDAY

  * Can you still see the winter star Sirius, now getting very low? It's 
twinkling madly through the thick air near the west-southwest horizon as 
twilight fades. Try binoculars.

MAY 14-- WEDNESDAY

  * The first-quarter Moon is near Regulus.

MAY 15 -- THURSDAY

  * Mars is the yellow-orange "star" to the upper left of the Moon this 
evening.

MAY 16 -- FRIDAY

  * Mars is to the Moon's upper right in early evening, and directly to 
its right later at night.

MAY 17 -- SATURDAY

  * The Moon is nearly midway between Spica (to its lower left) and Mars 
(to its upper right) this evening.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY and SATURN are very low in the glow of sunrise.

VENUS is beginning to emerge into evening view. Look for it above the 
west-northwest horizon in bright twilight about 30 minutes after sunset.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines pale orange high in the south during 
evening. In a telescope Mars is only 10 arcseconds across and shrinking.

JUPITER, in Capricornus, is in the southeast before and during dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, visible in binoculars before the 
first light of dawn.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is in the south after midnight.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)



Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id HAA15114 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 10 May 1997 07:53:24 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id IAA09458 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 10 May 1997 08:05:34 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id IAA22541 for <[email protected]>; Sat, 10 May 1997 08:11:11 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA17095 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 9 May 1997 16:08:47 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 09 May 97 16:06:54 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 9th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

From:	VBORMC::"[email protected]" "MAIL-11 Daemon" 17-MAY-1997 22:01:23.34
To:	[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	[ASTRO] Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - May 16

SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN

MAY 16, 1997

GAMMA-RAY BURST CAPTURED!

The three decade-old mystery of gamma ray bursters -- brief flashes of 
gamma rays that occur in seemingly random points on the sky -- is 
beginning to clear. Only recently have visible-light manifestation of 
the bursts had been found, thanks to the quick alerts provided by an 
Italian and Dutch satellite called BeppoSAX. One of these events was 
caught on February 28th. Another one on May 8th, was imaged with Kitt 
Peak National Observatory's 36-inch reflector by Howard E. Bond (Space 
Telescope Science Institute). One day after his first observations,  
one starlike point had brightened by about 1 magnitude. Observations 
made around the world have since shown that the variable "star" peaked 
around May 10th at 20th magnitude. As reported this week in IAU 
Circular 6655, Caltech astronomers were able to obtain a spectrum 
before it faded using the Keck II telescope. That spectrum shows the 
signature of intervening iron and magnesium, but at a distance of 
several billion light-years. While this appears to confirm that gamma-
ray bursters are very distant objects, it also makes their stupendous 
energy harder than ever to account for. If the gamma rays seen on May 
8th indeed lie that far, they amounted to as much energy as our Sun 
has emitted in the last five billion years.

THE LATEST FROM HUBBLE

Last week, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute 
flaunted the new capabilities of two of Hubble's new instruments. In 
February, Space Shuttle astronauts installed the Near Infrared Camera 
and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging 
Spectrograph (STIS). Among the images released at the May 12th press 
conference were infrared-light views of the Orion and Egg nebulae that 
showed details previously hidden behind cosmic dust. Also, clear signs 
of a black hole at the center of galaxy M84 in Virgo were captured by 
the new spectrograph. The evidence lies in the tell-tale signature of 
gas rapidly revolving around the galaxy's core. Hubble excitement will 
carry into next week when new images of Mars are scheduled to be 
released.

JUPITER WATCH

Elsewhere in the solar system, there's interesting atmospheric 
activity on Jupiter, according to John Rogers of the British 
Astronomical Association. On May 13th, he announced that a white oval 
in the planet's South Tropical Zone is impinging on the Great Red 
Spot. At that time, the oval was beginning to show signs of being 
disturbed. Rogers is calling for images and observations to monitor 
what he calls an "unprecedented" event. While you're watching 
Jupiter's clouds, don't forget to try for the mutual eclipses and 
occultations of the planet's four largest satellites. For a timetable 
of these so-called mutual events, see page 78 of the June issue of SKY 
& TELESCOPE.

HALE-BOPP MOVES ON

Observers still report Comet Hale-Bopp at 1st magnitude, however, it 
is increasingly more difficult to see from the Northern Hemisphere. 
The comet is low above the west-northwestern horizon after sunset, but 
sets before the end of twilight. A brightening Moon further weakens 
the view. Yet the Northern Hemisphere's loss is the Southern 
Hemisphere's gain. From south of the equator, Hale-Bopp is gradually 
climbing higher above the western horizon.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

MAY 18 -- SUNDAY

  * Spica is the star below the waxing gibbous Moon this evening.

MAY 19 -- MONDAY

  * Spica is to the Moon's right or upper right tonight.

MAY 20 -- TUESDAY

  * For telescope users, the Moon's southwestern limb (the Mare Humorum area) 
is librated (tilted) into especially good view around this date.

MAY 21-- WEDNESDAY

  * Full Moon tonight (exact at 5:13 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Thursday 
morning.) Antares is far below or to the lower left of the Moon.

  * This evening, telescope users in the northern United States and southern 
Canada east of Montana and Saskatchewan can watch the 10.6-magnitude asteroid 
354 Eleonora pass, and possibly occult, a 9.8-magnitude star in Ophiuchus. 
Any occultation, which could last up to 14 seconds, should come within a few 
minutes of 3:33 Universal Time May 22nd. The combined light of the star and 
asteroid should drop by 1.2 magnitudes, enough to be readily visible despite 
the bright moonlight. See the finder chart in the May Sky & Telescope, page 85.

MAY 22 -- THURSDAY

  * Antares is off to the Moon's lower right this evening.

MAY 23 -- FRIDAY

  * Some basic constellation spotting: After darkness falls at this time of 
year, the Big Dipper is the highest it ever gets. Face north and look almost 
overhead for the Dipper floating upside down. Conversely, Cassiopeia is at 
its very lowest, due north. (It's completely below the north horizon if you're 
as far south as Florida.)

MAY 24 -- SATURDAY

  * The red long-period variable stars R Cygni and T Hydrae should be at 
maximum light (7th or 8th magnitude) around this date.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY is very low in the glow of sunrise, far to the lower left of Saturn.

VENUS is beginning to emerge into evening view. Look for it above the 
west-northwest horizon in bright twilight about 30 minutes after sunset.

MARS, in the hind feet of Leo, shines pale orange high in the south during 
evening. In a telescope Mars is only about 10 arcseconds across and shrinking.

JUPITER, in Capricornus, rises around 1:30 a.m. daylight saving time and is 
well up in the southeast by the first light of dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter, detectable in binoculars in 
early-morning hours.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is well up in the southeast by 
late evening.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)

More details, sky maps, and news of other celestial events appear each month 
in SKY & TELESCOPE, the essential magazine of astronomy. See our Web site at 
http://www.skypub.com/. Clear skies!

SKY & TELESCOPE, P.O. Box 9111, Belmont, MA 02178  *  617-864-7360 (voice)


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA08818; Sat, 17 May 1997 22:37:43 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA02190; Sat, 17 May 1997 22:50:01 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id WAA16723; Sat, 17 May 1997 22:55:47 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA22002 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 16 May 1997 16:35:12 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 16 May 97 16:32:01 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - May 16
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], jenssvei@dk-online
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MAY 24, 1997

HUBBLE's MARS

New detailed views of Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope were
presented at a press conference on May 20th. The images were taken in
March when the planet was near aphelion -- the point in its orbit
where Mars is farthest from the Sun -- as well as near its closest
to Earth. Astronomers will study the pictures to help prepare
for the arrival of the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft, which will reach the red planet in July and November,
respectively. The Hubble views revealed that Mars's atmosphere is
cloudier and colder than it was in 1976 during the Viking missions.
But you don't need the Hubble telescope to enjoy a look at Mars. The
planet is in prime position to be viewed from Earth. Its ruddy glow,
two-thirds the way to the zenith in the south-southwest, is exceeded
only by Arcturus.

MARTIAN LIFE RECONSIDERED

Meanwhile, new evidence argues against a Martian meteorite containing
microscopic fossils, as has been suggested by a NASA/Stanford research
group. In a paper published in the May 15th issue of the journal
NATURE, Edward R. D. Scott (University of Hawaii) and two colleagues
report that bits of carbonate that harbor the putative fossils were
created not by some warm, babbling brook but rather during a high-
powered impact some four billion years ago. The blast heated the
carbonate to at least 1,000 dg C and injected it while molten into
tiny rock crevices. However, Scott's group did not find any of the
round, multizoned carbonate globules seen by the NASA/Stanford team.
Thus it may be that some parts of the meteorite ALH 84001 was affected
by shock, while others escaped damage.

HALE-BOPP SLIPS FROM VIEW

As May draws to a close, so does the Northern Hemisphere's viewing
opportunity for Comet Hale-Bopp. While it is still shining near 2nd
magnitude, day by day the comet is increasingly difficult to see
through the twilight in the west-northwestern sky. By the first week
of June, the comet will set with the Sun. Yet the Northern
Hemisphere's loss is the Southern Hemisphere's gain. Depending on your
southern latitude, Hale-Bopp is reasonably high above the western
horizon after dusk.

GALILEAN SATELLITE EVENTS

Every six years, the orbital plane of Jupiter's Galilean satellites
crosses the Sun, allowing the four moons to occult and eclipse one
another as seen from Earth. This coming week are two such events
worth observing. On May 25th at 12:01 Universal Time, Europa will
pass through the shadow of Io, a partial eclipse that will last 3
minutes and cut Europa's apparent brightenss by 1.4 magnitude. A
replay occurs on Thursday, May 29th, at 1:08 UT, with a deeper light
drop of 1.8 magnitudes. Right now Jupiter rises in late evening and
is well up in the southeast sky before dawn. A complete list of these
events appears on page 78 of S&T's June issue.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE.

MAY 25 -- SUNDAY

  * The two brightest stars in the evening sky at this time of year are 
Arcturus and Vega. To spot Arcturus, face southeast and look very high. Vega 
shines much lower in the east-northeast.

MAY 26 -- MONDAY

  * The red long-period variable star T Hydrae should be at its maximum 
brightness (8th magnitude) around this date.

  * During the early morning hours of Tuesday, Jupiter shines about a 
fist-width at arm's length to the lower left of the waning gibbous Moon.

MAY 27 -- TUESDAY

  * Jupiter is close to the Moon (to its lower right) before and during dawn 
Wednesday morning.

MAY 28-- WEDNESDAY

  * Look low in the southeast around 10 p.m. this week. The brightest star 
there is Antares, a red supergiant in the constellation Scorpius.

MAY 29 -- THURSDAY

  * Last-quarter Moon (exact at 3:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

MAY 30 -- FRIDAY

  * It's 10 p.m.; do you know where the Big Dipper is? Face northwest and 
look very high; the Dipper is hanging there, bowl down. Show your kids.

MAY 31 -- SATURDAY

  * Look low in the east during early dawn Sunday morning. Hanging a little 
to the upper right of the thick waning crescent Moon is the planet Saturn.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY is very low in the glow of sunrise, far to the lower left of Saturn.

VENUS is beginning to emerge into evening view. Look for it above the 
west-northwest horizon in bright twilight, 30 or 40 minutes after sunset. 
It's far to the lower left of Capella.

MARS, at the Leo-Virgo border, shines pale orange high in the southwest during 
evening. Mars is fading as it drops far behind Earth in our race around the 
Sun. In a telescope it now appears only 9 arcseconds across.

JUPITER, in Capricornus, rises around 1:30 a.m. daylight saving time. It's 
well up in the southeast before the first light of dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter. They're detectable in binoculars in 
early-morning hours if you have a detailed enough finder chart. Use the one 
in the May Sky & Telescope, page 84.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is well up in the southeast after 
dark. It's only 14th magnitude. A finder chart is in the May Sky & Telescope, 
page 84.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com ([16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id DAA15437; Sat, 24 May 1997 03:45:43 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id DAA28211; Sat, 24 May 1997 03:58:24 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from store-forward.mindspring.com (store-forward.mindspring.com [204.180.128.11]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id EAA14465; Sat, 24 May 1997 04:04:16 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by store-forward.mindspring.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA28464 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 23 May 1997 16:36:12 -0400 (EDT)
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 23 May 97 16:34:13 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 23rd
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], yam
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]

Subj:	[ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 30th

SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
MAY 30, 1997

RETURN OF THE MINI-COMETS

Based on newly released images, Earth is being pelted more or less
continuously by small comet-like objects. A camera on the orbiting spacecraft
called Polar recorded the intruders has they sliced through Earth's uppermost
atmosphere. The interlopers are thought to weigh 20 to 40 tons and consist of
almost pure ice. They begin to break up at altitudes at least 10,000 km above
Earth, so they never reach Earth's surface. Their water creates neutralized 
"holes" in the ionosphere that are seen by Polar's cameras. The comets strike at 
rates of five to 30 *per minute.* If this rate has been steady over billions of 
years, they have contributed much of Earth's water and perhaps a large 
proportion of its organic constituents.

Physicist Louis Frank (Univ. of Iowa) first called attention to these 
mini-comets in 1986, based on their appearance in other spacecraft data.
But his idea was widely criticized at the time because there was no other
observational evidence for the comets' existence.

EUROPA's MAGNETIC PERSONALITY

One key Galileo experiment involves no detector but merely monitoring the
spacecraft's radio beacon as it flies close by one of Jupiter's Galilean
satellites. Subtle accelerations due to gravity imprint Doppler shifts in the
transmissions and can be used to derive the mass of each moon and crudely map
the internal structure. Galileo investigators report that Callisto appears to
be rather homogeneous throughout and has no magnetic field of its own. By
contrast, the deep interior of Europa is either a mixture of rock and iron, or
an iron core enveloped in a rocky lower mantle. The exterior shell, 100 to 200
km thick, consists of ice and/or water, adding to the mounting evidence that
Europa has a subsurface ocean of water. This world also has a weak magnetic
field, which is only a fraction of the strength of Ganymede's. Europa's field
does not appear to align with its spin axis but is instead tipped 45 deg to
the side.

BOTTOM's UP FOR HALE-BOPP

Observers in the Southern Hemisphere are finally getting to enjoy Comet Hale-
Bopp. The comet is still near magnitude 2, but the views from down under are a
weak imitation of what Northerners were treated to earlier this year. The
comet is some 22 deg from the Sun, so it can only be seen well up while still
in twilight, and its magnificent dust tail has shrunk to just a couple degrees
in length. In fact, when S&T Contributing Editor Steve O'Meara saw it from
Hawaii last week, no tail was visible with his unaided eyes. "In binoculars,"
he reports, "there was just a dinky fan of dust and a stubby jet of ion tail."
He adds that the coma has become more diffuse.



THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

  Some daily events in the changing sky, from the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE

JUNE 1 -- SUNDAY

  * The two brightest lights high in the evening sky this week are Mars and 
Arcturus. Look for Mars high in the southwest after dusk. For Arcturus, face 
south-southeast and look much higher. They're both light orange, but Arcturus 
is somewhat paler and yellower.

JUNE 2 -- MONDAY

  * The Big Dipper floats high in the northwest on June evenings, hanging 
bowl down. Examine the middle star in the Dipper's handle, Mizar. Can you 
see its faint companion star Alcor, barely to its right? Since ancient 
times they have been called the Horse and Rider.

JUNE 3 -- TUESDAY

  * The "Summer Star" Vega is well up in the east-northeast as darkness 
falls in early June. Shining pale blue-white, it matches Mars and Arcturus 
for brilliance.

JUNE 4 -- WEDNESDAY

 * Mars appears almost exactly halfway between Spica and Regulus for the 
next week. Look for orange Mars high in the southwest after dusk. Far to 
its right, by about three fist-widths at arm's length, is Regulus, somewhat 
fainter. Spica is a similar distance to Mars's left. Both stars are pale 
blue-white.

JUNE 5 -- THURSDAY

  * New Moon (exact at 3:03 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time).

JUNE 6 -- FRIDAY

  * Look very low in the west-northwest in bright twilight, about 40 
minutes after sunset. Hanging there is a hairline waxing crescent Moon 
and, less than a fist-width to its right, the "Evening Star" Venus.

JUNE 7 -- SATURDAY

  * Venus is far to the lower right of the waxing crescent Moon this 
evening. Look low in the west-northwest about 45 minutes after sunset.


 ============================
  THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP
 ============================

MERCURY is very low in the glow of sunrise. Look just above the 
east-northeast horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise. Binoculars help.

VENUS is emerging into evening view. Look for it just above the 
west-northwest horizon about 40 minutes after sunset. It's far to the 
lower left of Capella.

MARS, at the Leo-Virgo border, shines pale orange high in the southwest 
during evening. Mars is fading as it drops far behind Earth in our race 
around the Sun. In a telescope it now appears only 9 arcseconds across.

JUPITER, in Capricornus, rises around 12:30 a.m. daylight saving time. It's 
high in the southeast before the first light of dawn.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are west of Jupiter. They're detectable in binoculars in 
early-morning hours if you have a detailed finder chart. Use the one in the 
May Sky & Telescope, page 84.

PLUTO, at the Ophiuchus-Scorpius border, is well up in the southeast after 
dark. It's only 14th magnitude.

(All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith are written for the 
world's midnorthern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on your 
longitude are for North America.)


Copyright 1997 Sky Publishing Corporation. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin
and "Sky at a Glance" stargazing calendar are provided as a service to
the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE magazine.
Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as long as this
paragraph is included. But the text of the bulletin and calendar may
not be published in any other form without permission from Sky
Publishing (contact [email protected]). S&T's Weekly News
Bulletin and "Sky at a Glance" are available via SKY Online on the
World Wide Web (http://www.skypub.com/). At present they are not
available via electronic mailing list.


% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail.vbo.dec.com (mail.vbo.dec.com [16.36.208.34]) by vbormc.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA11093; Fri, 30 May 1997 23:16:42 +0200
% Received: from server21.digital.fr (server21.digital.fr [193.56.15.21]) by mail.vbo.dec.com (8.7.3/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA06858; Fri, 30 May 1997 23:30:25 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: from brickbat12.mindspring.com (brickbat12.mindspring.com [207.69.200.15]) by server21.digital.fr (8.7.5/8.7) with ESMTP id XAA03318; Fri, 30 May 1997 23:36:25 +0200 (MET DST)
% Received: (from majordom@localhost) by brickbat12.mindspring.com (8.7.3/8.7.3) id QAA15562 for astro-outgoing; Fri, 30 May 1997 16:41:40 -0400 (EDT)
% X-Authentication-Warning: brickbat12.mindspring.com: majordom set sender to owner-astro using -f
% From: [email protected]
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>
% MIME-Version: 1.0
% Content-Type: text/plain
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Date: Fri, 30 May 97 16:48:45 -0500
% Subject: [ASTRO] S&T News Bulletin for May 30th
% To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], yamada@ysc.
% X-Mailer: SPRY Mail Version: 04.00.06.17
% Sender: [email protected]
% Precedence: bulk
% Reply-To: [email protected]