WASP
WASP
The Warren Astronomical Society Paper
 WAS
Volume 32, Number 4April, 2000

astro chatter Astro Chatter
by Larry Kalinowski

Eros, the first asteroid to be orbited by a manmade machine, has shown its profile to earthlings. On February 14, a satellite was placed in a 200 to 300 mile orbit around the 12 X 8 mile hunk of celestial real estate. Approach photos showed the object to be solid, pocked with smaller craters. If you can imagine a potatoe that tried to grow in two different directions, that might give you a good idea of its shape. Pictures of the asteroid are quite abundant on the world wide web. Check into any space news for a picture.

By the time that you read this, WINDOWS 2000 will be out and selling on the street. Do you need this Windows upgrade? The opinion amoung computer magazines that check out new software, seems to think that the man on the street should avoid it. It's mainly a business upgrade and isn't really configured for ordinary computers. In fact, if you're a gamer, it may [continued]

The Swap Shop
by Larry Kalinowski


 Meeting of the Variable Star Subgroup
by Joe Van Pouckera>

The Warren Astronomical Society's subgroup of Variable Star Observers had their third meeting on Saturday February 26th at Mike Simonsen's house. In attendance were Chairman Mike Simonsen, Jeff Charles, Kim Dyer, Lee Hartwell, Steve Greene, and myself. After we all had our fill of Mike's excellent lasagna the meeting began. The main topic of the evening was the subgroup's new website. Irene, Mike's wife, was nice enough to take pictures of the members and edited them onto a nice background. Mike then took a short history profile of each member to be included with the pictures in the Members Area of the website. Mike also passed around pictures of his new observatory he is building in Romeo, some of which will be available on the website. Anyone that is interested in visiting the new site can go to http://members.aol.com/joevp01 or e-mail me at joevp01@aol.com for a link. From the main page you will be able to visit the Upcoming Events Area for the subgroup, [continued]

New Members
by Joe Van Poucker




astro chatter Astro Chatter, continued

not run your favorite game. It requires 128 megabytes to run efficiently and will require a whole new set of drivers for a lot of hardware and software. Another version for general public use is called WINDOWS MILLENIUM and should be out sometime in the future.

The fuss about leap day this year exists because the year 2000 is one of those special years evenly divisible by the number 400. Ordinarily, all years divisible by 100 weren't supposed to be a leap year but years divisible by 400 are. The moral is, if you're a programmer, learn all the leap year rules. The general public expects confusion but I have a little more faith in computer programmers.

An unscheduled newsletter that I put out last month talks about the New Comet Linear that is supposed to pass through circumpolar skies during July and August this year. A presentation was given about its prospects during the February Cranbrook meeting, and about twenty copies of the letter were distributed at the club meetings. If you missed getting one, contact me and I'll see that one is reserved for you. The newsletter includes a map and ephemeris for 80 days around perihelion.

Cold Fusion 1000 is the name of a new computer that runs at 1000 megahertz. It's made by the SYS company and is available for $4,444. The computer is essentially a 750 MHz, AMD, Athelon chip that has been pushed up another 250 MHz. In order to keep the chip from getting too hot, the chip is cooled by a special refrigerator that sets below the main cabinet and feeds cold air, via a tube to the CPU. The temperature is supposedly around -40 degrees centigrade. It takes 60 to 90 seconds for the chip to cool before the computer actually starts to boot itself up. Hardware includes two 7200 RPM hard drives, 128 megabytes of memory, a 19 inch monitor, five speakers and a souped up video card.

The end of the tunnel is now in sight for the thirteen inch mirror makers. Steve has nearly reached the spherical stage and Blaine has something that is almost a sphere.

The March computer meeting will be held at Gary Gathen's home on Thursday, the 23rd. His address is 21 Elm Park. Three blocks south of the I-696 expressway and about half a block west of Woodward in Pleasant Ridge. The April computer meeting will be on the 27th. You can reach Gary at 248-543-3366 for further information.

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Meeting of the Variable Star Subgroup, continued

the Members Area, VSO Articles Area, and Links to other VSO sites. I will also be adding a link to Sky & Telescope's web page so you can register for their Messier Marathon. Anyone that registers for this and wants to join the club at Stargate for one of Mike's Messier Marathon Programs will be able to log their observations with Sky & Telescope for a chance to win a free book from Sky & Telescope. You can also use these observations to obtain a Messier Certificate from the Astronomical League.

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The Swap Shop

This is a new column for those who are interested in buying, trading or selling items. Call 810-776-9720 if you want to put an item for sale or trade in this section of the WASP. The ad will run for six months. The month and year the ad will be removed, is also shown.
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New Members

  • New Members for February 2000: W.A.S. Anniversaries for April 2000:
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    This page was created by Jeff Bondono, and last changed on August 9, 2022.