WASP
WASP
The Warren Astronomical Society Paper
 WAS
Volume 31, Number 3March, 1999

astro chatter Astro Chatter
by Larry Kalinowski

On February 23, there's going to be a SPECTACULAR conjunction of Venus and Jupiter about one hour after sunset. This is one of those close approaches that just screams for a close up view in your telescope. The pair will be as close as 11 arcminutes apart, making both objects visible in the same field of view, about ten degrees above the western horizon. This should be a great visual and photo opportunity for all of us. I would advise you to start observing about sunset or even before sunset. The two planets are so bright that they'll be easy to find in the reddish skyglow. Don't let this event get away from you. It'll be one that will be long remembered.

The idea of putting the WAS Computer Group program library on a CD-ROM was brought up at the January meeting by Gary Gathen. So far there are about thirty-two assorted programs and utilities available in the library. If you are interested in obtaining a CD-ROM or have any opinion about how such a disk might appeal to WAS members, give me your comments at one of the future meetings.

Deep Space 1, the advanced technology space probe with ion propulsion and advanced orbit correcting software, shut off its beam of ions only 4.5 minutes after the engine was turned on. The ion engine has been restarted by the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) but there are still some navigation problems yet to be solved. The probe is scheduled for a flyby of the asteroid 1992 KD, a three mile long space rock, in July.

Small insignificant looking galaxies, which are usually passed over by professional astronomers, could hold the answer to some of the missing mass, or dark matter, that may pervade the universe. Dark matter has always been the subject of astronomical controversy, ever since it was found that some galaxy's rotations can only be explained by invisible matter within the galaxy. A galaxy's appearance resembles a rotating pinwheel, the kind of pinwheel that most people see at fireworks displays. Unfortunately, [continued]

icon Minutes of Meetings
by LoriAnn Skonieczny

 icon New Members
by Joe Van Poucker

The thing that makes the Warren Astronomical Society a great are its members. We are very happy to announce the following new members who joined during Janary and February of 1999. Please extend them a warm welcome.
  • Bruce Mandel & Family, of Lake Orion, MI
  • Sandy & John Robbins, of Taylor, MI
Anniversaries for Feb. & March [continued]

icon

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astro chatter Astro Chatter, continued

the rotation of a pinwheel caused by fireworks is not the way examined galaxies rotate. The outer material of galaxies takes only a little less time to make one complete rotation as the material near the center, or hub, of the galaxy, causing the entire galaxy to act like one solid mass. That type of rotation indicates more unseen material within the spiral arms. The smaller looking galaxies may actually be larger than they appear because of hidden dark matter that hides bright evolving stars.

If all goes well, the first space probe to capture comet dust will lift off and bring back part of a comet's tail in 2006. STARDUST will be launched sometime in February and will deploy a tennis racquet sized collector which will fly by comet Wild2, within ninety-two miles of the head, then scoop up tail dust as it passes through. The best part of the mission will be the recovery of the dust, which will be parachuted to Earth in January, 2006.

Russia's orbiting mirror will be deployed in mid February. The mirror will be 25 meters in diameter, made of a highly reflective plastic sheet about 7 microns thick. Observers in Australia and South America will see the full brunt of its reflectivity during a 24 hour test period. The mirror will look five to ten times brighter than the full moon. If successful, it could lead to even larger mirrors with diameters of 200 meters. The Russians want to illuminate entire cities near the arctic circle, with a constellation of such reflectors.

Two Yale University researchers said they've found nine solar type stars that have erupted flares up to ten million times more powerful than anything ever recorded on our own Sun. Such flares, if they occurred on our own Sun would fry the nearby planets. Just exactly what "fry" means and how far away a planet would have to be, to survive, wasn't explained.

Sky and Telescope reports that there will be two stellar occultations by two different minor planets on February 18 and 20, that should be visible from the Detroit and northern suburbs. The asteroids 77 Frigga and 40 Harmonia will occult a ninth and tenth magnitude star respectively. If you're into watching these kind of events, see page 109 of the February issue for more information.

Hale-Bopp is still sprouting a tail, seven Astronomical Units away (one AU is the average Earth-Sun distance). If you want to see what it looks like, see page 20 of the same issue mentioned above.

To be a planet, or not to be a planet, that is the question. Pluto is getting some more knocking around by the Astronomical Union because they feel it's too small to be a planet and because the orbital tilt (inclination) is too high compared to the rest of the planets. The result could be an actual increase in status for Pluto. It would become the king of the asteroids.

The February computer meeting will be held at Gary Gathen's home on Thursday, the 25th. 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. You can reach him at 248-543-3366 for further information.

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icon New Members, continued

Anniversaries for Feb. & March
[back to page 1]


icon Minutes of Meetings, continued

Cranbrook, January 4, 1999

Macomb, January 21, 1999

Board Meeting, January 14, 1999

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This page was created by Jeff Bondono, and last changed on February 2, 1999.