Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Aug 22

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - August 22, 2003 * * *

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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. (If the links don't work, just
manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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MARS'S DAZZLING SKY SHOW

On the night of August 26-27 Mars will pass closer to us than it has in nearly
60,000 years. More precisely, the red planet will be 34,646,418 miles
(55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth, measured center to center, at 5:51 a.m.
Eastern Daylight Time on the 27th. But for all practical purposes, Mars will
appear just about as big and bright for several weeks.

This proximity makes Mars look like a breathtakingly bright "star" in the
late-evening sky. You can't miss it! For the remainder of August and all of
September, Mars shines many times brighter than any other star in the summer
sky. Anyone can see it, no matter how little you know about the stars or how
badly light-polluted your sky may be....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1030_1.asp

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TEACHING TELESCOPES REACH FIRST LIGHT

The first telescopes off the assembly line of Telescope Technologies Ltd. (TTL)
-- a company attempting to turn meter-class research telescopes into
mass-produced commodities -- have captured their first light. In July the
2-meter Liverpool Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands became the
largest fully robotic telescope in the world. Starlight was focused by eyepiece
on the 21st, by autoguider on the 23rd, and by CCD camera on the 26th. Five
percent of the observing time will go to secondary-school students in the
United Kingdom, thanks to John Moores University (JMU). Schools can register at
www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1028_1.asp

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RUSSIA'S ASTRONOMY ICON NEARS REBIRTH

For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Moscow Planetarium acted as a
seedbed for Soviet and Russian astronomy both amateur and professional. It
opened on November 5, 1929, nearly six years before New York's Hayden
Planetarium and scarcely a decade after the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Celebrated in the press and in popular literature, the planetarium boasted a
Zeiss projector and an art-deco architecture that quickly made it a city
landmark. By the mid-1930s it was Moscow's center for amateur astronomy,
serving as the gateway through which many famous Russian astronomers took their
first steps....

The fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy brought
hard times. Government support dried up, and the planetarium was privatized in
a joint venture operated by the planetarium directors, the Znanie (Knowledge)
Society, and the privately owned Twins company. The building deteriorated and
then closed in 1994, but with expectations of renovation, new construction, new
equipment, and a quick reopening.

The needed funds, however, did not materialize. Work began but quickly stalled
due to legal entanglements related to new Russian property laws. The telescopes
were put into storage or loaned out, and the astronomy clubs and classes ended.
Protests by Moscow's amateur and professional astronomers spilled over into
street demonstrations, but the planetarium's doors remained closed for its 70th
anniversary in 1999.

Now there are reasons for guarded optimism....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1029_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* New Moon on August 27th
* Saturn is left of Orion and far to the lower right of Capella.
* Mars (magnitude -2.9, in Aquarius) rises in the east-southeast in late
twilight, shining brilliant, fiery yellow-orange.

For details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

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Copyright 2003 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided as a
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*-----------------------------------------------------*
| Stuart Goldman |
* Associate Editor *
| Sky & Telescope |
* 49 Bay State Rd. Sky & Telescope: The Essential *
| Cambridge, MA 02138 Magazine of Astronomy |
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