Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - July 18, 2003

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - July 18, 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 MEETS THE MOON

Skywatchers got an early dose of "Mars Mania" on the morning of July 17th
when the red planet made a dramatic pairing with the waning gibbous Moon
in the predawn sky. Thanks to generally clear skies across much of the
Eastern Seaboard, early risers found Mars perched just off the Moon's
northern limb. The planet shone so brightly (-1.9 magnitude) that it was
easy to spot despite its proximity to the nearly full Moon. Viewed through
a telescope, Mars mimicked the Moon's gibbous phase and displayed a
brilliant white cap at its south pole.

Observers in southern Florida were poised for an even bigger celestial
treat, as the planet briefly slipped behind the lunar disk for several
minutes around 4:30 a.m. local time....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1006_1.asp

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SMALL ASTEROIDS = SMALL THREAT?

Every time a rocky body whizzes past Earth, asteroid specialists brace
themselves for a frenzied burst of "what-if" doomsday questions from the
news media. But while the risk of the interloper striking our planet is
usually vanishingly small, the longer-term prospects for all such
near-Earth asteroids are poorly known. Current thinking holds that objects
50 to 75 meters across, comparable to the one whose airburst devastated
the Tunguska region of Siberia in 1908, probably come crashing down every
1,000 years on average. Most researchers think that objects twice that
size, even though they arrive less often, probably strike the ground
intact -- wreaking havoc locally if one should hit land and triggering an
ocean-spanning tsunami if it makes a splash.

But Philip A. Bland (Imperial College London) and Natalya A. Artemieva
(Institute for Dynamics of Geospheres, Moscow) argue that the threat from
small asteroids has been greatly exaggerated....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1005_1.asp

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COMET AWARD WINNERS FOR 2003

Five eagle-eyed individuals who were looking in the right place at the
right time will share the fifth annual Edgar Wilson Award for amateur
comet discovery. According to an announcement issued by the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory, the winners are Sebastian Hönig (Dossenheim,
Germany) for discovering C/2002 O4; Tetuo Kudo (Kikuchi, Kumamoto, Japan)
and Shigehisa Fujikawa (Mitoyo, Kagawa, Japan) for C/2002 X5; and Charles
Juels (Fountain Hills, Arizona) and Paulo Holvorcem (Campinas, Brazil) for
C/2002 Y1. All these discoveries were made during the calendar year ending
June 11, 2003.

Established in 1998 in memory of American businessman Edgar Wilson, the
award is given only to amateur astronomers who, in a given year, find one
or more new comets using amateur, privately owned equipment....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1003_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Last quarter Moon is on July 20/21.
* Mars rises in the east-southeast shortly after the end of twilight.

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 free service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY &
TELESCOPE magazine. Widespread electronic distribution is encouraged as
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"Ron Baalke" wrote in message
...

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - July 18, 2003 * * *

================================================== ======================

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!

================================================== ======================

MARS MEETS THE MOON

Skywatchers got an early dose of "Mars Mania" on the morning of July 17th
when the red planet made a dramatic pairing with the waning gibbous Moon
in the predawn sky. Thanks to generally clear skies across much of the
Eastern Seaboard, early risers found Mars perched just off the Moon's
northern limb. The planet shone so brightly (-1.9 magnitude) that it was
easy to spot despite its proximity to the nearly full Moon. Viewed through
a telescope, Mars mimicked the Moon's gibbous phase and displayed a
brilliant white cap at its south pole.

Hey, I was wondering what that was off to the side of the moon. I was up
just before dawn and went out to get the paper. There was a moderate
overcast and I could see no starts, but the moon was bright enough to see
clearly through the overcast and off to the side was that other thing. I was
so freaked out that I thought of asking in this newsgroup what the hell that
was- but I then figured that whatever it was would surely be mentioned here.
That was definitely a cool experience for me- something very different. It
wouldn't have been nearly as impressive or even noticable to me if I had
been able to see anything else in the sky- but to see just the moon and that
other object was very cool indeed.

JZ