Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Oct 10

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - October 10, 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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AUSTRIAN STAR PARTY

One of Europe's highest star parties took place on the weekend of September
26-29, on the 5,600-foot-high mountain slopes above the small town of
Greifenburg, Austria. Known as the Internationales Teleskoptreffen, or ITT
(International Telescope Meeting), the event was held at and around the
Emberger Alm Hotel. In addition to providing excellent accommodation, the
facility hosted lectures, exhibits, and a demonstration of optical testing with
an interferometer.

This year was the ITT's 19th annual meeting and the 8th at this location. As
its name implies, the star party drew 300 amateur telescope-making enthusiasts
to the remote locale, and those who came weren't disappointed....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1075_1.asp

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A TINY ASTEROID WHIZZES BY

On Saturday, September 27th, a very small asteroid plunged past Earth well
inside the Moon's orbit. Unseen, it passed just 78,000 kilometers (a fifth the
Moon's distance) above Earth's surface before barreling back into
interplanetary space. Judging by its faintness -- 18th magnitude when first
picked up the next day -- it can't be any larger than 3 to 6 meters across.
That's "SUV or room size," notes Edward L. Bowell, principal investigator for
the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) at Anderson Mesa,
Arizona, where the first images were taken....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1068_1.asp

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ASTRO NEWS BRIEFS

Uranian Moons Aplenty

Planetary moon hunters have found a new trove of objects orbiting Uranus. In
the past month, astronomers have confirmed five new moons around the distant
gas giant. The members of the quintet are all rather small -- each around 10
kilometers across. With these additions, Uranus now sports 27 moons total,
ranking it behind Jupiter and Saturn at third place.

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1078_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Last-quarter Moon on October 18th.
* Saturn rises in the east in Gemini around 11 p.m. daylight saving time. It's
very high in the south by dawn.
* Mars is high in the southeast to south during evening. Keep an eye out for
dust storms now that summer has begun in Mars's southern hemisphere. Dust
activity can be recognized by a new bright yellowish patch obscuring a
previously dark area.

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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