Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Aug 15

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - August 15, 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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DECIDING HUBBLE'S FUTURE

Though the ultimate fate of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) remains in doubt,
on August 14th an independent panel of experts formed by NASA at the request of
Congress proposed three ways for Hubble to spend its final years....

On Thursday the panel issued three recommendations -- one for each of the
possible scenarios for the telescope's future, from best to worst....

The panel's highest recommendation was for two future Hubble servicing missions
(named SM4 and SM5), to occur around 2005 and 2010. The 2010 mission would give
the telescope its final upgraded cameras, all new gyros, a boost to the highest
altitude possible, and a reentry rocket to bring it down. Such a mission could
extend Hubble's lifetime until 2020 or even later. This should allow a
substantial overlap with the James Webb Space Telescope, currently set to
launch in 2011, (but judging from past delays, likely to launch later)....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1027_1.asp

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COLUMBIA ASTRONAUTS MEMORIALIZED IN SPACE

Last August 6th the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center
honored the seven crew members of the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia by
naming minor planets after them. Columbia disintegrated while reentering
Earth's atmosphere on February 1st, resulting in the loss of the shuttle and
its crew....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1026_1.asp

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AMATEUR DISCOVERS GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOW

Last July 25th Berto Monard of Pretoria, South Africa, became the first amateur
astronomer to discover a gamma-ray burst's fading visual afterglow. Monard
identified the object from his home observatory, 7.1 hours after the initial
burst.

Dubbed GRB 030725, the burst was first spotted by the NASA/Massachusetts
Institute of Technology High Energy Transient Explorer-2 (HETE-2) spacecraft,
which immediately relayed its approximate coordinates to astronomers worldwide.
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) sent the
coordinates to its own worldwide army of amateur astronomers via the
organization's International High-Energy Network....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1025_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Last-quarter Moon on August 19.
* Uranus is at opposition (on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun) on
August 23.
* Mars (magnitude -2.7, 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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