SKYWATCHERS - NEWSLETTER OF THE CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 40 No. 4 April 1, 2003

NEXT MEETING 7:30 p.m., Monday, April  7, 2003
Maturango Museum, 100 East Las Flores Avenue, Ridgecrest, California


APRIL 7 MEETING - BASIC ASTRONOMY FORUM
It is time for Part Two of our Basic Observing Forum.  David 
Hollingsworth will lead an interactive discussion.  Bring your 
questions and expertise.  If you have questions or suggestions 
regarding a particular telescope, bring it along too.


DATES TO KEEP IN MIND
Monday, April 7, 2003:  Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum 
in Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003:  Deadline for next Skywatchers Newsletter
Friday, April 25, 2003 - Star Party, see below.
Monday, May 5, 2003: Regular CLAS Meeting at the Maturango Museum in 
Ridgecrest, 7:30 p.m.


STAR PARTY SCHEDULE FOR THE 2003 SEASON:
Star Parties will be held on the dates listed below.  Star Parties 
are an activity where members and guests join together to share views 
of the skies.  If you have a telescope, bring it.  If not, come and 
look through someone else's.  Star parties are held at a site in the 
open desert south of Ridgecrest. To reach the star party site from 
Ridgecrest, go south on China Lake Boulevard 6.5 miles from its 
intersection with Ridgecrest Boulevard. Continue straight across 
Highway 395 and you will be on Brown Road (Old Highway 395).  Follow 
Brown Road as it curves to the right and goes west.  After 2.3 miles 
there will be a 30-inch orange cone on the left.  Turn left and 
follow the dirt road marked by 12-inch cones.  The CLAS Star party is 
0.5 miles along this road.  Watch for signs and cones, which will be 
put out about a half-hour before viewing starts.  Call Carroll Evans 
760-375-5681, or Bruce Churchill 760-375-7247, for more information.

Friday, April 25--Signs out at 8:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:30 p.m.
Friday, May 30--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, June 27--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, July 25--Signs out at 8:30 p.m., Star viewing at 9:00 p.m.
Friday, August 29--Signs out at 8:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:30 p.m.
Friday, September 26--Signs out at 7:00 p.m., Star viewing at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, October 24--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, November 21--Signs out at 6:30 p.m., Star viewing at 7:00 p.m.


OUTREACH PROGRAM  SCHEDULED MAY 1, 2003
Once again we are scheduled to present an astronomical program to 
Mary Ann Morgan's Kern River Valley middle school students as part of 
their week long campout on the Kern River.  Call Carroll Evans for 
details.


BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR FOR APRIL 2003 (David Hollingsworth)
Apr 1           New Moon.
Apr 4           Mercury at greatest illuminated extent.
Apr 6           Daylight-Savings Time begins.
Apr 7           Saturn's ring system is most open, 270 from edgewise.
Apr 9           First quarter Moon.
Apr 16          Full Moon.  Mercury at greatest eastern elongation, 
200 east of the Sun.
Apr 22          Lyrid meteor shower, peaks before dawn.
Apr 23          Last quarter Moon.


OBSERVING IN APRIL 2003 (David Hollingsworth)
On Friday, the 25th, the night of the CLAS star party, the Sun sets 
at 19:34 PST and astronomical twilight ends at 21:08.  Unless 
otherwise stated, descriptions that follow are for observing on the 
25th from Ridgecrest.

Planets:  Early in April, Mercury can be spotted low in the west 
after sunset.  Mercury reaches its greatest eastern elongation from 
the Sun near mid month.  By the 25th, Mercury will be very difficult 
to spot as it sets at 20:53 while it is only 150 east of the Sun.  On 
the other hand, on the 25th Saturn is a still over 300 high at the 
end of astronomical twilight, and with its maximally open rings, will 
continue to present fine views.  Jupiter is about 1.50 southeast of 
the Beehive Cluster (M44) in the southwestern sky on the 25th and 
also continues to give great views.

Binocular and Telescope Highlights: The Great Orion Nebula (M 42, 
this is the last month to view), M 46 (OC, look for the planetary 
nebula in northern part of the cluster), and M 47 (OC) in the west; 
the Beehive Cluster (M 44, OC), M 67 (OC), and the galaxies in Leo (M 
95, M 96, and M 105) in the south; the Virgo Cluster galaxies in the 
east (look for Markarian's chain, anchored by M's 84 and 86); and 
galaxies M 51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M101, M 81, and M 82 in the 
north surrounding the Big Dipper.

Comets:  None brighter than magnitude 10.5 currently predicted.


TRONA SPRING FLING SOLAR OBSERVING (David Hollingsworth)
Kiran Mehra and David Hollingsworth enjoyed presenting views of the 
Sun to Trona Spring Fling participants on Saturday, 21 March.  Kiran 
brought the entire two-telescope setup.  He had the club's 
Hydrogen-alpha filter equipped telescope mounted piggyback on his 
11-inch computerized Celestron SCT, which had a full-aperture white 
light filter.  Views through the Hydrogen-alpha filter were 
impressive and showed many fine prominences, which changed and 
evolved throughout the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. viewing period.  Views 
through the white-light filter were disappointing, however, since 
only one small sunspot was visible for most of the time.  Finally, 
another two-sunspot group rotated into view near the upper limb, but 
it was not easy to observe at the shallow grazing angle it presented.


KERN REGIONS BIOFEST ASTRONOMY PROGRAM
CLAS will do the Astronomy Program for the Biofest again this year on 
Saturday, April 26, 2003.  CLAS members with telescopes and/or 
binoculars are invited to participate.  From 1:30-5:00 p.m. we'll be 
providing solar viewing at Circle Park, Kernville.  Kiran Mehra will 
be operating the club's hydrogen-alpha filtered telescope, and anyone 
with a telescope with a solar filter is invited to help with the 
solar viewing.  The evening astronomy events take place at the South 
Fork School, Weldon  (Hwy 178 & Fay Ranch Rd, 1.85 mi. E of Sierra 
Way).  From 7:00-8:00 p.m., an astronomy slide show will be 
presented.  This will be followed by telescope viewing from 8:00 to 
10:00 p.m.  The Moon will be absent from the sky that night, so the 
sky should be dark and the viewing very good.  Jupiter and Saturn 
will be up that evening for planetary observations, so planetary 
experts are invited.  Call Roger Brower (375-1181), if you want to 
help out.  We're hoping to have four to six telescopes, as we usually 
get 50 to 100 people showing up for this annual event.



ASTRONOMY NEWS  BY EARL TOWSON

JUPITER'S MOON COUNT NOW AT 52: The tally of Jovian moons has soared 
to 52 with the discovery of four small moons added to eight that were 
previously revealed last week. The total may represent roughly half 
of all the giant planet's satellites larger than 0.62 miles (1 
kilometer). The discoveries were made by a team led by Scott Sheppard 
and David Jewitt of the University of Hawaii's Institute for 
Astronomy. Included in the latest batch are two rocks estimated to be 
just 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter. These are the first Jovian 
satellites calculated to be less than 2 kilometers. Jupiter has 29 
moons that are no more than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) wide and several 
more that aren't much bigger. These small satellites are thought to 
be captured asteroids or chunks of larger objects that broke apart, 
though their exact origins have not been determined. Many of them 
orbit in a direction opposite the planet's rotation. 
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/jupiter_moons_030310.html


RECENT WATER FLOWS ON MARS:
  New images and analysis suggest the slopes around the Red Planet's 
largest extinct volcano, Olympus Mons, contain dark stains caused by 
brine flowing down hill. The discovery indicates that the substantial 
underground ice deposits on Mars can sometimes melt and flow across 
the surface.  It is bound to increase speculation that life may exist 
near to the surface of the planet.  The water dissolves surrounding 
minerals to form a super-saline brine which, because it contains 
salts, can remain liquid at lower temperatures and pressures than 
pure water can. When the brine trickles on to the surface, it flows 
downhill staining the surface. "The streaks originate from distinct 
geologic horizons below the Martian surface, where the water-ice 
table has been intersected by crater and valley walls. 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2846897.stm


ESA'S 'PASTEUR' TO SEARCH FOR LIFE: ESA intends to launch an 
exobiology mission, known as ExoMars, to the Red Planet in 2009. As 
part of ESA's long-term Aurora program to prepare for future human 
missions, ExoMars will deploy a high-mobility rover on the Martian 
surface. The key to the success of this scientific quest will be the 
rover's Pasteur payload, a comprehensive suite of instruments that 
will characterize the Martian biological environment. In order to be 
able to meet the 2009 launch opportunity, the Agency is already 
starting to define the experiments that will make up this payload. 
Accordingly, the Aurora Program Office has recently released a "call 
for ideas" from the scientific community for the ExoMars mission. 
This call for ideas is the first step in the process seeking to 
obtain the highest quality research for ExoMars and its Pasteur 
payload. It is also designed to foster international cooperation 
among multidisciplinary science teams and to avoid duplication of 
projects. No proposal will be accepted unless it includes scientific 
organizations from at least three European countries in the team 
behind it. Scientists responding to this call for ideas are requested 
to follow the guidelines provided on the ExoMars-Pasteur website (see 
below). Initial expressions of interest must be received by 28 March 
2003. The proposals themselves are due by 14 May 2003. 
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-03a.html


MISSION TO AN ASTEROID: The Dawn mission has been selected as NASA's 
ninth Discovery mission to be launched in May 2006 to orbit both 
Vesta and Ceres. The design of Dawn's trajectory is difficult, 
unusual, and interesting because of the use of solar electric 
propulsion, implemented on Dawn as an ion propulsion system (IPS). 
http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/dawn/newsletter/html/20030314/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


OBSERVER'S HANDBOOKS ARE HERE-There are one or two of them left.
The Royal Canadian Astronomical Society Observer's Handbooks for 2003 
are available.  You can arrange for your copy by calling Carroll 
Evans at 760-375-5681 or sending an email to clevans@ridgenet.net. 
We are selling the handbooks for $15.00. These items together make an 
excellent way to plan your astronomical activities for the coming 
year.


MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION!
Basic CLAS dues are $20.00 per year, which includes the Skywatchers 
Newsletter.  As a benefit of membership you may also receive 
Astronomy Magazine and/or Sky and Telescope Magazine. The fee 
schedule is as follows:

        Basic membership        $20.00 per year
        Membership with Astronomy magazine      $44.00 per year
        Membership with Sky and Telescope magazine      $50.00 per year
        Membership with both S & T and Astronomy        $74.00 per year

Send your check to: Carroll Evans, Treasurer, China Lake Astronomical 
Society, P.O. Box 1783, Ridgecrest, CA 93556.

        PRESIDENT - Roger Brower - 760-375-1181 (email brower@iwvisp.com)
        VICE-PRESIDENT - Bruce Churchill - 760-375-7247  (email
bchurchill@atsecure.net)
        SECRETARY--TREASURER - Carroll Evans (email clevans@ridgenet.net)
        NEWSLETTER EDITOR - Carroll Evans Jr. - 760-375-5681  (email 
clevans@ridgenet.net)


WESTERN AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS WEB SITE 

Meetings of the China Lake Astronomical Society are held at the 
Maturango Museum at 7:30 p.m. on the first Monday evening of each 
month, except when the first Monday is a holiday.

SKYWATCHERS
Newsletter of the
CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
POST OFFICE BOX 1783
RIDGECREST, CA 93556-1783



NEXT MEETING: 7:30 p.m., MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2003  - "BASIC OBSERVING FORUM"
AT THE MATURANGO MUSEUM, 100 EAST LAS  FLORES AVE.
CLAS WEB PAGE