From: bcollins@utdallas.edu (ARLIN B COLLINS)
Subject: Sky&Telescope Weekly News Bulletin
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 07:05:52 GMT

***
 SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN -- DECEMBER 12, 1992

 ECLIPSE POST-MORTEM
 The total lunar eclipse of December 9-10 was seen widely across Europe
 and up the East Coast, and those in the West saw nice partial phases as
 the Moon rose. 

 But much of the South and Midwest were engulfed in a massive winter
 storm. Observer Larry Krumenaker in New Jersey likened the dark disk to
 "a soap bubble in the horns of Taurus." A considerable range of color
 -- distinct coppers and subtler blues -- was evident toward the end of
 totality. But what did *you* see? SKY & TELESCOPE welcomes your
 observing reports and photographs. 

 SWIFT-TUTTLE DESCENDING 
 Comet Swift-Tuttle continues to cruise across the evening sky, heading
 quickly southward and into the sunset glow. The latest reports from
 observers put its magnitude at near 5.0. New computations suggest that
 this is the same comet observed in the years 69 BC and 188 AD. Based on
 those conclusions, Brian Marsden says there is now "very little
 possibility" that it will collide with Earth in the year 2126. An
 announcement this past week suggested that the comet's nucleus had
 cleaved into several pieces, but that proved to be a false alarm. With
 the Moon in the morning sky, this week may be your last chance to see
 Swift-Tuttle in the northern sky, so here are positions for 0 hour
 Universal Time and equinox 2000 coordiantes: 

          R.A. (2000) Dec.
          ================
 Dec. 13   19h 32m  -7.4
 Dec. 15   19h 37m  -9.0
 Dec. 17   19h 41m -10.7

 GALILEO DROPS BY 
 The Galileo spacecraft made its second close flyby of the Earth on
 December 8th, passing a scant 303 kilometers above a point in the South
 Atlantic Ocean. The close brush was necessary to give Galileo a
 gravitational boost toward Jupiter, its final destination. At a press
 conference  soon  after  the flyby, project manager Bill O'Neil
 proclaimed, "How sweet it is!" The mission scientists are now swimming
 in images, infrared scans, and magnetospheric measurements taken by the
 spacecraft, including some revealing pictures snapped as it cruised
 almost directly over the Moon's north pole. Galileo is now looking back
 at Earth, clicking and scanning away, and later this month it capture a
 family portrait of the Earth and Moon.

 MARK YOUR CALENDARS 
 This  coming  week  space-o-philes  celebrate  three  important
 anniversaries. Thirty years ago, on December 14th, a 450-pound emissary
 from Earth named Mariner 2 sailed past the planet Venus at a distance
 of 22,000 miles and used its instruments to make the first-ever closeup
 study of another planet. On December 14th, 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts
 Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt took a last look at the lunar surface then
 blasted off for Earth. At the time, Cernan said, "We leave as we came
 and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all
 mankind." And finally, on December 16th author and visionary Arthur C.
 Clarke turns 75. 

 -----THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

 DEC 13 -- SUN
 The Geminid meteor shower should be very active tonight, but light from
 the waning gibbous Moon will interfere. 
 During dawn Monday morning, Mercury low in the east-southeast is less
 than 1 degree from the star Beta Scorpii. Use binoculars. 

 DEC 14 -- MON
 The orange-red variable star V Monocerotis should be at maximum
 brightness (7th magnitude). 

 DEC 15 -- TUE
 Saturn's brightest moon Titan can be seen in a small telescope about
 four ring lengths east of the planet for the next few evenings. 

 DEC 16 -- WED
 Last-quarter Moon (exact 2:13 p.m. Eastern standard time). 
 This evening the asteroid Atalante occults a 9th-magnitude star in
 Camelopardalis for parts of western and central North America. See the
 December Sky & Telescope, page 675, for details and a finder chart. 

 DEC 17 -- THU
 The bright "star" near the waning Moon before dawn Friday and Saturday
 is Jupiter. 

 DEC 18 -- FRI
 *

 DEC 19 -- SAT
 *

 ------ THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP

 MERCURY is very low in the east-southeast during dawn. 

 VENUS blazes in the southwest as twilight fades, getting higher and
 brighter each week. 

 MARS is in Gemini near the fainter stars Pollux and Castor, below them.
 It rises soon after the end of twilight and shines high overhead by
 midnight. Mars is getting big and bright as it nears its January 7th
 opposition. Currently it's 14 arc seconds in apparent diameter; when
 closest in early January it will be 15. 

 JUPITER, in Virgo, rises around 1 a.m. and is the brightest "star" in
 the south at dawn. 

 SATURN is the fainter "star" just a few degrees to the upper left of
 Venus. Watch it closing in on Venus; their conjunction comes on Dec.
 21. 

 URANUS, NEPTUNE, and PLUTO are hidden behind the glare of the Sun. 
 --
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 provided with permission from Sky & Telescope Magazine.
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-- 
Arlin B Collins     bcollins@utdallas.edu