From: parish@cactus.org (Tom Parish)
Subject: Skywatch from McDonald Observatory - Moved to sci.astro
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 17:17:36 GMT

I'll post another issue for Nov 29-Dec 5 however, a number of folks
suggested I put Skywatch on sci.astro.  It doesn't really make any
difference to me.  Take care and enjoy the holidays (if you are
in the states).

Tom Parish
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Star Date                                                        Turning Point
     
                                 SKYWATCH
                          November 29-December 5
     
                       An Asteroid Approaches Earth
                              by Jeff Kanipe
                         Editor of Star Date Magazine
     
 
                                  PLANETS
 
     * Mercury is very low in the southeast just before sunrise. It is
     more visible later in the month. 
     
     * Venus is the bright "evening star" in the west after sunset. It
     sets about three hours after sunset.
     
     * Mars rises 3 hours after sunset in the constellation Gemini.
     
     * Jupiter rises just after midnight in Virgo.
     
     * Saturn is in the south at sunset in Capricornus. It sets about
     midnight.
     
                                  EVENTS
 
     Nov. 30: Saturn is just south of the crescent moon this evening.
 
     Dec. 1: The moon is at apogee, 405,070 km (251,698 mi).
 
     Dec. 2: First quarter moon.
 
 
                     TOUTATIS: PROTECTOR OF THE TRIBE 
                     --------------------------------
 
     The 4-mile-wide asteroid Toutatis will pass within 2.5 million
     miles of Earth the morning of December 8, a distance ten times
     that between Earth and the moon. Toutatis is the closest
     encounter we have had with a celestial body other than the moon
     that has been predicted far in advance (its orbit was determined
     in January 1989). Astronomers discovered that Toutatis has an
     orbit very much like a short-period comet, that is, it describes
     a path through the solar system that is more stretched-out than
     a simple elliptical orbit.
     
     Toutatis was named after the Gallic god, the "protector of the
     tribe." Gauls, whose religious leaders were Druids, believed
     Toutatis prevented the sky from falling on them!
     
     Toutatis is classified as an Apollo asteroid, one of about 100
     known asteroids that actually cross Earth's orbit periodically.
     Its comet-like orbit may be due to the gravitational sling-shot
     effect of the planet Jupiter. At one time, Toutatis may have
     been an ordinary asteroid. But then during a close passage to
     Jupiter, the huge planet may have managed to impart some of its
     gravitational energy to the asteroid and, like a mean game of
     crack- the-whip, accelerated the asteroid toward the inner solar
     system--and us.
     
     Next week, Toutatis will be five times closer than it was in
     1989. Astronomer Art Whipple of the University of Texas at
     Austin McDonald Observatory calculates  the asteroid's closest
     approach will occur December 8. Toutatis will be brightest,
     however, the morning of December 12. Observers with small
     telescopes won't see much: a very faint, tiny point of light 
     among hundreds of other points of light-- stars--about 12 degrees
     south- southeast of the bright star Regulus in the constellation
     Leo. (Twelve degrees is slightly greater than the area of sky
     covered by the typical fist held at arm's length.) If you watch
     carefully over a period of about fifteen or
     
     twenty minutes, though, you may see one of the stars move
     slightly with respect to the background stars. That will be
     Toutatis.
     
     Toutatis passes Earth quickly, but returns in September 2004,
     when it will come with 966,000 miles of Earth, just four times
     the Earth-moon distance.
     
     Astronomers estimate there may be more than 1,000 Toutatis-like 
     asteroids more than a half-mile in diameter shuttling unnoticed
     across Earth's orbit. And indeed, in the last few years, more of
     these Earth- crossers have been discovered by patrol cameras.
     But not to worry. Our home planet is a very small target in a
     very large universe. The odds of Earth being struck are quite
     (pardon the pun) astronomical.
        
     
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     Jeff Kanipe is editor of Star Date Magazine, published by
     McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin. Write
     to Star Date at 2601 University, Room 102, the University of
     Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 for subscription information.  
     It is very reasonable in cost, informative and colorful.
  
     Copyright 1992 The University of Texas McDonald Observatory.
     Material is intended for personal education and should not 
     be rebroadcast in any written or verbal form without 
     prior permission from the University of Texas.
 
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             Also see the daily scripts from the Star Date 
                   Radio Program on the Turning Point.
                           HST/DS 512-219-7848
.

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