From: bcollins@utdallas.edu (Arlin B. Collins)
Subject: Sky&Tel Weekly News Bulletin
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:55:23 GMT

***
 SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN
 November 14, 1992

 PICKING UP SWIFT-TUTTLE 
 With the Moon receding into the morning sky, it's much easier now to
 spot Comet Swift-Tuttle among the stars of eastern Hercules. In fact
 it's getting *so* easy, that Bill Smith of Ukiah, California, reports
 glimpsing it with his unaided eye. And this week you'll have a chance
 to do likewise in the hours after sunset. The comet has brightened to
 better than magnitude 5.5, so it should be a snap to spot even with
 small binoculars. You'll need to look for the comet before it sets in
 the northwest between 9 and 10 p.m. Swift-Tuttle is starting to pick up
 steam as it heads toward its perihelion on December 12th, moving closer
 to the Sun by 700,000 miles per day and a Moon's width across our skies
 every six hours. Here are the comet's positions for 0 hour Universal
 time and equinox 2000 coordinates: 

           R.A. (2000) Dec.
           ================
 Nov. 14   17h 56m  +25.9 deg.
 Nov. 16   18h 05m  +23.1 deg.
 Nov. 18   18h 14m  +20.3 deg.
 Nov. 20   18h 23m  +17.6 deg.

 VENUS & THE TEAPOT 
 An interesting optical illusion takes place this week in the southwest
 after sunset. Venus has become unmistakable as a brilliant beacon in
 that part of the sky, but after dark on the 18th it will also become
 the temporary top to the famous Teapot, a miniconstellation in
 Sagittarius. Usually the star Lambda Sagittarii occupies that location,
 and of course it's still there -- but Venus definitely overwhelms it. 

 JAN OORT, 1900-92 
 On November 5th the renowned astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort died in the
 Dutch town of Wassenaar at the age of 92. Oort is probably best known
 for predicting the existence of the solar system's distant swarm of
 comets, now named the Oort cloud, but there is hardly any topic in
 astronomy that did not benefit from his contributions. Ironically, Oort
 considered his work on distant comets just a sidelight. He and Bertil
 Lindblad of Sweden drew international recognition for their discovery,
 in 1927, that our galaxy rotates. Oort was among the first to realize
 the enormous potential of radio astronomy, and he also recognized the
 link between the Crab nebula and the supernova explosion of 1054. Oort
 served as president of the International Astronomical Union from 1958
 to 1961, and after retiring in 1970 he studied the center of the Milky
 Way and superclusters of galaxies. 

 SUNSPOT GROUP 
 Rick Kruzewski checked in to let us know that there's a naked-eye
 sunspot group currently crossing the solar disk. It's already past the
 meridian, so your best chance of seeing it is early this week. 

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

 NOV 15 -- SUN
 Saturn's brightest moon Titan can be seen in a small telescope four
 ring lengths east of the planet. 

 NOV 16 -- MON
 Venus is very close to the 3rd-magnitude star Lambda Sagittarii early
 this week. Binoculars help. 

 The Leonid meteor shower should be at its peak early Tuesday morning,
 but moonlight interferes. 

 NOV 17 -- TUE
 The eclipsing variable star Algol will be at minimum brightness,
 magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered
 on 10:56 p.m. Eastern standard time. 

 Last quarter Moon (exact at 6:39 a.m. EST). 

 NOV 18 -- WED
 The waning crescent Moon is near Jupiter Thursday and Friday mornings.
 
 NOV 19 -- THU
 *

 NOV 20 -- FRI
 Algol is at minimum around 7:45 p.m. EST. 

 NOV 21 -- SAT
 Mercury is at inferior conjunction. 

 ----- THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP

 MERCURY is hidden in the glare of the Sun. 

 VENUS is in the southwest as twilight fades, getting higher and
 brighter each week. It's on its way up to a grand apparition as the
 "evening star" this winter. 

 MARS is in Gemini in line with fainter Pollux and Castor. It rises
 around 9 p.m. and shines high overhead in the early morning hours. Mars
 is getting big and bright on the way to its January 7th opposition;
 currently it's 11.6 arc seconds in apparent diameter. 

 JUPITER, in Virgo, is the brightest "star" in the eastern sky before
 and during dawn. 

 SATURN,  in  Capricornus,  is  the  lone  bright "star" in the
 south-southwest after dark. 

 URANUS and NEPTUNE, faint at 6th and 8th magnitude respectively, are
 low in the southwest right after dusk. 

 PLUTO is hidden behind the sunset. 

 -----
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-- 
Arlin B Collins     CompuServe:  INTERNET:bcollins@utdallas.edu   :-)
Newsgroups: sci.astro