Pssssst !Wanna buy a real cheap telescope?NASA is asking scientists to submit ideas on how to use two unused opti-cal telescopes originally built for the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. government’s fairly secret spy satellite agency.Although no photos of the NRO telescopes have been released, they have the same diameter as Hubble. Each of the telescopes have 2.4metre pri-mary mirrors, the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope.The call for proposals issued in late November seeks information on con-cepts to use the NRO telescopes for astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary sciences and human spaceflight missions, according to NASA.NASA announced in June it took possession of the spy telescopes which were developed for a spy imaging satellite program. Although NASA said each telescope is worth about $250 million, they do not come with any support equipment. They would need a launch spacecraft, instruments and controllers if they were to be used for a full space mission.One of the telescopes could be used for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope designed to probe dark energy and detect exoplanets. WFIRST was ranked by the National Research Council as the top priority for NASA’s astrophysics program after completion of the James Webb Space Telescope, a multi-billion dollar project due to be launched into space in six years. Apply, with your cash deposit to NASA, Cape Canaveral.

December 2012 * Volume 330

Harry goes down .................2Daphne looks at the Sun......2 December sky .....................3Mick ‘n Don .........................4

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LIFE ON MARS ?

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It’s that time of the year when words of peace and goodwill are bandied about... bonhomie and best wishes are the order of the day. With the recent (and continuing) vitriol and nasti-ness emanating unabated from the nation’s capital I wait with bated breath to hear our leaders soft words and sweet smiles at the end of the month. How hol-low will they sound- how false will be the smiles!

With that harrumph and gar-rumph over I feel much better already!

The long-count Mayan calen-dar ticks over on 21 December 2012 and great change or even disaster awaits us all. Sydney Observatory disagrees! Should the world actually end during the party there will be a full refund of entry costs, so keep your tickets! It’s a catered event so contact www.sydneyobserv-atory.com.au if you want to be part of the fun!

The Solstice occurs on the 21st December According to many internet sources “The Sun will move to a unique spot in the sky -- and hold still for a while, since it is solstice day. The Sun will sit precisely on the heaven-ly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy.”(My italics) If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny! If the Sun sud-denly holds still we’re in deep kaka. If it holds still on the ga-lactic equinox (whatever that is!) the effect will be the same as if we all drank a Pan Galac-tic Gargleblaster and tried to drive an elephant!

The Great Cairns Total Solar Eclipse was a magical event or a bit of a washout- depending on your point of view. Observ-ers who went inland generally fared best. One group of South American astronomers were totally clouded out. They were only just prevented from lynch-ing the loud and boastful Nord Americano at the airport who had a perfect view only a few k i l o m e t r e s away.

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PREMATURE ANNOUNCEMENT SEES NASA OFFICIAL SENT TO ‘RETRAINING CAMP’ AS A WARNING TO OTHERS.

NASA officials deny that they sent John Grotzinger, the Mars Science Lab-oratory’s senior project scientist to the Aelutian Islands for re-education. “He’s going there for a well-deserved rest.” explained an official who re-fused to be named.Grotzinger announced in early November that NASA would make some ‘earth-shaking’ announcements in December about what the Mars explorer Curiosity (shown above) had found with its SAM instrument designed to look for the carbon compounds essential to life as we know it on Earth.NASA officials are desperately downplaying the speculation, saying the re-sults, expected to be presented at the beginning of December at the Ameri-can Geophysical Union’s meeting in San Francisco, are scientifically inter-esting, but not actually “earthshaking.”“Such a rumour will be taken as gospel by some idiots- and they don’t need any encouragement from us. We just want to get this information out there in a controlled manner before the world ends later this month.“The rumors about results from the SAM instrument on Curiosity are quite overblown,” Guy Webster, a spokesman for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told television reporters. “There’s nothing earthshaking. The news conference will be one in a series, trying to keep people up-to-date about the rover’s progress and findings.”The President and his advisers will watch the announcement from the White House Situation Room bunker deep underground. For his part, John Grotzinger, the Mars Science Laboratory’s project scien-tist, in a phone hook-up from the remote Aelutians won’t talk about what-ever the rover has discovered, telling reporters the science team wants to make sure the data are fully understood and that no mistakes are made interpreting the results. He has taken the precaution of giving full copies of the findings to Julian Assange.The compact laboratory on Curiosity is about the size of a microwave oven and uses a mass spectrometer, a tunable laser spectrometer and a gas chro-matograph to look for organic compounds in samples of the red planet’s soil and atmosphere. Two small ovens are used to heat samples to some 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.The mass spectrometer can detect nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon and other elements. The tunable laser spectrometer measures concentrations of methane, carbon dioxide and water vapor, along with various isotopes. The gas chromatograph identifies organic compounds using a different technique. Wonderful technology being operated autono-mously millions of kilometres from Earth. Amazing!

The Curiosity Mars rover on the surface of the red planet. The object in the background is said to be the discarded heat shield but some observers say that it looks strangely like a dust-covered ancient calendar.

This image of a gigantic storm was taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it explores Saturn and its moons. The narrow angle camera mounted on Cas-sini made the image from a distance of three hundred and fifty thousand kilometres in late November.

HUGE STORM ON SATURNSaturn’s North Pole reveals wild storms as Cassini spacecraft crosses ovehead

The Cassini spacecraft has been traveling the Saturnian system in a set of inclined orbits that give mission scientists overhead views of Saturn’s polar regions. This new perspective has yielded images of boisterous storm clouds and a gigantic hurricane-like vortex at the centre of Saturn’s myste-rious north polar hexagon.These phenomena are very similar to what Cassini discovered at Saturn’s south pole several years ago. The images of the north pole storms were not possible when the pole was shrouded in darkness. With the change of the Saturnian seasons, sunlight has begun to creep over the planet’s north pole allowing first images to be taken..

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WAY, WAY DOWN SOUTH

Moretus is a spectacular lunar crater- and one of the more ‘mysterious’. Sited right on the 70oS line of latitude it is much affected by libra-tion, particularly libration of latitude, and is not al-ways seen well. On Nov 24 the libration in latitude was a favourable -5o and despite constant cloud I got a quick sketch (Fig). We see a deep crater 114km wide, forty percent larger than nearby Tycho, with a strikingly tall central peak and steep crater walls: a wonder-ful sight. Moretus is said to be an ‘Eratosthenian’ impact, i.e. over 1By old. However it looks no older than Copernicus (200 My) and hasn’t been much modified: we can say it’s a ‘pristine formation’. The full moon view (Fig, LPOD) shows Moretus, Cla-vius and Tycho – with a Tycho ray across More-tus’ floor. In fact Moretus is very like Tycho but is deeper with a taller central peak. Because of its high south latitude we look down into Moretus as if in lunar orbit – and I have oriented my sketch to show an ‘astronaut’s-eye’ view of an iconic impact crater! Like most of the limb craters, Moretus has had little in the way of lava flooding – compared to a crater like Copernicus, say, where more of the central peak formation is covered. Orbiter imagery of Moretus shows only shallow ponds of lava on the crater floor. Moretus’ central peak is quite spectacular: tall white and pyramidal – in fact almost 2.7km high, amongst the tallest. This is (or was, really) the most ‘mysterious’ feature of Moretus. The volcano: For a long time astronomers (particu-larly amateurs) were convinced they could see a distinct crater atop the peak – and this convinced generations of Moon watchers that the whole for-mation was a large volcanic cone. If you are lucky enough to own a copy of Harold Hill’s “Portfolio of Lunar Drawings” you can follow his attempts, over decades, to resolve the reality of the “vent” in the central peak. At times he was quite sure of its real-ity, as his sketches show. However, as he laments (p122), the Lunar Orbiter images did not confirm this – and it now seems to be an optical illusion due to small-scale topographic details.

On the night, I too saw the mountaintop ‘vent’ – as the sketch shows. As we all know, vol-canoes are positive relief features: i.e. they stick up above their surroundings (e.g. Hawaii). Yet the cra-ters that had the central ‘volcanoes’ were all deep holes in the Moon’s surface. This ‘slight’ problem with the volcanic theory did not deter its propo-nents. The Moon has many small volcano-like formations but nothing akin to a terrestrial volcano – the products of complex geology on Earth. However, Moretus does have a range of landslip formations on its inner walls, some are captioned on the sketch. Y-YI is a large scree-slope where the original wall has collapsed into the crater, creating a ‘rubble’ slope with ‘toes’ where material has invaded the crater floor (captioned X-XI) almost to the central peak. Z-ZI are perhaps rotational slippage blocks that have, it seems’ formed terraces in the crater’s western wall, and have also eroded much of the crater’s original rim: a process called scalloping. In fact all Moretus’ SW rim has been remodelled this way.By contrast, the eastern wall of Moretus (left hand side) is almost ‘pristine’– there we see the steep in-ner wall created by the impact event, with many narrow terraces, at the top of which is the original rim still quite intact: all in partial shadow at the time – a spectacular sight! Detail on the crater floor eluded me despite the high magnification (416X)- but there are some small ridges and one crater that I should have seen (site marked +). I did log a small mountain near the cen-tral peak, marked ‘m’.The are few named formations close to Moretus: secondary crater Moretus A is dotted to the right (west) and an apparently unnamed crater on the SE limb is perhaps an earlier impact than Moretus. The bar scale (25km) gives an idea of the size of this magnificent formation: one that preserves near pristine landforms and can be viewed in the ‘scope as if from orbit above the site: A rare and breathtak-ing ‘telescopic treat’.

THE GREAT CAIRNS SOLAR ECLIPSEDaphne and Dom Gonzalvez sample the delights of a trip to the north to see a Great Wonder.

Dom watches as the Sun and Moon begin their dance low in the East. Earlier this year we told our friends in Sydney that we were going to Cairns to see the Solar Eclipse. Some thought we were mad; others said we were smart. Yet looking out of our Virgin air-lines plane from 38 thousand feet we wondered if we were indeed crazy because the Queensland coast was covered in wads of cotton-wool clouds! But buoyed by the good wishes of all our friends we hoped that we’d see at least a few minutes of this very special celestial spec-tacle. “Well, “said Dom trying to console me “it’s our holiday, so let’s enjoy it whatever happens.” The Briefing on Tuesday evening- “Beware of snakes and cow dung!” Melissa said with a smile. No one from our tour group smiled back. We had come prepared for mud and mosquitoes not snakes! Melissa, Education Officer from Sydney Observatory, our tour guide had done her homework and vis-ited the location for Plan B so we took her words seriously. Why lo-cation B? Location A, ten minutes from where we were staying at Port Douglas was a no-no. Clouds were about and clouds were forecast for eclipse morning. So Melissa had to make a rapid change of plans.

She consulted a weather forecast company that film makers con-sult and they had directed her beyond the Great Dividing Range. Cairns and Port Douglas are on the sea-front. Their weather is at the mercy of winds blowing in from the Pacific. Fortunately for us the Great Dividing Range is inland from Port Douglas and the mountains form a natural bar-rier for clouds rolling in from the sea.

So Melissa had to choose a loca-tion just past the shoulder of the Great Dividing Range. The place had to be reasonably flat have a clear view of the east and be as close as possible to Port Douglas. She had personally driven around before we arrived, scouting for suitable places and finally found one. There was only one catch. It was 160 km away! Wednesday: So this morning we boarded the coach at the unearth-ly hour of 2 AM. Orion bold and beautiful was straight overhead. I considered it a good omen. While we napped, Phil our coach captain drove very carefully on the Mulligan Highway that snakes its way over the Great Dividing Range.

Two hours later we reached the lo-cation in total darkness. The skies were wondrously clear. As we got off the coach and looked up we oohed and aahed at the Milky Way spread out like a brilliant carpet overhead. The Southern Cross and the Pointers were to the south. Then torches on, we carefully walked around cowpats and anthills to find a spot where we could set up our cameras. We noticed other cars there- at least twenty other astrono-mers had arrived before us.

The land was semi-cleared. To our great relief resident snakes had taken off into the bush on hear-ing the footfalls of a platoon of men and women carrying torches, cameras and telescopes. The spot was fairly level with low hills and a few trees which would be the foreground to the action. Venus was peeking over a mountain so we set up our cam-eras aimed at her for we k n e w the drama would take place in that region. ...continued Page 4

Daphne prepares to photograph the early stages as the Sun rises.

December 2012 * Volume 330 * Page 2

The staff at The Binocular and Telescope Shop, Mike and Lily, Don, Michael, Mick, Daniel,

Anthony, James, Adrian and Gavintake this opportunity to wish all our friends and customers

A very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and Happy New Year!

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Saturn is in the eastern dawn sky. Makes a line

with Venus and Mercury at mid-month.

Neptune: Is still in Aquarius. Can be found high in the north-western sky after dark. Not an easy target

to find and observe.

Uranus: is still in Pisces, in the North. Not easy to see and a disappointing

object in most scopes.

7th Last Quarter

13th New Moon-

13th Moon at Perigee

20st First Quarter.

26th Moon at Apogee.

28th Full Moon

Pluto: Hardly knows which way to turn- which heel to bite first, but will

steer clear of the dusty heels of the pitbull from Curtin. Could still be some traces of asbestos there... and we all know what that does to your lungs. Don’t we?

December 2012 * Volume 330 * Page 3

You can shop on-line at www.bintel.com.au for your astronomical needs.

Mercury: in the early morning sky and can be found very low in the East . Difficult to see in

the pre-dawn sky.

Mars is very low the western sky in Sagittarius.

Not easy to see as the sky isn’t very dark after sunset.

Venus: in the pre-dawn eastern sky, wandering through a number of

constellations. It’s the brightest thing there, so the ‘Morning Star’ isn’t

difficult to spot.

Jupiter is rising in the East under the bull’s horns in Taurus around

6pm and isgreat viewing all month long. Watch its four moons!

Evening sky December 2012 Solstice 21st Dec.

The Van Allen radiation Belts sur-round the Earth and would, it was claimed, kill any astronauts who ventured through them on the way to the Moon. The Apollo lunar mis-sion passed through these Belts in around four hours and the astro-nauts received about the same radia-tion exposure as if they’d had a chest X-ray. They’d have been in trouble if they’d lingered in the radiation belts.

A comet discovered by Terry Love-joy last year could be on a trajectory that will cause it to dive into the Sun this month!If this sungrazer comet passes through the Sun’s photosphere it will be subjected to temperatures exceeding two million degrees Cel-sius which will vaporize any traces of water or ice it may contain. If it actually collides with the Sun C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) will go out with a big bang! See a previous re-sult below where the Sun is blanked out. Looks for results on SOHO about mid-month.

The Great Nebula (M42) is just vis-ible to the naked eye. It appears to be the middle star in the sword of Orion, currently high in the north-ern sky. The Orion Nebula is a col-lection of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. Brightening the nebula are four stars, the Trapezium. Many of the gauzy structures visible are actually shock waves - rippling through slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located about 1500 light years away in our spiral arm of the Milky Way.

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Melissa had warned us we’d miss the first stages of partial eclipse but it was a small price to pay for a good view of the rest of the extravaganza. We started setting up our equipment- telescopes, camer-as- in the dark. Each group chose a different vantage a point from which to view and photograph. We chose a spot from where the landscape would lend enchant-ment to the view and interest to our photos.

As the sky began lightening the stars began to fade. The brightness grew; anticipation was palpable ... and soon Venus vanished. We talked to others in our group. Many had been to other solar eclipses-some had even been to four! Many said previous eclipses had been non-events due to bad weather. We were among a few first timers. We sure hoped we’d be first time lucky!Slowly one spot in the sky began to grow brighter. Someone called out “Put on your solar glasses!” The show had begun! All attention was focussed on the rising sun. From the top left the moon had taken a clean bite out of the sun! Slowly the environs became darker. A bird called out. The air turned chill. As the moon moved more over the sun an unnatural hush de-scended. The vanished Venus and a few stars reap-peared. The sun and moon slipped behind a tree giv-ing me a unique photo of sun moon and gum leaves.We watched the sun becoming a crescent and then a slim sliver. One of the kids called out, “It’s like a smiley!”Eventually the sun was barely a thread of orange. Then it happened! Total eclipse! A shout went up from the crowd! “I can’t see a thing!” said someone. “Take off your solar glasses!” “Ahhhh! That’s better. Look at that!” This was the climax of the drama. The sun and moon were in perfect alignment.

Two stages rapidly followed. First came Baily’s Beads-sunlight like coloured beads shining through mountain valleys on the rim of the moon- then total eclipse when the sun’s disk was fully obscured but its corona was visible like a halo.

What did it matter that this event can be explained mathematically in celestial geometry? It was a mo-ment of bliss and magic- a poetic moment to remem-ber with all its sights, sounds and feelings.

The two minutes of total eclipse felt like 40 seconds.And then- oh wow! For a brief second the diamond ring flashed! How we savoured the moment!

And all too quickly it was over. Slowly the sun emerged from the shadow of the moon. The exposure of the sun began anew. As the sun waxed sunspots were clearly evident. With the return of the light we noticed how green the trees around looked! The shadow of the moon over the sun was all but gone. The show was over but people were reluctant to go home!Post eclipse Sydney Observatory regulars who have chased solar eclipses in Turkey, Russia and Easter Island- all agreed that today’s Solar Eclipse was the best they’ve ever seen. We two were indeed first time lucky! For the luck of Plan B the whole group owes thanks to three people in particular: Melissa Hulbert, Education Of-ficer of Sydney Observatory for critical decision mak-ing on changing the viewing site: Ibi Selim of Harvey World Travel Miranda who brilliantly managed the last moment changes of transporting our tour group at 2am to the new viewing site: Phil the Coach Driver for agreeing without prior notice to bring the coach to our lodgings at 2am and then driving one hundred and sixty kilometres to the site and back. Daphne and Dom Gonzalvez

His Eminence Professor Dr Nervo Shatterini asks that you heighten your cosmic awareness and answer these eternal questions before the world ends.

December

(1) Which letters are used to de-note the 24 brightest stars in each constellation?(2) In which year did Chinese astronomers record five planets in one constellation?(3 Which constellation contains the asterism ‘the sickle’?(4) What are Milankovich Cycles?(5) What is hypersensitization used for?(6) Which is the most famous ‘run-away star’?(7) Which object comes first in the New General Catalog?(8) What was the origin of Saturn’s moon Phoebe? (9) What’s the difference between a binary star and an optical dou-ble?(10) What’s an M star?(11) What is actually the most dis-tant object that can be seen with the naked eye?(12) The First Point of Aries is in...(13) Which nebula resembles part of the USA?(14) Which meteorite contained six amino acids plus hydrocarbons?(15) Is the human eye is more sen-sitive to blue under low light?(16) Where would you find the ‘guitar nebula’?(17) What is “Ikeya-Seki”?(18) What is the velocity needed to maintain a circular orbit?(19) What did Dig Richards do to his car?(20) What is a ‘field star’?

(1) Lower case Greek alphabet.(2) 2449bc(3) Leo(4) Changes in the earth’s rotation and orbit that affect our climate.(5) To increase the sensitivity of film to light for long exposures. (6) Banard’s Star in Ophiuchus.(7) NGC1, a galaxy in Pegasus. (8) It’s probably a captured aster-oid or Kuiper belt object. (9) Binary stars are directly related to each other.(10) It’s a Red Dwarf.(11) M33, the pinwheel galaxy (not M31 in Andromeda)(12) Pisces.(13) NGC 1499 is said to look like California.(14) The Murchison meteorite.(15) Yes. It’s the Purkinje Effect.(16) In Cepheus. It’s the wake of a fast-moving star.(17) A brilliant comet discovered in October 1965(18) G(M = m)/r , but I’m sure you knew that.(19) Crashed it on Sydney Har-bour Bridge.(20) A star in the same line of sight but unrelated to a cluster of stars.

December 2012 * Volume 330 * Page 4

Macarthur Astronomical Society Inc: NSW ☎ 0402 479 776 Trevor Rhoades www.macastro.org.auSutherland Astronomical Society Inc: NSW☎ (02)9832 4082 Brett McMillan.www.sasi.net.auNorthern Sydney Astronomical Society Inc: ☎ Bob Fuller 0423 971374 www.nsas.org.auSydney City Skywatchers (BAA) (NSW) ☎ 9398 9705 www.sydneycityskywatchers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of NSW. ☎ 0428 965 249 John O’Brien www.asnsw.comThe Western Sydney Amateur Astro Group Inc ☎ Gerry Aarts 0416 292 020 www.wsaag.orgSydney Northwest Astronomical Society☎ (02) 9634 1736 Ken Petersen The Wollongong Astronomy Club. NSW☎ (02) 4261 9369 Paul BrownThe Illawarra Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4276 3199 Peter McKinnonwww.illawarraastronomicalsociety.hostoi.com Shoalhaven Astronomers: South Coast NSW ☎ (02) 4423 2255 Jack Apfelbaumwww.shoalhavenastronomers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of the Hunter: NSW (02) 4937 4664 Col Maybury colmay@kooee.com.auNewcastle Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4950 0725 Allan Meehan www.nas.org.auCoffs Harbour Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 6653 2742 Win Howard Coonabarabran Astronomical Society, NSW☎ secretary@coona-astro.org.au Central West Astronomical Society, NSWJohn Sarkissian: john.sarkissian@csiro.au. Port Macquarie Astronomical Association NSW☎ 0403 683 394 Rodney Neasbey www.pmobs.org.auGrafton Astronomical Society, NSW☎ (02) 6643 1349 Mick Austin, President Pro tem.Bombala Astronomy Group, NSWUniversity of New England Astronomical Society ☎ (0427 892 011 Chris Wyatt Clarence Valley Astronomical Society☎ (02) 6643 3288 Steve FletcherBallaarat Astronomical Society: Vic ☎ (03) 5332 7526 bas@cbl.com.au http://observatory.ballarat.netBendigo District Astronomical SocietyPO Box 164 Bendigo Vic 3552 . Kate McMillanAstronomical Society of Victoria Inc ☎ (03) 9888 7130. Linda Mockridge www.asv.org.au Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society Vic☎ (03) 5122 3014 home.vicnet.net.au/~lvas Astronomical Society of Geelong, Vic☎ 0407 345 070 Frank Baker for details.http://vicnet.net.au~asogMornington Peninsula Astronomical Society, ☎ 0419 253 252 Peter Skilton for details.http://www.mpas.asn.au Astronomy Benalla 03 5762 1523 Rupe Cheethamwww.astronomybenalla.org.auAstronomical Society of Albury-Wodonga☎Petra De Ruyter 0431 535 417 www.asaw.org.au Mount Burnett Observatory. mtburnettobservatory.org ☎ 0419 516 560 Ray Schmidt. Snake Valley Astronomical Association (Vic)☎ 0418 425 207 Me Ken James.Canberra Astronomical Society: ACT☎ (02)6248 0552 J. Howard www.mso.anu.edu.au/casBrisbane Astronomical Society: Qld ☎ (07) 3321 8511 Darryl Mitchellwww.bas.asn.auSouthern Astronomical Society:Qld☎ 0421 866 376 Joe Zerafa.www.sas.org.auAstronomical Association of Queensland, Qld☎ Peter Hall (07) 3378 1173 www.aaq.org.auSouth East Queensland Astronomical Society, ☎ (07) 3239 0032. www.seqas.orgIngham Amateur Astronomers Club☎ (07) 4776 5773 Tracey Castles.Bundaberg Astronomical Soc. Qld☎ (07) 4159 7232 www.interwox.com.auRedlands Astronomical Society Qld☎ (07) 3207 2818 Chris Tacke www.ras.org.auAstronomical Society of South Australia, SA ☎ (08) 8338 1231 Tony Beresford. www.assa.org.auAstronomical Society of Tasmania, Tas ☎ 0419 305 722 Bob Coghlan. www.ast.n3.netAstronomical Society of Alice Springs N.T. ☎ (08) 8953 1903 Richard Williamsonrichard@comspec.com.auDarwin Astronomy Group NT☎ (0420 238 663 Matt Bartonwww.darwinastronomy.comGove Amateur Astronomers, NT ☎ 0417 601 490 Ian Maclean for information.Astronomical Society of Western Australia, WAhttp://www.aswa.info ☎ (08) 9364 9603Astronomical Society of The South-West, W.A. ☎ (08) 9721 1586 Phil Smith.

Your club not listed? Wrong contact? Tell Mike Smith!mike@bintel.com.au

Night Sky is published monthly by The Binocular and Telescope Shop Pty Ltd

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Hey Don,made a

New Year’s Resolution?

A few. And you?

I’m settin’ meself the task of studyin’ current affairs and politics more closely every day.

Well, if I had to take everything the politicians are saying with a grain of salt.

If I tr ied that I would get into big trouble.

NOW IN STOCK !Astronomy 2013

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How so?M e b l o o d pressure would go through the roof..

Daphne and Dom and the Solar Eclipse from Page 2

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