From: TerryMosel@aol.com
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 17:09:06 EST
Subject: ISS, Lecture, M&V, Jupsat

Hi all,  

1. The ISS, with Space Shuttle Endeavour attached, starts another series of 
evening passes for all observers in Ireland on 1 December (those in the far 
South may already have seen it this evening). Accurate details are on 
www.heavens-above.com but as a rough guide, for Belfast, the first visible 
pass (not a great one) will begin on Sunday evening at 18.46, the next on 
Monday evening at 17.51, and the next on Tuesday eveing at 18.29: observe 
about 5 to 10 minutes earlier the further South and West you are of Belfast. 
Subsequent ones will be higher and brighter.

Dr David Asher of Armagh Observatory, and international Leonid predictions 
fame, (and the discoverer and 'donator' of asteroid 16693 Moseley!) will give 
a talk to the EAAC on Monday 2 December at 8pm in the Thompson School, 
Ballyrobert, Co Antrim.  The title of his talk is "Surveying the Skies for 
Hazardous Asteroids", a subject on which he is a leading authority. Mine 
isn't a hazardous one, BTW!

3. Mars and Venus will be close together, with a lovely waning crescent moon, 
and Spica not far away, tomorrow morning, 1 December. Look in the SE any time 
from about 06.20, when they will still be quite low, to about 07.40, when the 
sky starts to get too bright. Mars will be closely above right of Venus, with 
the moon a similar distance above Mars, and Spica further away above right.
   Mars & Venus will be closest next week, with a minimum separation of 1.6 
degrees, on 5 December. Venus reaches greatest brilliancy, at -4.7, only two 
days later, so it will totally outshine the much fainter Mars - by a factor 
of over 200!

4. A rare and interesting Jovian 'mutual satellite event' will occur on the 
evening of 5 December, when Europa will partially eclipse Io, from 23h 55m 9s 
to 24h 00m 38s. If you carefully compare Io's brightness with that of Europa 
before the event, and then at mid-eclipse, you should see the drop in 
brightness. From E to W the relative positions will be: Europa, Io, Jupiter, 
Callisto and Ganymede. Any telescope will show this event, and there are 
other better ones to come later on - more details later.

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

Last Revised: 2002 December 2nd WWW contact: webmaster@star.arm.ac.uk

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