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 SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN -- DECEMBER 31, 1992

 GALILEO DISAPPOINTS
 NASA engineers have been trying for three days now to get the main
 antenna of the Galileo spacecraft fully open. The antenna is much like
 a jammed umbrella, and two little motors are repeatedly pushing up on
 the central shaft try to get the structure fully open. So far it
 appears that a couple of ribs still remain pinned up against the
 central mast. 

 MYSTERIOUS QB1 
 A new orbit has been issued by Brian Marsden for the mystery object
 called 1992 QB1. You may recall this object was discovered in August
 beyond the orbit of Pluto. It now appears more certain that the object
 is the first discovered member of the so-called Kuiper belt, a huge
 doughnut-shaped swarm of comets lying beyond Pluto. Marsden's tentative
 calculations suggest that 1992 QB1 averages 44 astronomical units from
 the Sun and has an orbital period of about 300 years. 

 "TWO-TATIS" REVEALED 
 Come Monday, January 4th, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will release
 images of the tiny asteroid 4179 Toutatis, which cruised past the Earth
 at about nine times the Moon's distance on December 8th. The images
 were obtained by Steve Ostro of JPL and his team by bouncing radar
 pulses off the asteroid and listening for echoes. According to Ostro,
 Toutatis is a contact binary asteroid -- two irregular chunks each
 about a mile across that merely touch one another. 

 This is not the first contact binary, either, as Ostro found another
 one in 1989 using the same radar technique. 

 SWIFT-TUTTLE'S LEGACY 
 Comet Swift-Tuttle has plunged well into southern skies and is on the
 far side of the Sun from Earth. In fact, Joe Rao points out that today
 at 3 hours Universal time the comet passed through the descending node
 of its orbit. That spot in space is almost exactly where Earth will be
 next August 12th during what promises to be a spectacular shower of
 Perseid meteors. The orbits of the Earth and Swift-Tuttle don't
 actually intersect, not quite, anyway, but they are no more than about
 100,000 miles apart at that point. 

 QUADRANTID ALERT 
 This year's Quandrantid meteor shower peaks on the morning of January
 3rd. Now, maybe the idea of observing meteors before dawn in early
 January does not sound appealing to you. But take note: the Quadrantids
 are known for a rich but short-lived maximum, which this year is
 predicted for 5 a.m. Eastern time. With the radiant high in the sky
 before dawn, those of us in the U.S. -- especially in the East -- may
 be in for a treat. Don't discount the possibility of seeing at least
 100 Quadrantids per hour about that time. And once you've come in and
 warmed up, be sure to send your reports to SKY & TELESCOPE. 

 CALENDRICAL FACTOIDS 
 For those of you who dance to the beat of a different drummer, New
 Year's Day is also reckoned as Julian Day 2,448,988. It's been that
 many days since January 1st, 4713 BC, which is the basis for this
 calendar system often used by astronomers. 


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

 JAN 03 -- SUN
 MARS IS CLOSEST TO EARTH (58 million miles), the closest it will get
 until 1999. This is not one of Mars' more favorable apparitions; the
 planet's disk is only 15 arc seconds across. But don't pass up any
 clear nights you can get out with a telescope, because Mars will be
 fading and shrinking by late this month. 

 The Quadrantid meteors are due to peak before dawn (Sunday morning). 
 
 JAN 04 -- MON
 *

 JAN 05 -- TUE
 Much of North America can see the dark limb of the waxing gibbous Moon
 occult (cover) the 4.5-magnitude star 37 Tauri late tonight. See the
 timetable in the January Sky & Telescope, page 75. 

 JAN 06 -- WED
 Jupiter's moon Io disappears into eclipse by the planet's shadow a
 little west of Jupiter around 11:46 a.m. Eastern standard time. You can
 watch it fade out over a minute or two using a small telescope. Io
 reappears from behind Jupiter's eastern limb at 3:11 a.m. EST Thursday
 morning. 

 JAN 07 -- THU
 Mars is at opposition.

 The Moon is also at opposition (full Moon), so they shine together in
 the east during evening. 

 JAN 08 -- FRI
 Jupiter's moon Io disappears into eclipse west of the planet around
 6:14 p.m. EST and reappears from behind Jupiter's eastern limb at 9:39
 EST. 

 JAN 09 -- SAT
 *

 ----- THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP

 MERCURY is hidden in the glare of the Sun. 

 VENUS blazes in the southwest as the bright "evening star." 

 MARS, orange and very bright, shines in Gemini near the fainter stars
 Pollux and Castor. This is its week of opposition; it rises around
 sunset, glares high overhead in the middle of the night, and sets in
 the west around sunrise. Mars is closest to Earth on January 3rd;
 opposition is on the 7th. In a telescope Mars' disk appears 15 arc
 seconds wide. 

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

 SATURN is the much fainter "star" far to the lower right of Venus. 

 URANUS and NEPTUNE are hidden behind the glare of the Sun. 

 PLUTO, extremely faint at 14th magnitude, is low in the southeast
 before dawn. 
 --
 SKYLINE is not to be distributed or used for profit. Transcribed and
 provided with permission from Sky & Telescope Magazine.
 The SKYLINE voice report is provided as a public service by Sky &
 Telescope Magazine. SKYLINE is a voice recording on 617/497-4168.
-- 
 Arlin B Collins    Tue 05 Jan   Sun   Civil  Naut   Astro
 bcollins@utdallas.edu   rise:  07:31  07:04  06:33  06:03
 lat N32.9 long W096.9    set:  17:35  18:02  18:33  19:03