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 SKY & TELESCOPE NEWS BULLETIN -- JANUARY 23, 1993

 DAZZLING PLANETS
 Venus and Mars currently dominate the evening sky, and with good
 reason. Mars passed its closest to Earth on January 3rd, at which time
 it was 58 million miles away. Right now the red planet shines at
 magnitude -1.3 and its disk is 15 arc seconds across. Venus, meanwhile,
 reached its greatest elongation east of the Sun, 47 degrees, on January
 19th. It's a dazzling magnitude -4.4 right now. However, its moment of
 greatest brilliancy, - 4.6, is still a month away. 

 YOUNG CRESCENT MOON 
 There will be a day-old crescent Moon low in the west-southwest sky
 just after sunset on the evening of Saturday, the 23rd. Can you see it?
 It will be 34 degrees to the lower-right of Venus. If you manage to nab
 the Moon, look 5 degrees to its left for Saturn. Remember, these will
 be very far down in the murk, so an unobstructed western horizon will
 be essential. 

 COMET MUELLER, 1993a 
 There's a new orbit out for Comet Mueller, which was discovered by
 Palomar observer Jean Mueller on January 6th. Not a whole lot has
 changed, though the perihelion date has shifted about 10 days to
 January 13th, 1994, almost a year from now. By then Comet Mueller will
 have cruised inward along its retrograde parabolic route to a point 180
 million miles from the Sun. Right now the comet is a distant
 14th-magnitude smudge in Ursa Major, and it's expected to brighten only
 by one magnitude between now and May. So its prospects for ever
 achieving naked-eye visibility are slim. 

 COMET SCHWASSMANN-WACHMANN 1 
 Jane Luu and Dave Jewitt, who gained fame a few months ago for
 discovering a solar-system object beyond Pluto, recently set their
 telescopic sights on Periodic Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1. They think
 they're observing the comet's nucleus directly, and that it spins ever
 10 hours with a half-magnitude variation. Studies of the comet's jets
 had suggested a somewhat longer spin rate, more like 5 days. But the
 two astronomers note that 10 hours is more in line with the rotations
 they've found in other short-period comets." 

 LEAP SECOND 
 And here's an event to look forward to this summer. Bulletin C5 of the
 International Earth Rotation Service announces that a positive leap
 second will be introduced on the night of June 30th. That means that at
 11:59 p.m. the count of seconds will be 59, 60, 0. That's in
 coordinated Universal time, of course. You heard it first here, folks.
 
 ----- THIS WEEK'S "SKY AT A GLANCE"

 JAN 24 -- SUN
 *

 JAN 25 -- MON
 The eclipsing variable star Algol is at minimum light, magnitude 3.4
 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple of hours centered on 6:10 p.m.
 Eastern standard time. It takes several additional hours to brighten
 again. 

 JAN 26 -- TUE
 The crescent Moon shines close to brilliant Venus during and after dusk
 tonight -- a fine sight (and photo opportunity. Use a long lens and
 look for interesting foreground scenery.) 

 JAN 27 -- WED
 Tonight the crescent Moon stands above Venus. 

 JAN 28 -- THU
 *

 JAN 29 -- FRI
 Jupiter's moon Io disappears into eclipse by the planet's shadow around
 11:53 p.m. EST, a little west of the planet. It reappears from behind
 Jupiter's east limb at 3:11 a.m. EST Saturday morning. 

 JAN 30 -- SAT
 First quarter Moon (exact at 6:20 p.m. EST). 

 ----- THIS WEEK'S PLANET ROUNDUP

 MERCURY is hidden in the glare of the Sun. 

 VENUS blazes in the southwest as the bright "evening star" during and
 after dusk. 

 MARS, orange and very bright, shines in Gemini near Castor and Pollux.
 Mars was at opposition January 7th. It's up in the east at dusk, shines
 high overhead in the middle of the night, and sets in the west before
 sunrise. In a telescope its disk has shrunk to 13 1/2 arc seconds wide.

 JUPITER, in Virgo, rises around 10:30 p.m. and shines well up in the
 east by midnight. 

 SATURN is disappearing into the sunset. 

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

 PLUTO, extremely faint at 14th magnitude, is 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    Sun 24 Jan   Sun   Civil  Naut   Astro
 bcollins@utdallas.edu   rise:  07:27  07:01  06:31  06:02
 lat N32.9 long W096.9    set:  17:52  18:19  18:48  19:18