AstroNews Dec 2001

SOLSTICE SPECIAL

• FREE GIFT OF SPACE TRAVEL
• BARK AT WHAT MOON?
• SETI@home: CALLING ET
• EXOPLANETARY ATMOSPHERE FOUND
• ASTRONEWS IN GERMAN
• LEONID METEOR RECAP

===========
Up This Month
===========
Look up!

SATURN and JUPITER are the brightest points of light in the evening sky in early December. SATURN looks like a bright golden star. It is fairly low in the west before sunrise. Near the star ALDEBARAN in the constellation TAURUS.

JUPITER is even brighter than SATURN and follows it across in the sky in the heart of GEMINI. So you can use JUPITER as a pointer to the GEMINIDS meteor shower. Mark you calendars: December 13.

What's so special about the GEMINIDS? It's the only meteor shower caused by ASTEROID debris, rather than COMET debris! Woo woo!

Oh, grab a star chart if you need help finding things.

Finally! Winter solstice is DECEMBER 21. At around 19:00 Universal time (UT is the same as the Greenwich time zone in England).

Kids, remember to dress up really warm before you go out in cold weather! 

Why stop at the KC TechShop?

DECEMBER DEAL$:

• SPEAKERS: MIDILAND 3-Piece System - Flat Panel, Subwoofer, 16 Watts/Ch ONLY: $30
• PRINTER: EPSON Stylus Color 777 Inkjet (Refurb) 2880 x 720 dpi ONLY: $60
• DIGICAM: HP 2.3 Megapixel USB ONLY: $200

• MONEY-SAVING RANKINGS
  Best sites for comparison shopping and reviews.
• "SWEET SPOT" SHOPPING LISTS
  DESKTOPs and LAPTOPs. Best price-to-quality!
• GREEN PC
  Save energy, save money.

Grab them at the TechShop:

http://www.kahl.net/shopping

SETI@home: CALLING ET

Hey, are you already a SETI@home user? Check out this site to "Know What to Expect When ET Calls":
http://www.planetary.org/html/UPDATES/seti/SETI@home/Update_1.htm

Oh, sorry, maybe you're not a user. Then you have no idea what we're talking about! The SETI@home screen saver is a scientific analytical software. It performs a mathematical operations on data you download from the SETI program.

SETI@home uses the largest telescope in the world, the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, to continuously scan the sky for radio signals. So far no signs of life. So if
you want to help, maybe you can be the lucky one who finds ET!

Get SETI@home version 3.03:
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu

ASTROTIP

FREE GIFT OF SPACE TRAVEL

NASA will launch twin Mars Rovers in 2003. The Rovers will travel significant distances and determine the climate and water history in Mars' present and past.
These mechanical explorers on wheels will each have a CD containing the NAMES of millions of Earthlings.

"Everyone on Earth who has ever dreamed of being an explorer on an alien planet will want to go along for the ride as we explore the surface of Mars" invites Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Science.

To place a name on the Mars Rover CD for free, just log on to the "Send Your Name to Mars" site:
http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/2003/

Each name is assigned an official serial number and stored in a searchable database that your loved one can use to find their own name, as well as other names--Ray Bradbury, for instance, and seven different people named Spock--which will also be flying to Mars.

You can even print out a frameable certificate as proof that the name will be landing on Mars in 2004.

Um... one last thing - hopefully this does not happen:
http://spacekids.hq.nasa.gov/mars98/

TALK IS CHEAP

SAMPLE RATES from ANY phone in the USA:
* 5.5¢ per minute USA and Canada
* 6¢ per minute Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, UK
* 15¢ per minute Philippines
* 7¢ Connect fee per call
* Works worldwide (via web enabled CALLBACK)!
* No Monthly Fees! No Hidden Fees!

We know you'll love Click4Prepaid from GLOBALCOM.
Get it here:

BARK AT WHAT MOON?

Many people have heard to the "Harvest Moon." It occurs closest to the fall equinox and its bright presence allows farmers to work longer into the fall night, reaping the rewards of their spring and summer labors. And in some years a full Moon early in October earns the "harvest" designation.

The most common names used in North America include:

                            January — Moon after Yule
                            February — Snow Moon
                            March — Sap Moon
                            April — Grass Moon
                            May — Planting Moon
                            June — Honey Moon
                            July — Thunder Moon
                            August — Grain Moon
                            September — Fruit Moon (or Harvest Moon)
                            October — Hunter's Moon (or Harvest Moon)
                            November — Frosty Moon
                            December — Moon before Yule
 

DISTANT DISCOVERIES

EXOPLANETARY ATMOSPHERE FOUND

Since 1996 astronomers have found 80 planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. As new discoveries kept coming in, researchers could only theorize about what these worlds are made of, or what they look like. But that has started to change.

An astronomer team led by David Charbonneau (Caltech) and Timothy Brown (NCAR) used Hubble to detect the atmosphere of the one known extrasolar planet that crosses directly in front of the face of its star.

They analyzed high-resolution spectra of HD 209458 — a 7.7-magnitude Sun like star 150 light-years away in Pegasus — with and without the planet in front of it. Using the telescope's spectrograph to split starlight into constituent colors, they detected a trace of extra sodium absorption when the planet was silhouetted on the star's face. This implies that starlight grazing the edge of the planet was filtered by sodium in its atmosphere.

The effect was minuscule — the change in the star's spectrum was only 1/5,000. But this proves it's possible to detect a spectral feature in an exoplanet!

And so we enter a new phase in the era of extrasolar planet discovery and characterization. Eventually astronomers hope to measure methane, water, and possibly oxygen and ozone in exoplanetary atmospheres.
 
 

BARGAINS IN THE AMAZON

• Up to 50% off toys and electronics and up to 60% off kitchen essentials
• Books under 5 bucks, CDs under $7, and videos under $10

FAR OUT FACTS

ASTRONEWS IN GERMAN

So if you speak German you might want to bookmark their site!

AstroNews Der deutsche Online-Dienst fuer Astronomie, Astrophysik und Raumfahrt:
http://www.astronews.com/
 
 

LEONID METEOR RECAP

Our planet zoomed into a dust cloud shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle in 1766. Two at once! Three at once! Meteorites skimming all over the earth's atmosphere! And it lasted all night...bright streaks coming every few seconds!

Though there was no 'storm' — meaning the sky was not filled with meteors falling down like rain — the shower did rain meteors and fireballs for over four hours. Here in California we estimated over 1000 meteors per hour between 2 and 2 AM.

MORE

AstroNews is an electronic newsletter by Kahl Consultants. Stay abreast of astronomy and extraterrestrial news. 

Subscribe to AstroNews
http://www.kahl.net/astro
My god! It's full of stars!