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S&T News Bulletin - Feb 3



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         SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN -- FEBRUARY 3, 1995
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AN ULTRAVIOLET VIEW FROM DISCOVERY

The post-midnight launch of Discovery today brings astronomy back in the
Space Shuttle.  Discovery carries the Spartan platform, a reusable box
that can be removed from the payload bay during flight and is self-powered
for unattended flight in space.  Mounted onto Spartan is the Far
Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph, designed for studying diffuse sources,
such as faint nebulae, comets, and nearby galaxies.  The telescope will
also examine ultraviolet emission from interstellar dust during its nearly
2-days of autonomous operation in orbit.  Discovery is also scheduled to
make a rendezvous -- but not a docking -- with the Russian space station
Mir.

AXAF MIRRORS COMPLETED

NASA announced on January 30th that the 8 cylindrical mirrors of the
Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) have been fully polished --
and completed four months ahead of schedule.  Hughes Danbury Optical
Systems in Connecticut figured the mirrors, which will focus X-rays by
making them graze off the mirror's surfaces at a narrow angles.  Such
high-energy photons typically pass through normal-incidence mirrors used
for other wavelengths of light.  NASA reports that the mirrors' average
smoothness is within 3 angstroms -- or 3 ten-millionths of a millimeter. 
AXAF is scheduled to be launched in September 1998.

LOOKING FOR ALIENS DOWN-UNDER

There is a new search for extraterrestrial life now underway from
Australia.  Project Phoenix involves turning the 64-meter Parkes radio
telescope toward hundreds of stars in order to listen for the tell-tale
signals indicating a technological civilization.  The first star the team
of American scientists examined by recording 28 million frequencies at
once was Alpha Centauri.  The $4 million operating budget, all from
private donations, will fund the project until midyear, when the program
will move to the Northern Hemisphere.

CERES IN PRIME VIEW

The largest asteroid in the solar system, Ceres, reached opposition today.
In April, the 910-kilometer-wide minor planet will also reach the closest
point in its orbit around the Sun -- called perihelion.  These two closely
spaced events, when added to the asteroid's high declination puts Ceres at
its best for viewing.  To find the 7th-magnitude object as it makes its
way through northern Cancer, about 15 degrees away from Mars, consult the
chart on page 78 of the February SKY & TELESCOPE.

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   *------------------------------------------------------------*
   | Stuart Goldman         Internet: sgoldman@cfa.harvard.edu  |
   * Associate Editor                 mrastro@aol.com           *
   | Sky & Telescope                                            |
   * P. O. Box 9111           Sky & Telescope: The Essential    *
   | Belmont, MA  02178           Magazine of Astronomy         |
   *------------------------------------------------------------*