A superb equatorial mount with many

exciting new features that will make precision observation and imaging easier and much more

productive for many amateur astronomers, educational and

scientific organizations.

EQ-8

July 2013 * Volume 337

Great Melbourne Telescope ...2Harry on the Sun ....................2 June sky ................................3Mick ‘n Don ............................4

subscribe to NIGHT SKYReceive your copy every month free by email. ask mike@bintel.com.au for your copy! ORsend $20 for a year’s subscription and have it posted.

www.binte l .com.au

AURORA AUSTRALIS

*

Almost un-noticed in all the political shennanigans recently was the launch and subsequent recovery of three Chinese as-tronauts. Their Long March rocket lifted off in a textbook launch and the three, including a woman astronaut, spent time ensuring that the small Chinese space station to which they jour-neyed, was in good condition.It’s true that they are going over ground that the Russians and Americans have plowed twenty years ago- but still impressive none the less.

A family recently walked into our store with some children, one of whom had a really in-teresting book on astronomy aimed at young children.I must admit that this is an area we’ve neglected. Do you have any favourite childrens’ books on astronomy that you think we ought to carry? Please let me know. Maybe a book for children in the Southern Hemi-sphere would be a good idea.... Any authors out there who might write it?

First reports we’re getting back from customers about the Sky-watcher EQ-8 are very positive. Problem is that there have been very few nights clear enough and rain or dew-free enough for people to give ‘em a thorough test.

After his rampage across Af-rica in the interests of astrono-my, we hear that Professor Fred Watson is intending to take on Greenland in a reverse Viking raid. The object is not the usual gold, silver or young maidens- but the observation of the au-rora borealis. Sounds interest-ing. Greenland is not your usual destination for tourism.

Ever wanted to own a piece of the Moon? Or Mars? Here’s your chance. See Page 4 for your chance to get your hands on a piece (albeit very small!)Genuine offer, no snake-oil. They’re real, folks. Trust me!

* * *

* * *

* * *

AURORA AUSTRALIS, THE MILKY WAY AND THE MAGELLANIC GALAXIES ON SHOW.

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CHINESE ASTRONAUTSREACH HEAVENLY PALACE

The image above, taken by Colin Legg at Contos Beach, Western Australia on the 17th March shows the dramatic beauty of the Aurora Australis above the southern horizon. On the left is the southern Milky Way with the Point-ers and, just disappearing at the top- the Coalsack and the Southern Cross. This part of the sky is often referred to in Aboriginal legends as The Emu.In the middle of the field are the striking Magellanic Galexies. They’re two small galaxies that have been captured bt the giant Milky Way galaxy.

Three Chinese astronauts, two men and a woman, on the country’s fifth and longest manned space mission successfully docked their Shenzhou-10 spacecraft in mid-June with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space laboratory.The Shenzhou (Divine Craft) successfully completed a manual docking procedure with the orbiting space module according to the Beijing Aero-space Control Centre. The spacecraft, which was launched on June 11 and docked on the 13th is likely to return to Earth at the end June.

Below the Magellanic Galaxies and above the horizon are the reddish streaks of the Aurora Australis. These ghostly, curtain-like apparitions are caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms high in the Earth’s atmosphere. The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and are directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmo-sphere. They are mostly visible around late March and September, though can occur at other times when the Sun is particularly active.

Winners are Grinners !

We were offered a pair of tickets for free entry to the Science Centre and Planetarium at Fairymeadow near Wollongong.We offered them to the person who could tell us - in less than twenty five words- why they should win.Well, we’ve chosen the winner- Irene Waring- for the following pithy ditty.“If we could win two free passesIt would get us off our assesTo see the Fairymeadow Science Centre, And understand astronomy better.”Well done Irene, the passes are in the mail!What shall we give away next?How about a piece of the Moon or maybe a fragment of Mars?

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available at the shop and at all good Astronomy clubs,

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Mike

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Tele Vue Saleour end-of-year Delos eyepiece sale!

Tele Vue Delos eyepieces72 degree field of view 20mm eye-relief

If you’ve been keeping a spot in your case for an affordable,

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10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17.3mm

$389.00$329.00save $60

Telescopes with an aperture of 150mm or more should be able to pick out many as hazy patches.Virgo is also home to the brightest quasar (quasi-stellar object), 3C 273. Optically it appears as a magnitude 13, blue star and is unrelated to the Virgo Cluster. It is be-lieved to be about 3,000 million light years away.Alpha Virginis or Spica is the brightest star in the con-stellation at magnitude 1.0. Optically it is a blue-white star, but spectroscopically it is a binary. The companion star tidally distorts Spica causing it to vary over a period of four days, but only by magnitude 0.1. Spica is about 262 light years away.Gamma Virginis or Porrima is a well-known double star. To the eye they appear as one at magnitude 2.7, but a small telescope will reveal a pair of white stars, each at magnitude 3.5. They orbit each other every 169 years and in 2005 will be at their closest. During this time a 250mm aperture telescope or greater will be needed to split the pair. By 2010 an aperture of 100mm should split the pair and by 2012 an aperture of 60mm should be ad-equate. The pair lie about 39 light years from us.M49 or NGC 4472 is one of the largest and brightest members of the Virgo Cluster. It is a magnitude 8, el-liptical galaxy that is visible in a 75mm telescope as a round hazy patch. M104 or NGC 4594 is an edge-on spiral galaxy that is a favourite with amateur observers. This galaxy is also known as the Sombrero, due to its resemblance to a som-brero hat in long exposure photographs. It has a bright nucleus and the dark dust lanes of the spiral arms re-semble the planet Saturn. At magnitude 8, it is within the range of 150mm aperture telescopes. The Sombrero is not a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies as it lies closer to us, only about 35 million light years away.M87 or NGC 4486 is a well-known giant elliptical gal-axy in the Virgo Cluster. It is a strong X-ray source as well as a strong radio source known as Virgo A. Recent images of M87 have shown a jet of material streaming out of the core of the galaxy leading to speculation of the presence of a black hole. At magnitude 9, M87 appears as a round glow, with a noticeable nucleus in medium aperture telescopes. M58 or NGC 4579 is a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. It has a noticeably brighter core is within the reach of medium aperture telescopes.M84 or NGC 4374 and M86 or NGC 4406 are both el-liptical galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. They can both be seen in the same telescopic field, with M86 the larger of the two. M86 is also noticeably elongated, while M84 is round. Both are magnitude 9 and appear as hazy patches with brighter cores.Winter provides dark, cool skies and some of the best regions for observing deep sky objects. Test your eyesight this winter with a few galaxies in Vir-go.. Remember to rug up and keep warm! Mel

The second largest constellation in the sky is also a prominent member of the winter skies. The largest of the zodiac constellations, Virgo is steeped in mythological history. Descriptions of the constellation can be found as far back as Assyro-Babylonian culture, with the Baby-lonians seeing the constellation linked with Ishtar, also known as Ashtoreth or Astarte. One myth about Ishtar tells of her descent into the underworld to recover her dead lover Tammuz, the harvest god. She became im-prisoned there and in her desolation brought blight upon the world. A similar story is told in Greek and Roman mythologies. Virgo was even associated with the Egyp-tian goddess Isis and Spica, the constellation’s brightest star, was the sheaf of corn dropped by Isis as she fled a monster. Virgo has also been associated with the corn goddess Demeter and as the goddess of justice, the scales of justice being the neighbouring constellation Libra.Whatever the mythology, Virgo is still representative of a young woman, sometimes depicted with wings.Virgo is a very rich constellation for the observer, con-taining a host of fascinating objects. The nearest major cluster of galaxies to us is contained in Virgo (and cross-es into Coma Berenices). The Virgo Cluster has about 3,000 member galaxies and is approximately 55 million light years away.

Harry Roberts is disappointed...

“Even for the shortest of Mars mis-sions, we are perilously close to the radiation career and health limits that we’ve established for our astro-nauts,” said NASA’s chief medical officer Richard Williams.An astronaut living for six months on the International Space Station receives a dosage of about 100 mil-lisieverts, equivalent to ten medi-cal x-rays and a trip to Mars would equal 80 to 100 medical X-rays.More precise information from Cu-riosity about how much and what type of radiation is due shortly.

Radiation lev-els measured by NASA’s Mars Cu-riosity rover show that any astronauts who make it to Mars will prob-ably exceed safe levels of radiation exposure. Curios-ity landed spec-tacularly after an amazing descent sequence to search for habitats that could have supported past microbial life.Results taken during Curiosity’s eight-month cruise to Mars indicate that astronauts would receive a radi-ation dose of about 660 millisieverts during a 360-day roundtrip flight, the fastest travel possible with to-day’s chemical rockets. That dosage does not include any time spent on the planet’s surface. NASA limits astronauts’ increased cancer risk to 3 percent, which translates to a ra-diation dose of 1000 millisieverts.

July 2013 * Volume 337 * Page 2

LEAD PANTS NEEDED ON MARS, IT WOULD SEEM.

New dipole emergence: This is a case of a new dipole erupting beneath an existing spot - and the crescent-shaped mass of spots ‘sprouting’ on the western edge of the ‘old’ alpha spot were (according to Mt Wilson) all of red polarity (Fig 1). Red is the normal preceding (p) polarity for current southern spots – so why did the ‘old’ spot have the opposite (i.e. following, or violet) polarity – un-less it had stated life as a ‘reversed’ alpha spot? A curious situation!In addition, as the swarm of (p) po-larities were arising west of the old spot, a small patch of ‘like’ (i.e. vio-let or following) polarity emerged some degrees south of the ‘old’ spot; the other half of the new dipole, it seems (block arrows in Fig1). These faint violet spots were a short-lived feature and gone two days later.By June 19th AR11775 was much changed (Fig 2), but still showed the ‘delta’ signature, with spots of op-posite ‘sign’ within a single large penumbra. Flaring: despite being Delta class, flaring in AR11775 was virtually nil! While all signs predicted ex-treme activity, the group hosted just a few minor flares, all < GOES C1.3: a disappointing performance! Another Reversed Spot. Curiously, as AR11775 crossed the Sun’s cen-tral meridian, another large alpha spot appeared at the SE limb, also with reversed polarity (violet 22)! This was to be AR11777, a single large spot (McIntosh Hsx), presum-ably identical to the precursor spot of our delta group. Why did the Sun’s southern hemisphere produce a second reversed alpha spot so close to AR11775?Declining sunspot fields: recent data show that sunspot umbral fields con-tinue to weaken, as NSO researchers formally announced in 2011. The continuing decline is clear in the optical (i.e. white light) and is be-ing logged at KPNO in the infra-red and other channels. It seems this ef-fect is impacting sunspot sizes, and all other H-alpha phenomena - fila-ments and prominences are getting smaller and fainter. It seems that flaring too is much diminished. It is possible that the Hale-Nicholson force, which shapes sunspots into regular arrangements, may also be weakening – perhaps we may see some more irregular sunspot con-figurations. Time will tell. Harry

While not logged next day (cloud), on the 17th (21:48 UT) it was clear that the group was now a large and m a g n e t i c a l l y complex entity, a delta class, it seemed. SDO continuum im-ages (~ to white light) showed that the group had started as a simple large al-pha class spot, but around June 16 at 00:00UT a chain of new spots began to emerge on the preceding (p) side of the big round spot, and by June 17th 21:48 UT the emerging spots had grown larger than the original spot (Fig 1).

In Hale’s Mt Wilson Clas-sification of Sunspots, the most ac-tive class is class Delta; sunspots hosting the strongest flares. “The Delta configuration, the most active...was first defined by Kun-zel (1960) as two or more umbrae of opposite magnetic polarity in a single penumbra” (Zirin, H. “Astro-physics of the Sun”, pages 316-317, 335). Delta class spots most often form by the collision of two emerg-ing dipoles, when spots of opposite ‘sign’ are ‘forced into contact’.The writer first saw AR11775 on the morning of June 16 (June 15, 21:58 UT) when it looked to be a large single round ‘alpha’ class spot, just 14o in from the Sun’s southeastern limb and sited at –26,223 (i.e. south 26o, longitude 223o). This was a rather ‘high’ latitude for a current southern spot to appear.

Mel has a look at Virgo.If you want galaxies... this is where they’re at.

sale ends Aug 31

The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

Saturn High in the North in Virgo when the

Sun sets. The Moon approaches on the 16th and passes by on the 17th.

Neptune: Also appears to be in retrograde

motion in Aquarius in the Eastern sky.

U r a n u s : i n P i s c e s a n d m o v e s a l m o s t impercep tab ly in to

retrograde motion for most of the rest of the year.

7th Moon at Apogee

8th New Moon

16th First Quarter

22nd Moon at Perigee

23rd Full Moon

30th Last Quarter

Pluto: has retreated to his kennel for fear of the

roaming gangs of feral politicians rumoured to be press-ganging ‘recruits’ for a bit of branch-stacking preselection....... whatever that is.

Perseid Meteors: This shower is visible from mid-July to mid-August. During this peak, the rate of meteors can be up to sixty or so per hour. These meteors are dusty remnants of the comet Swift-Tuttle that has left a trail of debris in a path around the solar system. Each year the Earth passes through this trail and collides with many small pieces- ranging from grains of sand to golf-ball size stones.The Perseids are best seen in the pre-dawn sky, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, as Perseus is more of a northern than southern constellation.

If you can see Saturn and the star Spica below it, head further down towards the horizon. Use binoculars (preferably when there’s not too much Moon). You might be able to make out a number of faint ‘unfocussed stars’. These are the galaxies in the Virgo super-cluster. A large telescope will offer a better view and cameras will show increasing numbers and details on the galaxies that spill from Virgo across into Coma Berenices. Quite something!

July 2013 * Volume 337 * Page 3

You can shop on-line at www.bintel.com.au for your astronomical needs.

Mercury: slips back down into the western sky at twilight and moves to conjunction before

reappearing in the dawn sky later in

Mars In the morning sky in

Taurus. before moving into Gemini to be with Jupiter and Mercury.

Venus: Brightest thing in the western sky. Near the Behive Cluster early

and then moves into Leo. and hangs around Regulus, the brightest star in

that constellation.

Jupiter In the morning sky in Taurus. before moving into Gemini to

be with Jupiter and Mercury.

Early evening sky July 2013

Saturn

When NASA launched Lunar Pros-pector in 1998 the ashes of Gene Shoemaker were carried along on the mission. He therefore became the first person to be interred on the Moon. Shoemaker was a geologist and astronomer who trained the Apollo astronauts in geology. He and his wife Caroline discovered about 20 comets and 800 asteroids. He longed to be an astronaut, but was unable for medical reasons.

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us

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eboo

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The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 84 Wentworth Park Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: 02 9518 7255 The Binocular and Telescope Shop, 519 Burke Road, Camberwell Vic 3124. Tel: 03 9822 0033

HOLIDAYASTRONOMY

What are the astronomers saying?How would you caption this cartoon?Funny... silly... thoughtful... amusing... pithy...Send us your best ‘one-liner’ in an email to :mike@bintel.com.auBest entry, as chosen by Professor Nervo Shatterini will win a presentation card with a tiny amount of genuine Moon dust and Mars dust embedded under a clear cover. The Moon dust is from the NWA6355 meteorite found in the Moroccan Desert . The Mars dust is from the Zagami meteoritethat was seen tocrash to Earth onOctober 3 in 1962in a farmer’s field in Nigeria, scaring him and his cattle! This is genuine, Mars and Moon dust , authenticated by Steve Arnold, star of the TV series, “Meteorite Men”.

What’s your caption?

(1) Where does Deep Space be-gin?(2) How long is a Chandler Wob-ble?(3) Which celestial event presaged the annual flooding of the Nile?(4) What do we call a year whose last two digits are evenly divisible by 4?(5) Which moon will collide with its planet?(6) What is a Cocoon Star?(7) What’s another name for The Great Looped Nebula?(8) Who first recognized evidence of an atmosphere around Venus?(9) What is ‘nulling interferom-etry’ commonly used for?(10) Who discovered the first pul-sar and who got the Nobel Prize for it?(11) Name a co-rotational moon that’s not our Moon.(12) What is odd about the star b Lib in Libra?(13) What is a magnetar?(14) What is a Plutino?(15) What is the temperature at the Moon’s poles?(16) How can we detect normal meteors in the daytime?(17) In which constellation is the “double double” star detected by William Herschel in 1779.(18) Which Oz group performed a song named after themselves in 1966?(19) What percentage of the Earth is covered by water?(20) A Great Year is how long?

(1) Beyond Mars’ orbit.(2) Between 416 and 433 days.(3) The heliacal rising fo Sirius.(4) A Leap Year.(5) Phobos will collide with Mars.(6) A star shrouded by a blanket of gas and dust.(7) The Tarantula Nebula.(8) Mikhail Lomonosov in 1761.(9) Searching for new planets.(10) Jocelyn Burnett Bell... and Anthony Hewish(11) Charon.(12) Many observers say that it’s green in colour.(13) A neutron star with an enor-mously strong magnetic field.(14) An object in the Kuiper Belt controlled by the 3:2 resonance with Neptune.(15) A constant -96˚C.(16) By radar and redio-echo tech-niques.(17) It’s e Lyr in Lyra.(18) The Loved Ones performed “The Loved One”. (19) Almost 71%.(20) It’s 25,800 normal years.

Children’s Holiday Science Workshops Monday 8/7/13 - Wizard Science... Float a paperclip, create a magic balloon pig, watch a sultana dance and more. This workshop looks at the science behind magic tricks! Suitable for 6 - 10 year olds.Tuesday 9/7/13 - Science Friction... Ready, set, go! Which team will win the marble race? What type of road surface is best to drive on? Experiment with friction and traction in this workshop. Suitable for 6 - 10 year olds.

Wednesday 10/7/13- Worms & Creepy Critters... What crea-tures are lurking at the bottom of your garden? How is compost made? Create a real worm farm and invent a wacky insect to take home. Suitable for 6 - 10 year olds.Thursday 11/7/13 - Crystals & Ice Cream... Learn how crystals evolve in nature, make ice cream and watch crystals form before your eyes! 8 - 12 year olds.Friday 12/7/13 - Kitchen Chemistry... In this workshop we try some cool experiments using items found in everyone’s kitchen. Suitable for 8 - 12 year olds.Please let us know of any allergies at the time of booking.Phone the Science Centre on (02) 4286 5000 for tickets or more information.

WhySTELLAR SEAT ?* Folds flat* Height adjustable, padded seat.* Made in Japan.* Solid steel construction.* Folding footrest.* Rubber feet.* Strong powder coat paint.* By far the best available.

Only at BINTEL $179

His Eminence Professor Dr Ner-vo Shatterini, not unused to the machinations of political intrigues asks that we put aside thoughts of revenge, rampage and retaliation: Take up the pen and book- and an-swer the following questions:

July

July 2013 * Volume 337 * Page 4

Macarthur Astronomical Society Inc: NSW ☎ 0427 634 004 Chris Malikoff www.macastro.org.auSutherland Astronomical Society Inc: NSW☎ (02)9832 4082 Brett McMillan.www.sasi.net.auNorthern Sydney Astronomical Society Inc: ☎ Bob Fuller 0423 971374 www.nsas.org.auSydney City Skywatchers (BAA) (NSW) ☎ 9398 9705 www.sydneycityskywatchers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of NSW. ☎ 0428 965 249 John O’Brien www.asnsw.comThe Western Sydney Amateur Astro Group Inc ☎ Gerry Aarts 0416 292 020 www.wsaag.orgSydney Northwest Astronomical Society☎ (02) 9634 1736 Ken Petersen The Wollongong Astronomy Club. NSW☎ (02) 4261 9369 Paul BrownThe Illawarra Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4276 3199 Peter McKinnonwww.illawarraastronomicalsociety.hostoi.com Shoalhaven Astronomers: South Coast NSW ☎ (02) 4423 2255 Jack Apfelbaumwww.shoalhavenastronomers.asn.auThe Astronomical Society of the Hunter: NSW (02) 4937 4664 Col Maybury colmay@kooee.com.auNewcastle Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 4950 0725 Allan Meehan www.nas.org.auCoffs Harbour Astronomical Society: NSW ☎ (02) 6653 2742 Win Howard Coonabarabran Astronomical Society, NSW☎ secretary@coona-astro.org.au Central West Astronomical Society, NSWJohn Sarkissian: john.sarkissian@csiro.au. Port Macquarie Astronomical Association NSW☎ 0403 683 394 Rodney Neasbey www.pmobs.org.auGrafton Astronomical Society, NSW☎ (02) 6646 2195 Mick Austin, President Pro tem.Bombala Astronomy Group, NSWUNE & Northern Tablelands Astronomical Society ☎ 0438 518 483 Michael WilliamsClarence Valley Astronomical Society☎ (02) 6643 3288 Steve FletcherBallaarat Astronomical Society: Vic ☎ (03) 5332 7526 bas@cbl.com.au http://observatory.ballarat.netBendigo District Astronomical SocietyPO Box 164 Bendigo Vic 3552 . Kate McMillanAstronomical Society of Victoria Inc ☎ (03) 9888 7130. Linda Mockridge www.asv.org.au Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society Vic☎ (03) 5122 3014 home.vicnet.net.au/~lvas Astronomical Society of Geelong, Vic☎ 0407 345 070 Frank Baker for details.http://vicnet.net.au~asogMornington Peninsula Astronomical Society, ☎ 0419 253 252 Peter Skilton for details.http://www.mpas.asn.au Astronomy Benalla 03 5762 1523 Rupe Cheethamwww.astronomybenalla.org.auAstronomical Society of Albury-Wodonga☎Petra De Ruyter 0431 535 417 www.asaw.org.au Mount Burnett Observatory. mtburnettobservatory.org ☎ 0419 516 560 Ray Schmidt. Snake Valley Astronomical Association (Vic)☎ 0418 425 207 Me Ken James.Canberra Astronomical Society: ACT☎ (02)6248 0552 J. Howard www.mso.anu.edu.au/casBrisbane Astronomical Society: Qld ☎ (07) 3321 8511 Darryl Mitchellwww.bas.asn.auSouthern Astronomical Society:Qld☎ 0421 866 376 Joe Zerafa. www.sas.org.auAstronomical Association of Queensland, Qld☎ Peter Hall (07) 3378 1173 www.aaq.org.auSouth East Queensland Astronomical Society, ☎ (07) 3239 0032. www.seqas.orgIngham Amateur Astronomers Club☎ (07) 4776 5773 Tracey Castles.Bundaberg Astronomical Soc. Qld☎ (0468857309) Lonnie Smilas www.alloway-observatory-bundaberg.webs.com/Redlands Astronomical Society Qld☎ (07) 3207 2818 Chris Tacke www.ras.org.auAstronomical Society of South Australia, SA ☎ (08) 8338 1231 Tony Beresford. www.assa.org.auAstronomical Society of Tasmania, Tas ☎ 0419 305 722 Bob Coghlan. www.ast.n3.netAstronomical Society of Alice Springs N.T. ☎ (08) 8953 1903 Richard Williamsonrichard@comspec.com.auDarwin Astronomy Group NT☎ (0420 238 663 Matt Bartonwww.darwinastronomy.comGove Amateur Astronomers, NT ☎ 0417 601 490 Ian Maclean for information.Astronomical Society of Western Australia, WAhttp://www.aswa.info ☎ (08) 9364 9603Astronomical Society of The South-West, W.A. ☎ (08) 9721 1586 Phil Smith.Astronomical Group of West Australia, ☎ (08) 9249 6825 Keith Williams BTOW.Stargazers Club of WA ☎ 0427 554 035 Carol www.stargazersclubwa.com.au

Night Sky is published monthly by The Binocular and Telescope Shop Pty Ltd

84 Wentworth Park Rd, Glebe 2037Tel: (02) 9518 7255 Fax: (02) 9518 5711

Any errors, mis-spellings, dropped apostrophes and lost words are the fault of Mike Smith. Whinges or comments should be send to-

mike@bintel.com.auPrinted in a small back lane at Artarmon

by Master Printing.This newsletter is available at The Binocular

and Telescope Shop and at many astronomical society meetings and astronomy

centres around Australia.

Night Sky is available free by email or in print by sending $20 to Bintel.Ask mike@bintel.com.au to be on the mailing

list for the NIGHT SKY.

Hey Don,what d’yer

think of all the goings-

on in Canberra?

Mick, not much.They’re like a bunch of schoolgirls havin’ a spat

in the schoolyard-

Yair, the word ‘dignity’ is

spread a bit thin amongst that lot.

Why don’t politicians have to study and get some sort of diploma in

‘Practical Nation Building’ or something?

I think a lot of them have a ver y n ice ‘School Attendance

Certificate’ on the wall next to their ‘Social S t u d i e s ’ o r ‘Woodworking” documents.

Sydney Observatory

ROCKET MAN: TWILIGHT PLANETARIUM SESSION Thursday – Saturday, 5pm – 6pmEnjoy Rocket Man, a short history of space flight to Elton John’s music in our new plan-etarium.NIGHT TELESCOPE TOURSEvery night, 6.15pm and 8.15pm (Note: no 6.15pm sessions on 5 and 12 July)On a clear winter night through our telescopes, you may see Saturn, Alpha Centauri (our next door neighbour), the constellation Scorpius and many other celestial features.RINGS OF SATURN PIZZA NIGHTSTuesday 2 and 9 July, 6pm – 8pmBring your family along to experience 3-D ad-ventures and telescope viewing, plus tasty pizza and a Milky Way dessertFANTASY SPACE CRAFTTuesday and Friday, 10am – 1pmMake a model of Saturn or alien face mask in a craft activity using recycled materials.IT’S ABOUT TIME!Monday – Friday, 11.40am and 12.40pmEnjoy a volunteer led highlight tour through the Observatory to see its key timepieces and learn about time keeping with the stars.SHARED SKYWed 3 and Mon 8 July, 3pm – 5pmMake your own planisphere (star map) and learn about the oldest star watchers on the plan-et, the Indigenous people of Australia.NEW DIGITAL PLANETARIUM Experience the new out-of-this-world planetar-ium, with different shows throughout the day.Sessions 40 min duration.3-D SPACE THEATRE AND TELESCOPE TOUR Explore our vast universe in amazing 3-D. All sessions include a tour to the telescope domes.11:00am Elysium 7: Voyage to Mars and Big-ger than Big 3-D movies12noon Extreme Places and Bigger than Big2:30pm Space Detective and Bigger than Big3:30pm Mars and Bigger than Big.

Science CentreWollongong