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  * * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - May 13, 2005 * * *

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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full stories abridged
here, and other enhancements are on our Web site, SkyandTelescope.com, at
the URLs provided. (If the links don't work, just manually type the URLs
into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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AT LAST! SWIFT PINPOINTS A SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST

NASA's Swift Observatory, launched last November, was designed to detect
gamma-ray bursts billions of light-years away and to chase them down to
their points of origin in a matter of seconds. It's now doing exactly
that -- and on May 9th Swift scored a historic first. It recorded a
short burst lasting just 0.03 second and imaged a weak,
fast-fading
X-ray afterglow that revealed the event's location to within about 8
arcseconds accuracy. Never before has a mysterious short burst been
located so precisely. A closer look at its position with other telescopes
is giving hints of what short bursts may actually be....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1513_1.asp

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NEW HOPE FOR HUBBLE

NASA's new chief, Michael D. Griffin, has told the Hubble servicing team
to resume preparations for a possible shuttle flight to upgrade the
orbiting observatory. Although a decision on returning astronauts to
Hubble won't be made until after at least two successful shuttle missions
to the International Space Station, the telescope's prospects look better
now than at any time since Griffin's predecessor, Sean O'Keefe, abruptly
canceled Hubble servicing in January 2004 -- a decision that outraged
astronomers, key members of Congress, and the public....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1511_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* First-quarter Moon on Sunday night, May 15th.
* Jupiter and Saturn are both high up for evening observation.
* The asteroid Ceres is glimmering at 7th magnitude in Libra awaiting your
binoculars or telescope; use the finder chart in the May SKY & TELESCOPE,
page 56.
* Comet Tempel 1, which NASA's Deep Impact mission will blast with a
projectile on the evening of July 3rd, can be found at 10th magnitude this
week near Epsilon Virginis using the chart in the June SKY & TELESCOPE,
page 68.

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance

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Copyright 2005 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided
as a free service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY &
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