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  * * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - May 20, 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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NASA BUDGET CRISIS THREATENS SPACE TELESCOPES

Astronomers are riding an emotional roller coaster. Last month they were
elated when NASA's new administrator, Michael D. Griffin, restarted work
on a possible shuttle mission to extend the life of the Hubble Space
Telescope. This month they're in despair over news that future
space-astronomy missions may be downsized, delayed, or cancelled because
of a financial crisis within the agency.

In a recent letter to Congress, Griffin noted that NASA's budget for the
current year falls about $2 billion short of what's needed to keep all
current programs on track....

By far the worst problem for astronomers concerns the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST), a 6.5-meter (256-inch) infrared observatory sometimes
called Hubble's successor. Like Hubble, it's a joint project of NASA and
the European Space Agency. Various hurdles seem destined to delay its
launch by at least a year, to no earlier than 2012, and threaten to
increase the mission's cost by as much as $1 billion to a total of $3
billion or more. In response, NASA has asked the project to consider
whether a 4-meter telescope with fewer scientific instruments could be
flown instead....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1516_1.asp

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AMERICA'S YOUNG ASTRONOMERS RECOGNIZED

The Astronomical League recently announced the winners of its 2005
National Young Astronomer Award (NYAA). Established in 1993, this annual
award recognizes outstanding astronomy achievements by US high-school
students. This year's top winner is Christopher Limbach, a senior at
Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1514_1.asp

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ANOTHER MOON FOR SATURN

On May 1st Cassini chalked up a new Saturnian moon, its 7th discovery
since the spacecraft slipped into orbit around the ringed planet on July
1, 2004. This tiny moon, provisionally named S/2005 S1, is a world just 7
kilometers (4 miles) across. It orbits within the Keeler Gap in Saturn's
outer A ring....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1515_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Full Moon on Monday, May 23rd.
* Early Tuesday morning, North American telescope users can watch the full
Moon occult (cover) the 1st-magnitude star Antares. Times are in the May
SKY & TELESCOPE, page 57.
* Jupiter (magnitude -2.3, in Virgo) glares high in the south to southwest
during evening -- the brightest "star" in the sky.

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

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> http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=415

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Still not sure what to get? A Sky Publishing Gift Certificate is always
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