========================================================================

  * * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - June 24, 2005 * * *

========================================================================

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!

========================================================================

THREE PLANETS BUNCH UP IN TWILIGHT

An unusual sight has lined itself up for skywatchers this week. Gaze low
toward the west-northwest in the deepening twilight, and three planets
will await your view. One is bright; two are much fainter. You can follow
them through their celestial gyrations as they shift position day by day.
If you've got binoculars, bring them along....


> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/article_1534_1.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

FOMALHAUT'S KUIPER BELT

Shining at 1st magnitude in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus,
Fomalhaut is the 18th brightest star in the night sky. At a distance of
only 25 light-years, this dazzling beacon is one of the best-studied stars
and the subject of numerous sci-fi stories. With that kind of background,
one might think that astronomers have learned everything they wanted to
know about Fomalhaut.

But when Paul G. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley) and two
colleagues pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at Fomalhaut last year, they
were in for a huge surprise. Hoping to detect the feeble glow of orbiting
planets, Kalas instead found a belt of cold dust orbiting far from the
star....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1533_1.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

PROSPECTING FOR MARTIAN ICE

Since it entered Martian orbit in December 2003, the European Space
Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has advanced humanity's knowledge of the
Red Planet through cutting-edge spectroscopy and beautiful imagery. In
recent months, the instrument-laden orbiter has detected evidence of
methane and formaldehyde in Mars's thin atmosphere, and it has even
captured ultraviolet emission from auroras.

But much more is to come....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1532_1.asp

========================================================================

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Last-quarter Moon on June 28.
* Jupiter (magnitude -2.0, in Virgo) glares high in the southwest during
evening -- the brightest "star" in the nighttime sky.
* We're getting a chance to spot Comet Tempel 1 in a dark sky again. The
comet is currently glowing at a dim magnitude 10.2 near Spica in the
early-evening sky. Use the finding chart in the June SKY & TELESCOPE, page
68, or the one online.

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

========================================================================

RELIVE THE MEMORIES (Advertisement)

Subscribe to the SKY & TELESCOPE archive and get immediate online access
to more than 8 years of SKY & TELESCOPE, SKYWATCH, and CCD ASTRONOMY
articles! A one-year subscription is just $19.95. SKY & TELESCOPE
subscribers receive 50 percent off the regular subscription price --
unlimited downloads for only $9.95.

Sign up now at: http://SkyandTelescope.com/magazinearchive

P.S. Use our FREE ONLINE INDEX to find articles in your own (or a
library's) collection of SKY & TELESCOPEs as far back as issue #1 in 1941:

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/magazinearchive/search/

========================================================================

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 &
TELESCOPE magazine. Widespread distribution is encouraged as long as our
(Continued to next message)

___
 þ OLXWin 1.00b þ Herman Hollerith is buried nine edge first, face down.

--- Maximus/2 3.01