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Continued from previous message.
Being indoors, the device could not lock onto the GPS and magnetic
field. It sis play the builtin narrations and show its eyepiece
displays.
On Tuesday 5 December the Intrepid museum ship was moved from its
home at Pier 86, North River, to Bayonne, New Jersey, for a 2-year
overhaul. The ship, a WW II aircraft carrier, tried to move on
December 8th but was caught on mud and muck. After 4,000 trucks of the
stuff was dug out, six tugboats totaling 26,000 horsepower, slowly
hauled the ship to a Navy pier in Bayonne. There it stayed for a few
days until its repair yard was ready for it.
The Hubblelicious shows during December were well attended by
NYSkiers and National Space Society members. I went to the show at
Cosmic Cantina, near Union Square, Manhattan. Dave and india, the film
makers, screened clips from the cinema 'Saving Hubble', provided
refreshments and cheer. The film is due for release in summer of 2007.
There was a real glitch for the play 'Tesla' on Monday 11
December. NYC Events noted the curtain rise at 19:00, taken from
notices about the play. When my readers arrived, even a little early,
the play was already in progress! It started at 18:00 by a last minute
change of hour.
Please remember that events at the New York Academy of Sciences
convene at its new offices in 7 World Trade Center. The old home on 63
St and 5 Av was sold off. By good luck, if you go there by mistake,
it's a quick train ride to 7WTC.
Walk to 60 St and 5 Av. Enter 5 Av station, BMT 60 St line. Ride
the first downtown train, any route. If it is a local, ride it to City
Hall station. If it's an express, change to a local at Union Sq. From
City Hall walk south and west to 7WTC at Greenwich St and Vesey St.
The NYSkies Astronomy Seminar continues to attract an informed and
lively audience each session. On December 2nd it featured not one, not
two, but THREE speakers! I was already slated for a talk on the
sunshine effect at Ground Zero. Then, within a day or two of the
meeting, NYSkier Claudio Veliz returned from Kitt Peak to report on
his work there on cataclysmic variable stars! And, also a day or two
in advance, an astronomer visiting from Argentina inquired about the
Seminar. He, Dr Alfred Bennun, gave a brief introduction to his own
ideas about the cosmic background radiation and the Hubble expansion.
The Seminar on January 4th is 'Happy Perihelion Day' for NYSkies.
No special presentation, but a couple balloons and extra refreshments.
Come on down!
Sky News
------
Generally cloudy, yet mild and calm, weather hampered routine
stargazing in December. Most clearsky starviewings were cancelled.
The Pleiades occultation on December 3rd was clouded out. As
afternoon progressed, the sky grew hazier and hazier. An hour before
the occultations began, the Moon was smothered in haze, rapidly
thickening into cloud. The series of Moon crossings continues into
2007 but the City misses most of them.
There were scattered reports of aurora on December 14th and 15th
from our upstate districts. They noted that clouds interfered with the
viewing, which was mostly bright glows in the local northwest horizon.
In the City, there ws no definite aurora activity and the sky was
covered in thin cloud.
Clouds interdicted views of the planet convention in the morning
dawn in mid December. We caught glimpses of Mercury, Mars, and
Jupiter, sometimes one at a time. Mars was the hardest to spot due to
his dimness and low altitude in dawn.
January 3rd is Perihelion Day. Many astronomers want a
nonanthropic way to celebrate the new year, Some celebrate the winter
solstice, but that's but for us in the north a particularly 'happy'
occasion. So Perihelion Day is the favorite way to give cheers for the
new year. A few even send out happy Periehlion greeting cards!
Perihelion Day is also a way to have a party away from the
congestion party calendar of December. So, NYSkies on January 4th has
its 'Happy Perihelion' session.
We MAY have a bright comet in mid January. Comet McNaught 2006-P1
rounds perihelion on January 12th and COULD reach 2nd magnitude. Even
if it does, it'll be only 15 degrees north of the Sun in strong
evening twilight. It'll take some really clear sky, keen eyesight, and
lots of luck to spot it. I give the details under January 1st.
NYSkies
-----
Astronomers are exploiting NYSkies as a quick, handy, friendly, and
potent source of astronomy news relating to the City. And there is
LOTS of astronomy stuff going on around New York! Since it revived on
28 September 2001 (it was interrupted by World Trade Center) NYSkies
became the definitive forum and public record for matters bearing on
home astronomy in and around New York.
Joining NYSkies is easy. Send an empty email to this Yahoogroup
maillist at 'nysky-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'. Its posts are sent to
you in your email and you post to it by email. It's that simple!
Or you may go to 'groups.yahoo.com/group/nysky'. If you are already
signed up with Yahoo, you go and sign in and then 'join' NYSkies. If
not, you have to go thru a silly 'registration' that's a one shot
chore, valid for all groups you may eventually join. The files area of
NYSkies are accessible only thru the website.
Continued in next message.
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þ RoseReader 2.52á P005004
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