	Sun	Moon
Rise	6:02	14:26		9.9d
Set	19:30	03:59	75.4%

February 2010

Programs
Articles

February 5: Monthly Meeting

Astronomy & Technology: Partners in Discovery

This month’s speaker will be Alan Hirshfeld. He is Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an Associate of the Harvard College Observatory. Prof. Hirshfeld’s topic will be: Astronomy & Technology: Partners in Discovery From the first night Galileo turned his telescope skyward, technology has fostered astronomical discovery. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, advances in telescope design and the improvement of photography and spectroscopy helped propel astronomy into the modern age. Today, gigantic telescopes are outfitted with shape-shifting reflectors, ultra-sensitive light detectors, fast computers, and powerful lasers to extract from these instruments every possible degree of optical performance. Even more advanced telescopes are on the drawing board.

Beta Orionis (Rigel)

February 2010 : By Glenn Chaple

You won’t need a finder chart to locate this month’s featured sky object. It’s the first magnitude star β Orionis, better known by its proper name Rigel. Seventh brightest star in the night sky, Rigel dazzles us with a diamond-white color; especially striking when compared with Orion’s other first-magnitude star, the ruddy-hued Betelgeuse.

The Return of Mars

February 2010 : By Dave Huestis

It’s been two years since I’ve written about our planetary neighbor Mars. Why? As it is with most things astronomical, events in our solar system occur in a cyclic manner. Earth and Mars have a close encounter every 26 months. During the last few months the Earth has been catching up to Mars in our respective orbits. Back on January 27 these two planets approached each other to within 61,721,726 miles at their closest. That distance is still quite large, considering back on August 27, 2003, the Earth and Mars were only 34,646,418 miles apart. Unfortunately not all Mars close encounters are favorable ones. That fact is due to the eccentricity of Mars’ elliptical orbit and its distance from the Sun.

Sky Data