AS&T September issue

[iceman (Mike)]

Got mine in the mail yesterday..

A nice issue, some good reading.. seems our friend Greg is starting to play more of a role, some more input and articles from Greg and I think the results are good.

There's an excellent Mars article, about viewing the red planet over the next 5 months. Some beautiful images in an article about the Spitzer space telescope, too.

Haven't read all the articles yet, but it seems like there's some interesting stuff.

Some good IceInSpace representation again, which is nice to see..

p 60/61 - comet images from John Drummond
p 65 - Mars images from Steve Massey (videoguy)
p 67 - Mercury image from Steve Massey (videoguy). Congrats on the great science from your Mercury images Steve.
p 72 - Brian's winning story from the competition (he won the 8" scope on EQ5 mount! Congrats)
p 73 - my runner up story
p 75 - Eddie's Tarantula (seen here first! ) Excellent images from the David Malin awards at the recent CWAS Astrofest.
p 92 - Excellent shot by Narayan (seeker), seen here too.
p 93 - Venus/Saturn/Mercury conjunction shot by Mick (seen here)

Congrats to all on getting your images published, well done!

[h0ughy (David)]

well done guys.

this time Mike you got yours before me!! I haven't got it yet?

[dhumpie]

Yup we Ice In Spacers are beginning to make our presence felt

Darren

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Excellent guys. Looking forward to mine arriving.

[ving (David)]

excellent work everyone
great seeing our guys getting published!

[Greg Bryant]

It never ceases to amaze me about the number of IceInSpace contributions that keep turning up in Australian Sky & Telescope. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be amazed - there's a nice cross-section of active amateurs within these forums.

Some brilliant efforts all-round.

Re: Mike's comments - yes, I had a few contributions in the September issue. . It was fun writing the "10th Planet" article *after* we had gone to the printers, and having to replace so many pages with newly edited and designed material. Full credit to the team I work with.

The 2003 UB313 story is still developing. I wrote in my article that the Spitzer Telescope, which observes in the infrared, was not able to detect the newly discovered object. That set an upper limit on how big the object was - for if it was any bigger, infrared radiation would have been detected.

Turns out that there was a (very rare) pointing error with Spitzer - they didn't even have it aimed at the right position! So, they're scheduling another attempt in coming weeks. If Spitzer detects 2003 UB313, then it will mean that the object is larger than 3,000 kilometres in diameter. Hubble observations are also scheduled shortly, which might provide a direct measurement of the size. Just how big? We may find out very soon.

[astroron (Ron)]

Greg thanksfor clearing up the reason why spitzer could not see it, I saw that report on a NASA web site I did not understand why it could not see it. Regards Ron

[beren]

Got a copy today , headed straight to the Mars write up and the observing sections The winning images in the David malin awards are stunning . The price on the 100ed goto refractor reviewed has me puzzeled though ......anyone notice in the Andrews add a little insert about a "new ED 93x600mm florite refractor -coming soon" hmmm

[iceman (Mike)]

Went to Brisbane yesterday for work, so had some time on the plane to read the magazine from cover to cover.

Generally a very nice issue, some very good reading, even if Greg wrote most of it It's an issue which appears to have very little US content, apart from Chuck Wood's moon article and maybe a few other small bits, so that makes it all the better too.

The spitzer pictures were awesome, and I enjoyed the article (+ pics) on the milky way. The mars observnig article is very good.

Stuart I agree about the Tasco 100ED price!? $2130 OTA only!? Painting it gold surely doesn't make it worth that much!

All in all, a nice issue.

I brought mine on Tuesday at the news agent in town.