egic

The Newsletter of the h2g2 Astronomical Society

Established August 2000

Editorial

This is the first edition of egic, the newsletter of the H2G2 Astronomy Society. Hopefully this will be packed with useful and interesting articles that have been contributed by fellow AS members.

Well of course the start of this year was hampered by the great PANIC, when h2g2 was off the air for over a month, but thankfully the BBC now host h2g2 and we’re back. Unfortunately there are h2g2 researchers that haven’t made it back and others that are just returning. Welcome back everyone!

The h2g2as pages have been undergoing improvements, with new pages integrated and ordered to make the h2g2as a site rather then just a page. My thanks go to Professor Sarah Bellum and Xyroth for their contributions, which will soon be added, as well as to everyone who has visited the site. Last night I finally made the site alabaster compatible, so those users of the alabaster skin can read everything! I am sorry about the delay in completing this.

Here in Cheltenham, England the weather has been relatively good in the daytime, even plenty of blue sky. Of course that has rarely ever held on into the night, so nights that I have been able to observe have been limited. Despite the persistent clouds I did manage to glimpse the aurora show that occurred on Wednesday 11th of this month. Even though only a greenish tinge graced the northern horizon, I could tell that there was an impressive display going on somewhere. Some photographs of the aurora can be found on NASA’s space weather site.

Recently I have been fascinated by the motion of Jupiter across the heavens, the speed at which it tracks is clearly visible each day, and has made for an impressive set of sketches. Jupiter’s retrograde motion, caused as Earth passes Jupiter in its orbit, has made these observations especially rewarding. Jupiter is my first target as soon as it gets dark (and clear), with its moons that first captivated me, the rapid rotation of the cloud layers as well as the great red spot, which I have only once glimpsed through a friend’s 5-inch reflector. Not forgetting Europa, where I hope we will find a water ocean beneath its icy crust. The possibility of life existing there is extremely exciting, if it does then this would add huge weight to the possibility of life’s existence outside the solar system, having developed here on two separate worlds. Not that I am completely ruling out Mars for having life, something that the Beagle 2 Lander hopes to investigate, however it is possible that Martian life is the same as our own.

Good observing,
Nick Bailey

April h2g2as Page Index

1 - Front Page 2 - Night Sky3 - Book Review4 - Astronomy Notes

Issue 1, April 2001. h2g2as