News, Friday, 16 June 2006 Surprise! John Gregory Visits SPOC Famed optician John Gregory (inventor of the Gregory-Maksutov optical design) was in Salt Lake yesterday on business and contacted the club about visiting SPOC. Unfortunately only a few SLAS members could be contacted on such short notice and even fewer could attend. But those that did reported Mr. Gregory was an fascinating guest and that they'd all had a great time. Pictures of the visit are temporarily at the following URL but have been submitted to the SLAS web site for possible permanent inclusion there. http://utahastro.info/temp/JOHNGREGORYATSPOC.HTML +++++ SPOC Update After weeks of waiting the cast bronze sign for SPOC's Refractor House finally arrived earlier this week and was mounted last night. See images 9 through 13 at: http://www.trilobyte.net/paw/slas/REFRACTORHOUSE05.HTML +++++ New Horizons Tracks an Asteroid It's a small object with big news for the New Horizons team: the first spacecraft to Pluto tested its tracking and imaging capabilities this week on asteroid 2002 JF56. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/061506.htm +++++ NASA Astronomical Observatory Passes Hurdle The world's largest airborne astronomical observatory has passed a technical and programmatic review that could potentially lead to the continuation of the mission. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jun/HQ_06240_SOFIA_update.html +++++ Three new "Trojan" asteroids found sharing Neptune's orbit Washington, DC - Three new objects locked into roughly the same orbit as Neptune - called "Trojan" asteroids - have been found by researchers... http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/neptune_trojans/default.html +++++ Columbus delivered to KSC Listen to the podcast at: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESApod/SEMKC5AATME_0.html +++++ European Space Parliamentarians meet in Brussels Parliamentarians from 10 European countries met earlier this week in Brussels at the 8th European Interparliamentary Space Conference to discuss European space policy. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMLHCAATME_index_0.html +++++ ************************************************** ************************************************** Images and Data From Cassini-Huygens At: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/latest/index.cfm http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-releases.cfm +++++ Information On The Mars Rovers At: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html +++++ SLAS 2006 Star Party Schedule http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/LOCAL.HTML +++++ SSA / UMNH 2006 Southern Utah Public Star Party Schedule http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/STARPARTIES.HTML +++++ ************************************************** News is being sent to you because of your affiliation with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society or because you asked to be subscribed. To unsubscribe please send your request to paw at wirelessbeehive dot com. Check out my NASA Solar System Ambassador web site at: http://www.umnh.utah.edu/utahsky and mirrored at http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/ For astronomy clubs in Utah see: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/UTAHCLUBS.HTML For the Utah Astronomy Listserve see: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy ************************************************** -- Patrick Wiggins NASA Solar System Ambassador to Utah & NE Nevada paw at wirelessbeehive dot com http://www.umnh.utah.edu/utahsky http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/ 435.882.1209 801.918.9092