Amateur Astronomers

The authors of the 21 essays and stories in this anthology attempt to strip away the pseudo-scientific claptrap that clouds this potentially fascinating subject, and concentrate on the complex questions it encompasses. How common are stars with planets in the galaxy, and what conditions led to their formation? Is the development of life on a planet a freak occurence or is it the nearly inevitable result of certain physical and chemical conditions?

Unlike other places around the country, where clouds and rain obscured the view, the moon shone brightly--and disappeared right on schedule--over Southern California on Sunday night, treating sky-gazers to a spectacular lunar eclipse. "For me, it's a once-in-a-lifetime," said Bob Brown, 74, of Yorba Linda, among a dozen amateur astronomers gathered at a Santa Ana park to witness the event. Astronomers said Sunday's total eclipse about 10 p.m.

Grand Canyon National Park is one of the more interesting venues being touted as a view spot for the annular eclipse of the sun May 20. Ranger-assisted opportunities to view the eclipse will be provided on both rims. On the South Rim, NASA scientists and amateur astronomers will share their telescopes for views of the eclipse and of the night sky afterward. The Park Service says the largest concentration of telescopes will be behind the Grand Canyon Visitor Center on the South Rim, but telescopes will also be at Lipan Point, at the benches just west of the Desert View Watchtower and on the deck of the Watchtower itself.

Getting a glimpse of space is becoming easier for earthbound explorers, as new technologies revolutionize amateur stargazing in Ventura County. From new ways to photograph distant galaxies to point-and-click star-search devices for portable telescopes, sophisticated gadgets are enabling amateur astronomers to see heavenly happenings once beyond their reach.

Photographs of a giant storm on Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the storm has grown so much since it was discovered in September by amateur astronomers that it is several times larger than the Earth, scientists announced Tuesday. "It might just be the largest atmospheric structure right now in the solar system outside of the sun," said Andrew Ingersoll, a planetary scientist at Caltech. "The last time Saturn did anything of this magnitude was in 1933."

The fourth comet discovered by amateur astronomer Don Machholz may disintegrate this month, but he says he won't mind the disappearance of the dirty snowball he spotted with giant, homemade binoculars. "It's kind of a gift to find a comet. You're grateful," he said recently by telephone from his office in Santa Clara. "So if it's taken away, that's the way it goes." Comet Machholz 1988j "might sort of fizzle out" about the time it makes its closest approach to the sun on Sept.

Investigators of the Columbia disaster on Monday showed a nearly complete video of the space shuttle's flight from the California coastline to its breakup over East Texas, a mosaic assembled from about 15 clips shot by amateur astronomers early on the morning of Feb. 1.

A television repairman with stars in his eyes has found his fifth new comet. Howard Brewington first spotted the comet July 3 during the optimum 45-minute dark-sky viewing gap between the end of twilight and moonrise. By July 6 it was official: The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the international registry for comet discoveries at Harvard University, confirmed his find and named it "C/1996 N1 (Brewington)," or "Comet Brewington" for short.