Volume XX  No. 8	April 2009




   What's Inside…



   Stewart's Skybox Pg 4


   General Meeting Pg 7


   PowerPoint Class Pg 7


   Contacts Pg 8


   Theater in the Sky Pg 9


   Note: Use bookmark panel in Adobe Reader.


   PARTIAL ISSUE




























   EMAIL CONTACTS

   presi-dent@asterism.org President of AAI

   editor@asterism.org Editor of The Aster-ism Ray Shapp, Editor Deadline
   for submissions to each month's newsletter is the first Friday of that
   month.

   member-ship@asterism.org AAI Membership Chair

   trustees@asterism.org All three Trustees of AAI

   ray@asterism.org Ray Shapp for the website

   exec@asterism.org Executive Committee plus Trustees

   QOs@asterism.org All Qualified Observers

   Info@asterism.org AAI president, corresponding secretary, and computer
   services chair

   research@asterism.org Research Committee

   technical@asterism.org Technical Committee


   MEMBERSHIP DUES

   Regular Membership:	$21 Sustaining Member-ship:	$31 Sponsoring Member-
   ship:	$46 Family Membership:	  $5 First Time Ap-plication Fee:	$3

   Sky & Telescope: 	               $32.95 Astronomy subscription:	$34

   (Subscription renewals to S&T can be done directly. See "Membrship-Dues"
   on website for details.)

   AAI Dues can be paid in person to Membership Chair or Treasurer, or by
   mail to:  AAI, PO Box 111, Garwood, NJ 07027-0111




   DOME DUTY

   April 24	Team A May 1	Team B May 8	Team C May 15	Team D

   FRIDAYS AT SPERRY

   April 24, 2009 "Ask Dr. Lew"   Karl Hunting / Dr. Lew Thomas

   May 1, 2009 "What's Up? A Down to Earth Sky Guide"   Kathy Vaccari

   May 8, 2009 "New Horizons Mission to Pluto - An Overview   Helder
   Jacinto

   May 22, 2009 "Shedding Light on Dark Energy"   Jim Stekas

   All schedules above were accurate at time of publication.  Please check
   www.asterism.org for latest information (click on "Club Activities")


   DR. LEW'S SEMINARS

   See Dr. Lew Thomas for possible upcoming seminar topics.

   (Choice of topic at Dr. Lew's seminars is determined by partici-pants'
   interest)


   May 2009 is a quiet month. Saturn is the only planet easily visible
   before midnight and, after that, only Jupi-ter is prominent before
   morning twilight.  


   Saturn does, however, put on a pretty good show. The Ringed Planet
   starts each evening at its maximum altitude above the southern horizon
   and stays visible for most of the night. We have been pulling away from
   Saturn since its opposition in March, but the planet has lost less than
   half a magnitude of brightness since then because the rings have opened
   up a bit. After the 13th, when they are at their temporary maximum tilt
   angle of 4.148 degrees, the rings begin to flatten out again heading for
   their edge-on configuration in September. 


   Saturn spends the entire month 15 degrees to the lower left of Regulus,
   the heart of Leo the Lion. The planet has been moving retrograde
   (backward) toward the star since New Year's Eve and resumes direct mo-
   tion on the 17th. Saturn will not be this close to Regulus again for
   twenty-eight years. 


   Near the end of the month Jupiter passes 0.39 degrees below Neptune. The
   two planets fly in close forma-tion for the rest of the year presenting
   a lovely sight in a telescope. They have two more conjunctions this
   year, in July and December, but this month's is the closest. 


   Surely the most beautiful event of the month occurs on the morning of
   the 21st. That's when the thin cres-cent Moon forms a nearly perfect
   equilateral triangle with Venus and Mars. At magnitude 1.1, Mars might
   be hard to find were it not conveniently located six degrees directly
   below the thin crescent Moon. At magnitude minus 4.4, Venus is
   unmistakable, off to the right, six degrees from each of the other two
   objects.