Prime Focus May 2000

PHOTO CAPTION >

At the edge of the Gum Nebula, about 1,500 light-years distant from Earth in the constellation Vela, the wobbling star HH-47 ejects spectacular jets of gas. (HH stands for Herbig-Haro object,) The ejected material collides with upstream gasses, creating a bow-shaped shock wave. (Credit: J. Morse (STScI) and NASA)

• 2 Club News and Notes keeps you current on club business
  

• 2 Star parties are listed for the spring and summer
  

• 3 What's Up in May provides observing suggestions
  

• 4 Look ahead to June's best objects in the first 15 days
  

• 5 Comet Comments includes a TVS commendation for Don Machholz
  

• 6 Starry night program slated at Pinnacles National Monument
  

• 7 Librarian's report
  

• 8 Membership Application
  

TVS Presents

   When  a budget-conscious U.S. Congress failed to fund the NASA SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Project, the principal investigators did not give up, they simply went private. Since that day in 1993, SETI has continued its search for evidence of "intelligent transmissions" from alien sources.

   Project Phoenix began narrow-band observations in February 1995, using the Parkes 210-foot radio telescope located in New South Wales, Australia. Parkes is the largest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Northern stars have been searched using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia. Project Phoenix operated in  Green Bank from September 1996 through April 1998. The project scans signals between 1,000 and 3,000 MHz, on vary narrow 1 Hz-wide channels. Dr. Shostak will describe the results of observations taken by Project Phoenix to date.

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