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- Spring brings rapid _ changes i in viewing»

- by Allen Wootton

With the coming of April, thee evening sky changes rapidly at

our northerly latitude. Once we have passed the spring equinox, — the-Sun: moves rapidly northward to give us more daylight hours. _* No- longer are the beautiful constellations Orion and Taurus quite 80 prominent in the southern sky. Instead, they have moved to. : . the west where the longer evening twilight will make them more . |’ .., and more difficult to see before they set. Other constellations _’. have begun to take their place and, while they are not so spec- ' tacular, these new constellations have their own unmistakable

shapes and their own share of remarkable objects. ; The constellations Leo and Gemini are the most obvious of the

. Tew constellations of the southern sky. Between them is another zodiac constellation, Cancer. Leo and Gemini stand out much more, however, because they both contain bright first magnitude _ stars while the brightest stars.in Cancer are only fourth ©

. magnitude.

All three of these constellations are zodiac constellations; they

| _. lie along the ecliptic, and Sun’s path through the sky. The planets and the Moon also appear to move through this section of the

sky too. Because of this, the Moon, and much more rarely, a planet, can sometimes move in front of a star that is located in

_ one of the zodiac constellations. Such an event is called an oc- - cultation. The exact time of an occultation allows astronomers to ©

refine their orbital calculations for the particular object that blocked the star. Star positions are known to great precision; thus, when a planet or the moon blocks a star, its position is

- known to great precision too. Of course the. time when this hap- " ‘pens is very important as well, and so is the position of the

Earth-based observer. Amateur astronomers have made particular

contributions to the timing of occultations because very expensive .- equipment is not needed to make the observations, just careful and accurate recording of the event.

An occultation of the bright star Regulus by the Moon occurs this month, Unfortunately it won't be visible from Terrace. Only’ people in the southern part of North America, Central. America,

the West Indies, the northern part of South America, and south- ‘western Africa will see this event that occurs’ ori “April 1571 par= " ‘ticularly-intend to look. for the Moon on the evening of that day, . however, Regulus and the Moon (which will be in the waxing big-

gous phase) should appear very close together in the sky.

- At the beginning of this ‘article, I mentioned how Taurus and Orion are moving off.to a less prominent position in the west. - ‘Throughout the month you still will be able to see the very

prominent planet. Jupiter in Taurus, however. As well, reddish |

Mars will be visible there. During March I really enjoyed wat- + Ching the spectacle of the changing positions of these two planets “— Mars began to the west of Jupiter and now it is to the east. : The changes in position this month won't be as dramatic, but _ they are interesting to note. The evening of April 9 and 10 should . be an especially good night to look for these planets because the -..erescent Moon will be very near them at that time and the thtee ~* - :objects should make a pretty sight in the sky.

‘Mercury, a rarely seen planet, may be visible to you late this

ooo. o. month, I’ve seen this elusive planet a number of times from Ter- » . “race, but it is hard to do this because of the mountains that “* , obstruct our horizon. Mercury is so close. to the Sun that it _... allways sets or rises near the time of sunset or sunrise, and for ... this reason it is often lost in the glare of twilight. Watch for a ~ bright star-like object near where the Sun sets around the 25th of - “> * April, but.don’t wait too long after sunset or Mercury will have ae set as well.

_ Saturn is visible in the morning sky about four and a half

oe hours before sunrise. If you.are an early riser, you can see it low '... din the southeast. 5. The Lyrid meteor shower occurs on the 22nd of April. Unfor- ooops. tunately, this shower, which can produce about 15 meteors per - o>. hour, occurs at the time of a full moon, so unless a meteor is -.." quite bright, it is likely to be missed. _-.- The Terrace Public Library has a new magazine available of ,. special significance to anyone who is interested in astronomy, _-\ This magazine is “Sky and Telescope’. It contains many in- _.» teresting articles. As well, you can find a description of things to . 2 hook for in the sky during the upcoming month. You will find a. ‘© “number'of excellent astronomy books in the library, too,

The sky chart for this month shows things that you can see

with just your eye along with objects that require the use of _ «binoculars or a telescope. If you would like to see these things but don’t have a telescope, you can still see them if you come to _ “the Tuesday evening telescope observing sessions operated by the “:"Tetrace Astronomical Society. You will find telescopes set up “hear the Terrace Public Library from 8 p.m, to about 9:30 p.m. :6n any clear Tuesday. Anyone interested in taking a look through -, the telescopes is very welcome.

_ The next meeting of the Terrace Astronomical Society will be. - held on.Monday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Public

~ Library. The topic of the meeting will be sundials. Any interested “people ate most welcome to attend.

“et

Terrace Review — Wednesday, March 29, 1989 23.

-. Double'star in’: - small telescopes :

~! |

—_——_

i Big | Dipper: Ursa Major

A —~

. _ To Polaris rye y

~ Cancer

South

- Pollux e

Praesepe star cluster. Sf -can be seen as hazy:

a patch. Good sight in... = /\ binoculars, M44.

“Open star cluster:

» M35-good in: binoculars: ' betterin small .

. telescope

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Pacific Northwest Music Festival ‘national and provincial reps picked

wee ek

Contributed by Diane Welsmiller During the Festival, our ad- judicators recommended the following performers to com- pete at the British Columbia Festival of the Arts to be held in Chilliwack, B.C. from May 24 to 28, 1989. This year marks the first time in the history of our Festival that a solo performer has been chosen to compete in the Provincial National Class. Our congratulations to Joseph Nelson from Prince Rupert for

. attaining this honor.

Provinclal/National — competition

Piano — Joseph Nelson.

_ Choral — The Northwest

Singers. Dance

Junior Ballet — Raylene Mar. Intermediate Ballet — Brandy

_ Crossie.

Vocal - . Senior Voice — Pamela Kerr.

Intermediate Voice — Tina:

Hovenkamp.

Junior Voice — Romy _ .

Maikapar.

Junior Voice Alternate: — _

Jennifer Zucchiatti.

instrumental - Senior

Alternate Senior: Woodwind ~— Megan Walker. Intermediate Woodwind — Julie Lee. . Senior Brass — Keith Grif- foien.

Tarr. Intermediate Brass — T.J.

McKenzie, . Alternate Intermediate Brass 7 Scott Loptson. - -'- - .

Woodwind ~e Elizabeth Sluys.

Alternate Senior Brass — Bob

Speech Arts

Senior Speech Arts — Christensen, ;

Alternate Senior Speech Arts — Rhiannon George.

Intermediate Speech Arts — Toby Nunn.

Alternate Intermediate Speech Arts — Joe Zucchiatti.

Junior Speech.Arts — Mark Tessaro,

Alternate Junior Speech Arts

Mike

— Glenys George.

Plano Senior Piano — Nina Parr. Intermediate Piano — Mat-

thew Phillips.

Alternate Intermediate Piano — Mee-Lain Ling. Junior Piano — Kelly

MacNeill.

Alternate Junior Piano —

Julia Nelson,

Winter tourism up

TERRACE — It appears that the tourism industry here is

Picking up year-round, not just during summer and the fishing

season,

’ Figures issued by the Terrace and District Chamber of Com- merce tourist Infocentre indicate that in January of this year the

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Takes on the Heavyweights! —

+t Wl ou it ening ny ea

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hospitality staff there received 123 inquiries, up from 67 in January 1988. ‘

February showed another substantial increase, with 471 personal, telephone and mail inquiries about the area. In Feb-

" Fuary 1988 the were only 151.

It's Cool... It's Fast... It's Tough

A CUT ABOVE THE REST