On December 7, as Joe Rao reports in this issue (see "The Sky in December/January," page 58), the Moon passes in front of the planet Jupiter, a relatively rare kind of eclipse known as an occultation. The event brings to mind a star date the author kept several years ago.Driving north in the dark on the thruway, I think about the e-mail alert I got this afternoon from IOTA, the International Occul- tation Timing Association: "Naked-eye eclipse of bright star. . . . Astronomers need your camcorder records for lunar and solar (Earth climate) studies." It's short notice: the last-quarter Moon is passing in front of the star Aldebaran tonight. But one point in the message caught my eye. Amateurs, it noted, can contribute to the basic science of global warming by timing the event. Whoa!
展开▼
