TI,D Mr ) [/\l RSUMMER 1994

VOLUME 17, NO.2

NDWSLffiDR

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 to Hit Jupiter

Editor's Notes

Many changes have come to MIRA recently. Forone, the projected move to the new California StateUniversity at Monterey Bay campus will become a re-ality. Remodeling of the former Fort Ord buildingscheduled for transfer to MIRA has gone to the draw-ing board (the computer screen?) at The Paul DavisPartnership. Soon, MIRA's classrooms rvill surround alight- and greenery-filled atrium on the ground floorof what was once an unprepossessing military struc-ture. The library and research facilities will occupythe second floor, and administrative offices and moreresearch areas will take over the third level. At last,our many endeavors can be centralized in a single lo-cation, accessible to all, and convenient to other insti-tutions committed to education and research. MIRAhas some very exciting proposals under considerationby a variety of public and private agencies. OurFriends will be hearing more about these soon. Thefunding for the remodeling project is now in the plan-ning stages, under the able direction of Lynne Ches-ter, Ph.D. Progress reports are forthcoming.

There is a major change ahead for the Friends ofMIRA. Dennis Mar, the long-time Chair, is steppingdown after six years of dedicated service. Dennis hasbeen so reliable and resourceful, it is difficult tothank him adequately in so few words. But we try,anyway. Thanks, Dennis. We were fortunate to haveyour leadership.

The Friends will not be left leaderless, however.Far from it! Into the breach steps Kim Cohan. Manyof you knorv Kim from his previous volunteer rvorkfor MIRA. He is also known for his experimentationin computer graphics and communications, and his re-cent presentation at the Carl Cherry Foundation inwhich he demonstrated holograms and commentary viaInternet magic. Kim's energJ and imagination willopen new doors for the Friends of MIRA. Later inthese pages, Kim introduces himself to our Friends inhis own inimitable style.

At this time, it is also appropriate to thank indi-viduals whose support has made possible much of thegood work done by MIRA. A 60mm Jason 311 con-stellation refractor telescope contributed by RichardIrmas of Carmel will be put to use in our educationalprogram, which will surely be rapidly expanding.

That's it for now. Remember to show your supportfor MIRA by attending our events. And keep an eyeon Jupiter!

Anne Cathey, Editor

The Great Jupiter Comet Bash!

Get a front rorv seat to witness the cataclysmiccrash of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter. Youare invited to The Great Comet Bash, a benefit eventfor MIRA, otr July 16th, starting at 6:00 p.m. at theMonterey Conference Center.

You will be a part of an entertaining and educa-tional evening of astronoffiy, dinosaurs, music, goodfood, space art, and dance.

Featured events include:o Live pictures from the Space Telescope kstituteo Historian Tom Logan on lost civilizations and cometso A children's comet art contesto Images from ground-based observatories sent via Internet of

the impacto Dr. Russell Coyle, "Dr. Disaster," onhow to casha check after

a comet impacto The latest nelvs and expectations from MIRA astrorpmerso Astronomer William Hayden Smith on how a comet would

affect Earth' s atmosphereo Ongoing live updates from experts around the worldo Live video from the Space Shutfle Columbiao Music by local recording artist, Joe DeMariao A space art exhibitiono An entertaining talk by dinosaur expert David Cudabacko A dance performance by Fran Spector's dance troupo And more! Food and drink will be available

All attendees will receive a free commemorativegift. Advance tickets are $25, $ 15 for Friends. Chil-dren under 16 free r,vith paid adult. At the door, tick-ets $3 5 and $25 for Friends. All proceeds benefitMIRA.

This event is sure to sell out. Call the MIRA officeat 37 5-3220 to order your seats

Kudos to MIRA Volunteers

Kim Cohan, Carl Cherry Center for the Arts boardmember and President of the Friends of MIRA, or-chestrated the world's first live Internet video broad-cast of an art lecture. On June 4th, MIRA boardmembers and volunteers Kim Cohan, Gary Love,Doug McKinney, and Dennis Mar helped the CarlCherry Foundation broadcast a fine art lecture on ho-lography. Cohan, Love, and fellow MIRA board mem-ber Lynne Chester helped underwrite the lecture andaccompanying art exhibit and hands-on workshop.They said it couldn't be done, but they didn't counton MIRA volunteers !

On the coveF: JPL artist D. A. Feal\ impression of the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Lery 9 into Jupiter inmid-July, as ifviewedfrom a mythical satellite behindJupiter. Actually, Jupiterwill be millions of times brighterthan the cometfragments before impact. Estimates of the brightness of the impact itselfvary enormously.

COSMIC COMET COLLISIONDr. Whitney Shane

The good news is thatwhich astronomers have neverof observing. The bad newsit will be at a place

something will happenyet had the opportunityis that when it happens

where we cannot observeit directly. It is the colli-sion of Comet Shoe-maker- Levy 9 with Jupi-ter in July. Except forsome unfortunate dino-saurs around the year 65million 8.C., ro one hasever been known to haveobserved the collision ofa comet with a planet, sono wonder the astrono-mers are excited.

About Jupiter

We know a great dealabout Jupiter, and this isnot the place to reviewall this knowledge, exceptfor a few facts which willbe of importance to us..Jupiter is the most mas-sive of the planets, morethan 300 times the massof the Earth, and this isimportant because thelikelihood of a collisionincreases with the massof the target. Obviouslythe large radius, morethan l0 times that of theEarth, is also of impor-tance. Although Jupiter'satmosphere is almost purehydrogen ( 10000 parts Hto one part of everythingelse), it is not the hydrogen that we see but the con-taminants, mainly ammonia gas, which condense intothe clouds which completely cover the planet. Jupiterhas no surface. The density and pressure just keepincreasing downward until a condition is reachedwhere the gas has a density higher than anything onearth. It is important for us to learn more about theway in which the density, pressure, and temperaturebehave with increasing depth. Jupiter is orbited bymany satellites, as the Voyager observations demon-strated, but we are interested only in the four Galileansatellites, and particularly in Io, which orbits at a dis-tance of only 6 Jupiter radii from the planet. There

Artistb impression of the impact of Comet Shoemaker-LeW) 9 intoJupiter a,s viewedfrom Earth (D.A. Feal, JPL).

is a ring of small particles and dust at 1.8 radii, alsodiscovered by the Voyager. The planet is surroundedby a magnetic field (the magnetosphere) which is 100

times the radius of theplanet itself. Relativisticparticles (mainly electronswith speeds close to thespeed of light) aretrapped in this field, and\,ve can observe the syn-chrotron radiation whichthey omit as they circu-late around the fieldlines. Charged particles,like electrons, are readilyabsorbed by dust, and thepresence of a dust ringwas predicted before itsdirect observation froman otherwise unexplaineddip in the intensity of thesynchrotron radiation.

About Shoemaker-Levy 9

Shoemaker-Levy 9 iscertainly not your ordi-nary comet. As weknow, comets movearound the Sun in eccen-tric orbits. But not so inthis case. Instead, cometShoemaker-Levy 9 fol-lows an eccentric orbitaround Jupiter. It is dy-namically very difricuttfor a planet, even Jupiter,to capture a passing ob-ject, so this was in itselfan extraordinary event.'fhe comet was discovered

in March, 1993, &s an elongated object. It grew insize and soon was seen to be resolved into a numberof separate nuclei, of which now more than z0 havebeen counted. Orbit calculations showed that in July,1992, the comet had passed within 1.4 radii of Jupi-ter, r,vhich is rvell r,r,ithin the Roche limit. This is thedistance at which a passing obj ect held together solelyby self-gravitation (no sticky stufO will be disruptedby tidal forces. It can be calculated from the mass ofthe planet and the density of the passing object, 8swas done by Roche 150 years ago in one of the clas-sic exercises in celestial mechanics. When this hap-pens the individual fragments, which themselves must

be held together by sticky stuff. all follow their indi-vidual, but very similar, orbits. There rvill, however,be small differences in energy, resulting in slightlydifferent orbital periods, so that although all of thefragments will eventually return to the same place,they will not all get there at quite the same time.This is why the fragments will be so well lined upalong the orbit at the time of return. The same sorts

1ou km

35

OclJul 1

Apr 1

1 995Jon 41 994

Apr 1

July 20, 1994

To Sun on July 7,1992-10

-10 -5 15 20 50 35

l06 km

P. Chodos / nt3/21 /s4

The unique orbit ofComet Shoemalcer-Levy 9 around Jupiter.

of perturbations that caused capture in the first placehave now conspired to make the next Jupiter passage

a collisioo, making the whole event even more eX-traordinary. (Note that for an object orbiting a planetlike Jupiter, the Sun becomes a perturbing body). Be-cause of the separation of the fragments, the colli-sions rvill take place over a period of several days,from 16 to 22 July. The place of collision (and thisis the bad news) will be just over the limb of theplanet on the dawn side, where it will be hidden fromearthbound observers. Sinqe Jupiter, with a rotationperiod of about l0 hours, wlll make several rotationsduring this whole period, the impacts will be spreadaround the whole planet, but always on the same par-allel of latitude. These results, despite the complexity

of the calculations, are quite accurate. And don'tworry - there is no chance of a near miss

The biggest problem for the model makers is theuncertainty regarding the physical properties of thefragments. The masses are totally unknowr, and wecan only guess, by analogy with well observed cometslike Halley, about their sizes. Cohesiveness of thefragments must be present, or they would not havesurvived the previous passage. But cohesion shouldnot be too great, or the comet would not have brokenup at all, leaving us still plenty of room for guess-work. Even photometry of the fragments is not muchhelp, because reflected light from the nuclei is over-whelmed by the luminosity of their comae. But modelmakers are not easily discouraged, and, after all, it istheir task to make predictions from whatever esti-mates we have and then to correct those estimates onthe basis of the observations. The question remainsas to whether we wilt learn more about Jupiter orabout comets from this event.

The Main Event

Each of the cometary fragments will enter Jupiter'satmosphere as a separate event. We do not expect toobserve the smaller impacts, although they may col-lectively feed a significant amount of energy into theatmosphere in a narrow latitude band. The modelsconcentrate on the larger impacts. A I kilometerfragment, which is about as large as we might expect,u,ill release energy equivalent to about 200 thousandmillion tons of TNT (a most unconventional unit ofenergy in astronomical circles). For comparison, thelargest historical impact on earth was the Tungusameteor (1908), which produced energy equivalent to a

mere 15 million tons of TNT but nevertheless de-stroyed 2000 square kilometers of forest.

An important source of uncertainty in the models isthe cohesiveness of the fragment. If it is very looselybound, it will disintegrate high in the atmosphere,where it will produce many bright meteor trails and a

good deal of light over a period of a few seconds.Most of the enerry, holever, will be lost as heat as

the remains fall into the depths of the planet. If thecohesion is greater, then the fragment will stay to-gether until the heating causes it to explode as a greatfireball. This will produce much light during a fewseconds, culminating in a brilliant flash. Some of thecometary material will be thrown upward, and it ispossible that this could be observed as a plume on thelimb of the planet, If the fragment should penetrateeven deeper into the atmosphere before exploditg, ull-til it is below the cloud layer, then we will not see

the explosion itself, but we expect that a fireball inthe form of a mushroom cloud will rise out of the

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cloud layer. Although this will not be as hot as theexplosion itself, it will produce a blaze of light, pos-sibly lasting several minutes. Cometary and planetarymaterial will be thrown upward, and the plume shouldremain in place long enough to be visible fromthe Earth.

Most astronomers would probably prefer to have atleast some of the fragments penetrate deeply into theatmosphere, since this would give us the most infor-mation about Jupiter. The splash caused by the mate-rial falting back into the atmosphere and the wavescreated by this can tell us something about the struc-ture of the atmosphere, just as you might determinethe depth of a shallow pond by throrving in a pebbleand observing the surface lvaves. The explosion willalso cause seismic waves which can propagate overthe whole planet and give us much needed informa-tion about its interior. Atmospheric and cometary ma-terial will be raised to great heights above the cloudlayer where a temporary cloud band may be formed,and some dust may be ejected into the magnetospherewhere it will form a temporary dust ring.

What Will We Learn?

Despite the dramatic nature of these events, observ-ing them will not be easy. All of the events produc-ing visible light will occur over the limb of theplanet, So we witt have to set up observing stations inspace. One of the Voyager spacecraft is in a positionto make direct observations, but the distance is so

.great that it will give little or no detail and observeonly the brightest events. The Galileo spacecraft isseriously limited in its data transfer rate, but hope-fully it can make a few pictures. However, it mustbe programmed well in advance and must know themoment of impact of whichever fragment is to be ob-served to within 5 minutes. It is thought that the as-trometric data on the fragments will be good enoughto make this possible.

Another possible observing station is Io, where thebrighter events will be very bright indeed. Unfortu-nately we have no observer on Io, so the best we cando is observe the reflected light. Since we see onlythe sunlit side of Io, the reflection of the flashes willbe drowned in reflected sunlight, and we can expect abr,ightening of only 1 or 2 percent, too weak to be re-liably observable. For the other Galilean satellites thesituation is even less favorable. Perhaps there is a

small chance that one of them will be in the shadowof Jupiter, but visible from the Earth just at the lrlo-ment of one of the impacts. However, a small part ofthe dust ring will always be in this favored position,and perhaps we can use this as a reflector. Observa-tions of this sort are best made in the near infrared,

since the temperature of the fireballs will always beless than the solar temperature and their light will berelatively stronger in the infrared. There are plans touse the 10 meter Keck telescope for this purpose.

The atmospheric and seismic waves can best be ob-served in the middle infrared where the small tem-perature variations in the atmosphere can best bemeasured. For this purpose, it is to be hoped thatthere are not too many deep explosions, because that

The expectations and uncertainties of the impact are dis-cussed by Dr. lVm. Bruce Weaver at a public lecture in Juneat MPC, which drew on overJlow audience.

would make the data analysis very complicated.

The expulsion of dust into the magnetosphere toform a new tempo rary ring should be observablethrough a local decrease in the synchrotron radio ta-diation due to the absorption of charged particles bythe dust. This should succeed even if the ring is tooweak to observe directly. Rings in these positions arenot stable and are expected to disappear after 1000years or so. It has been speculated that the presentring was the result of a previous collision. It will beinteresting to see if this collision produces a new one.Whatever occurs, Earth's astroscientists and amateurobservers will be watching Jupiter's appointment withShoemaker-Levy as closely as they can for these fewmidsummer days in 1994.

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First Step to the Stars:A MIRA Field Trip to Study Archaeoastronomy

Modern astronomy has descended almost entirely from European and Arabic_

astronomy, but 500 years ago, when new and old worlds met on the shores ofMezoamerica, the level of understanding of the Universe was not that muchdifferent between the two cultures. The mysterious Mayans had already fledtheir cities of broad avenues, massive pyramids, and astronomical observato-ries. Last year, after five centuries of effort, the code of the Mayan Hiero-glyphs was finally broken. What did these ancient Americans know about theIki6s that they studied with such respect? Was it a celestial event that ledthem to abruptly end their civilization?

MIRA announces a Travel Study Trip to the Yucatan starting January 30,

lgg4 - a journey in search of a better understanding of the secrets of Mayanastronomy.

The perfect guides for such an adventure would be world-class experts inthe subtle features of both astronomy and ancient cultures. And so they are:MIRA astronomer Dr. Ana Torres-Dodgen and MIRA Administrator and Gen-train Instructor Tom Logan.

Besides being an accomplished research astronomer, Ana, a native of Mex-ico, will provide practical, as well as cultural, guidance. Tom has led numer-ous tours for study of ancient cultures in the Middle East, and is currentlyworking on a book on the decipherment of ancient glyphs, including Mayan.With years of professional archaeological experience with the other buildersof large pyramids, the ancient Egyptians, Tom will provide unique insightsinto the comparisons of the astronomical and other cultural aspects of thesetwo great ancient cultures.

Perhaps the highlight of this eight-day trip will be a visit to the Caracol atChichen Itza. From this ancient observatory the Maya observed the heavenlytraverse of Venus. The movements of Venus, we now read in the recently de-ciphered Mayan Hieroglyphs, determined when the Maya would go to war.(Thus the first "star wars".)

Our group will fly to lovely Merida, where we will stay three nights. FromMerida we will visit the Mayan sites of Uxmal, Kaban, Sayil and Labna. Wewill take time out to visit the picturesque colonial coastal town of Campeche.From Merida we will travel to Chichen ltza for an in-depth visit of this wellpreserved archaeological site. Next day to Cancun where we stay for threenigtrts. Time to relax on the white beaches, then on to Tulum, the walled citybuilt on a sea cliff, and Xel-Ha, a beautiful lagoon for snorkling.

On the practical side, we will limit the number of participants. The finaldetails will be announced in August. For a short time, we will give preferenceto Friends of MIRA on a first-come, first-served basis. Then, space permit-ting, we will open enrollment to other groups.

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Dennis Mar Departing Chair, Friends of A[lfuL

Dear Friends,

After six years I am stepping dorvn as Chair of theFriends of MIRA. Kim Cohan has graciously acceptedthe job and will bring new energy and enthusiasmwith him.

I have gained a lot personally during my tenure,not the least of which was to practice speaking inpublic during the lecture series. I had the opportunityto vier.v Saturn from the 36" telescope at OOS on a

spectacularly clear night. But the high point was tostand next to Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer ofPluto.

Of course, the most fun has been talking to all ofyou at lectures, star parties, work parties, social par-ties, and the eclipse cruise. I learned that you couldnever predict who would be interested in astronomy.Astronomy is not only about science. There is some-thing grand about the stars in the night sky, and peo-ple respond to this.

My work for MIRA has only been as a participantin a larger, lively, dedicated group. I certainly thankthe Steering Committee volunteers Steve Abbott,Josephine Crawford, Bill and Edan Denholm, AntoniaFiske, Vince Halter, Steu, Hobson, Sherri Latone,Ralph and Florence Meeker, Lyle Herschlag, AnsleyHill, Terry McNelley, Chip Shuldener, Alma Wood,and Nancy (Norton) York. These are the people whohave provided the energy for the Friends' program.

The nitty-gritty detail u,ork was often done by for-mer MIRA administrator, Hazel Ross, and later, ad-ministrator Tom Logan. Thanks to both of you foryour support.

MIRA has a bright future. With an opportunity toacquire facilities at Fort Ord, MIRA will be able toplay a greater role on the Central Coast as a scientificand educational resource.

As for myself, I plan to get the telescope out ofthe box and learn the sky again, so I don't alwayshave to say, "Vince, what's that?"

Dear Friends,

I am honored to be the new Chairman of theFriends of MIRA. Dennis has done a magnificent jobin his tenure as Chair his accomplishments bear wit-ness to his leadership of this organization.

I was born and raised in Salinas, but when I was16 years old, caught in the jaws of pimple faced ado-lescence, our family moved to Arkansas.

With no friends yet in my new state, I was feelingvery alone. I would take out my 6" Newtonian nightafter night; the night sky became my substitute for allthe friends I left back home. I first heard of MIRAthere in Arkansas, in a 1980 Sky &, Telescope article.I was absolutely enthralled by the story of the menand women who founded MIRA.

I feel so privileged to be in a position to assistthose people I read about so long ago.

We have some challenging goals in front of us:o Create apublic forumfortlre Comet Shoemaker-Lery impact.. Create new programs to refurn even more value to you,ow

Friends.o Expand the size of our membership and public support for

MIRA.. Explore new fundraising oppofiunities involving the public.

And, to do it in a way that gives all of us a chanceto have maximum fun and maximum personal growth.

I want to hear your thoughts and feedback aboutthe Friends of MIRA. How are we doing? What couldwe do better? What are your ideas for future fundraisers? Here's how to reach me:

FAX: 659-02 10

Email : kcohan@mpusd.k I 2.ca. us

Voice phone: 659-5691

I am looking forward to serving the Friends, andserving MIRA.

Kim Cohan

Kirn Cohan, Chair, Friends of Iv{IRADennis Mar

The Summer SkyDr. Ana Torres-Dodgen

The grand event this summer is the collision ofcomet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter, described by Dr.Shane in this issue. Jupiter will remain visible andbright through the summer at dusk, toward the south-western sky, moving from Virgo in July to Libra inAugust and September.

Mercury can be seen at dawn during July, close tothe east-northeast horizon, and again in September atdusk, toward the west-southwest horizon.

Venus is the bright "evening star" in the west sky.It declines in altitude as the summer progresses, andpasses about a degree north of the bright star Reguluson July 10.

At the beginning of July, Saturn rises around mid-night in the east-southeast, and gradually becomes andevening planet at the end of the summer, in the south-ern sky. It remains visible through the whole night

during August and most of September. Mars is low inthe eastern sky at dawn during July, and gets higherin the sky at dawn as the summer progresses. Aroundmid-July it passes the bright red star Aldebaran, inTaurus.

The two meteor showers -to watch this summer arethe Delta Aquarids and the Perseids. The DeltaAquarids has two streams, north and south, peakingrespectively on July 29 (west of the star Skat or deltaAquarii) and Aug. 7 (near the star eta Aquarii). Thesecan be seen almost all night long, but the radiantsreach the highest point in the sky around 2 a.m. Ex-pected hourly rates are 10-35.

Remember the Perseid shower last year? Maybe wecan hope for something similar this year. The peak ison Aug. 13. The radiant is in the north end ofPerseus of even Cassiopeia and is visible all nightlong, but highest in the sky before sunrise.

Calendar of Events

July 10th Sunday afternoon tour of the MIRA Observatory atl:30 &.3:30 p.m.

July 16

July 20

August 14

Sept. 10

Sept. 11

Sept. I I

October 1

October 8

October 9

The Great Jupiter Comet Bash at6:00 p.m.,Monterey Conference Center- see article on page 2

MIRA Star Parly at dusk*

Sunday afternoon tour of the MIRA Observatory atl:30 & 3:30 p.m.

MIRA Star Party at dusk*

Sunday afternoon tour of tlre MIRA Observatory atl:30 &.3:30 p.m.

Special MIRA Star Pafty at the Observatory, just forthe Friends of MIRA

Bonestell Lecture: Dr. Sandra Faber-The Hubble Space Telescope: Back from the Dead

MIRA Star Party at dusk*

Sunday afternoon tour of the MIRA Observatory atl:30 &,3:30 p.m.

All events except the Bash! are free and open toyour guests.

* Call for location

MIRA is GratefulThe most difficult funding for any organi zd-

tion to raise is that for research. Jessie WandelMenneken knew that and she appreciated thatafter all the buildings and instruments are builtand the students are trained, someone has tobring it all together and actually do the re-search. So Jessie was a constant supporter ofresearch at the Naval Postgraduate School andat MIRA. Recently, wo were honored to receivea final bequest of $5,000 from her estate.Thanks, Jessie; we are proud to have had youas one of our supporters.

Annular Solar EclipseSpecial to MIRAnews from our Midwest correspondent!

Bill Brown

As the eclipse neared about 80 percent completion,we tried a high power eyepiece that allowed us to ac-tually make out the outline of lunar mountains. Afterthe eclipse neared 90 percent, we could perceive thatthe available light was definitely dimmer. The tem-perature dropped about 10 or more degrees and thewind started kicking up.

A few wispy clouds started forming and gave us ascare as they darted quickly across the nearly eclipsedsun. Fortunately, they disappeared as quickly as theyhad formed and never returned to bother us.

The most exciting event occurred as the eclipsestarted into annular phase. Everyone cheered as the

sun became a complete cir-cle !

Just after l:06 p.m. EDT,the eclipse reached maxi-mum at 94.3 percent cover-age, appearing as a nearlyperfect circle on our solarviewer. Since we were 30miles off of the center line,the circle appeared some-what lopsided. The annularphase lasted over six min-utes and was truly an amaz-ing event not soon forgotten.

The annular solar eclipseof May 10th proved to be aspectacular event. From ourvantage point at the farm ofJoe E. Brown near Findlay,Ohio, wo were just 30 milesfrom the park position ofthe eclipse.

Mother Nature was beingunusually cooperative as wewere presented with a crys-tal clear sky with unlimitedvisibility. The previous daywas completely overcastwith a steady rain! Wecould all easily view theeclipse through our six-inch telescope, set up so thatthe sun's image was projected through a low-powereyepiece onto a piece of wood (painted white) thatwas inside of a cardboard box. The solar image wasabout one. foot in diameter and was so clear that wecould observe a small sunspot near the limb awayfrom the start of the eclipse.

Annular eclipse photos by Scott Campbell, taken in El Paso,Texas, with a Nikon F5 with an 800rnm lens with doublen

l0

MIRA Board of Directors

Gordon Jones, ChairBruce Weaver, PresidentPatti Compton, SecretaryDouglas McKinney, TreasurerPhilip CardeiroLynne ChesterFred NelsonGary LoveJohn Lotz

Friends of MIRA Steering Committee

Kim Cohan, ChairmanSteve Abbott Ansley HillJosephine Crawford Stewart HobsonBill Denholm Terry McNelleyVince Halter Alma Wood

Tom Logan, AdministratorLaura Cohan, Asst. AdrainistratorAnne Cathey, Newsletter Editor

-!Vle Herschlag, Office VolunteerFlorence Meeker, Office Volunteer

Welcome to

Tony & Marilyn BrownSusan & Bob CrevelingBill & Alice EnglanderJ. van der MolenShirley PrussinRita Scott

An aerial view of Oliver Obsertting Station atop Chews Ridgein the Ventana lVilderness (photo Courtesy Vince Halter).

New Friends

Nita CowperJeff CrichtonBruce MendenhallGerry & Art MontgomeryLynda SantiagoMargaret M. Wishart

I would tike to become a FRIEND OF MIRA andenclose my membership donation of $ #. Inaddition, I am making a special gift of $

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.

I 000.00 Associates Circle5 00.00 Associate2 5 0.00 Patron100.00 Sustaining50.00 Sponsor30.00 Member10.00 Student

MIRA welcomes corporate and business members.Contributions are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Name

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MONTEREY INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY

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MoIITEREY, CALIFORNIA 93940 U.S.A.

(408) 37s-3220

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MONTEREY, CA 93940