Astronomical Society of Greenwich

Bruce Museum of Arts & Science

One Museum Drive

Greenwich, CT 06830

(203) 869-6786, Ext. 338

Daylight Saving Time begins on the night of April 1-2. Set your clocks ahead one hour ? and come to Observatory an hour later.

Lyrid Meteor Shower peaks on the morning of April 21. Look at the constellation Lyra (east-south-east) after midnight for 10-100 meteors per hour. (Unfortunately, the waning Moon will probably interfere this year.)

Asteroid Ceres, a binocular object, can be found just east of the constellation Leo throughout the month. Move eastward from the star Denebola (the bright one at the extreme eastern end of the constellation) to find this mag. 7 object, the largest of the asteroids. Watch it for several nights to see how it moves along the background of faint stars in this region.

On the evening of April 6, watch a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with the crescent Moon (see "Lunacy," above). This is the last chance to see these three outer planets before they disappear into the evening twilight. Be out there early; they'll all have set by 9:40 PM EDT.

Then, get up early on the morning of the 28^th to see a conjunction of Mercury and Venus ? both rise at about 5:15 AM.

Our May Meeting (Wednesday, May 3) will feature a special treat. ASG member Cathie Bischoff, who teaches science at Convent of the Sacred Heart, had a small and select high-school astronomy class this semester. Her four students will present their class projects to us.

Sunday, November 5 is also a date to set aside. The Bruce Museum is sponsoring a free lecture, "Explaining the Elegant Universe," by Dr. Brian Greene. Dr. Greene, a physicist, teaches at Columbia University and is the author of The Elegant Universe, an exposition of his revolutionary "string theory" of space, time, and matter. This talk will take place at 3 PM at Greenwich Academy and is expected to be very popular, so RSVP soon to: (203) 869-6786, Ext.420.

In response to last month's newsletter, Ken Greenberg writes:

"The whole flap over whether the millennium ended last December or will end this December stems from the supposition that every century must have 100 years and every millennium 1000. Because the first year was "1" in our current numbering system, logically the second millennium began in 1001, and the third will start in 2001.

"However, this ignores the fact that calendars are, to a certain extent, arbitrary. The common numbering system supposedly dating from the birth of Jesus was not implemented until the first millennium?. This calendar is also erroneous and it is now believed that Jesus was born in 3 or 4 BCE."

Ken goes on to point out that for if we're going to insist that millennium last exactly a thousand years, they logically ought to be a thousand full years; i.e., all the years in it should be 365 or 366 days long. Yet we know that Pope Gregory XIII knocked 10 days out of the calendar to correct the problem created by a few too many leap years in the previous centuries. He concludes that, "if Pope Gregory could make 1582 a 356-day year to correct an error, I see no reason why, by popular consent, we cannot correct for the Venerable Bede's neglecting to have a year Zero by having a 999-year millennium ending December 31, 2000" ? especially since everyone's celebrated the millennium already!

Frank Morehouse added to his original comments by reminding us that the year 2000 is special in one way ? it's the first century year in 400 years to be a leap year. As everyone will recall, as part of the Gregorian correction, years ending in "00" are not leap years unless they're exactly divisible by 400.