The star GJ 436 is among those few dozen with a planet that crosses its disk as seen from Earth - but a number of these transits have been "late", which has led to the hypothesis that a 5 Earth-mass planet in the system might be tugging at it. The call is out for intense transit observations of the known planet: These transits are grazing, and even small shifts in its orbit - due to the hypothetical other planet - would have an effect. This is your chance to help discover an exoplanet with only a few Earth masses! With the means of even an advanced amateur astronomer (though the star is only 10.7 mag. and the transit depth < 0.01 mag.). Who would have thought of that just a dozen years ago ...
In other news there is now talk that the U.S. might try to shoot down the reconnaissance satellite out of control which would otherwise reenter soon. The satellite has actually been imaged by an amateur, as have been the ISS once more on Feb. 12 and a Progress freighter on the morning of Feb. 11!
Also of note are nice images of Saturn on Feb. 11 and of comet Holmes approaching the California nebula on Feb. 9 while Sky & Tel. is pondering extreme eclipse chasing. Invitations are out for the XXVII. European Symposium on Occultation Projects and the 32. SONNE-Tagung, in Germany this summer and spring, respectively - and once again we are all told to turn off the lights, this time for one hour on March 31 ...
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