April 2002 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Binoculars for SPOC-2
by Chuck Hards 09 Apr '02

09 Apr '02

Patrick, I'll order a pair of the Sportsman's Guide 10 x 50 binos for donation to SPOC-2. At only 20 bucks, it's hard to go wrong. You can't even buy the optics alone from surplus for that price. I challenge other list members to do the same. If we order together, we may be able to reduce shipping charges. And I'd like to point out that it's tax-deductable, so the donation really doesn't cost you anything! (Who's the current treasurer? I want a reciept to show the tax man...) Any takers? Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/

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sportmansguide binos
by William.H.Fenton＠Dartmouth.EDU 08 Apr '02

08 Apr '02

A pair of 15-45X70mm zoom binoculars by Grampus Inc. are listed in a recent sportsmansguide catalog. Does anyone have any experience with this item or manufacturer? I'd give a link but I can't find them in their online catalog. Thanks -Bill

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FW: Starshine mirror help!
by David Dunn 08 Apr '02

08 Apr '02

John Sohl from Weber State is looking for some help polishing mirrors with some elementary school students for Project Starshine. If you can help out, please email John at JSOHL(a)weber.edu. -----Original Message----- From: John SOHL [mailto:JSOHL@weber.edu] Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 12:58 PM Subject: Starshine mirror help! Hi Guys, please help me spread the word. I need a hand on THIS Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to about 2:30 p.m. to polish 8 starshine mirrors at Hillcrest Elementary School. I don't need lots and lots of help like last year, but about two or three would be wonderful. I had the physics department faculty and students ready to help out but a last minute department seminar came up (that I'll have to miss) and I lost all of them! If you can spread the word and have anyone available to help contact me I'll give them specific directions. Thanks. John - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - John E. Sohl, Ph.D., Professor of Physics Director, Ott Planetarium, Weber State University 2508 University Circle, Ogden, UT 84408-2508 voice: (801) 626-7907, fax: (801) 626-7445 e-mail: jsohl(a)weber.edu web: http://physics.weber.edu/planet/ott.html

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Last night at Lakeside
by Chuck Hards 05 Apr '02

05 Apr '02

WOW! What a night! Thanks to EVERYONE who came out to the comet-viewing party at Lakeside last night. Fantastic views, perfect weather, dark skies, excellent company. It was nice to meet some of you whom I have only exchanged emails with to date. It was one of those not-frequent enough nights when everything worked perfectly. I NAILED my polar-alignment, and didn't have to constantly push buttons while guiding. In fact, I didn't guide at all! The guidestar stayed on the crosshairs as if it were nailed there. Clean livin' and home-brewed equipment, I tell 'ya! Mention was made that the site would be appropriate for club dark-sky star parties, and I will enthusiastically support this. The skies are not perfectly dark, but for a site within an hour's drive of Salt Lake, they are certainly very good, especially to the north and west. Even the S.L. light dome to the east only extended above the hills a few degrees. Bruce Grim, Joe Borgione, and I were using our 15 x 70 Bear binos, and these provided a perfect view of the comet. After the comet set, Bruce began knocking-down Messier objects with them in rapid succession. They readily showed M3, M51, M65, M66, and surprisingly, M97, which took us by surprise for its large apparent size in binoculars. M42 was stunning, as usual. Seen against the larger backdrop of the entire sword region made it only more beautiful. The Beehive was fantastic, like diamonds on velvet. This time of year, the ecliptic forms a right-angle to the horizon, and the zodiacal light formed a huge gossamer triangle that speared upwards toward the zenith. It was still readily apparent when we "folded our tents" and left for a debriefing at the truck stop. The winter Milky Way dazzled the eyes with the addition of Jupiter and Saturn. A few people managed to tear themselves away from the comet long enough to alert the rest of us to a shadow transit on Jupiter, icing on the cake! Well, I've got to get at least a little work done this morning, then it's off to the lab to process last night's film. I shot the comet with the identical set-up and image scale I used for Hale-Bopp, for comparison purposes. If I get some good shots, I'll bring them to the April SLAS meeting. Thanks again to all who attended and helped make a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Many people who didn't have to work today stayed well past comet-set for a night of deep-sky observing, and I wish I could have joined them; but even the few hours I was there will remain indellibly etched in my memory. :) Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Comet -satellite
by Warren Stockton 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

On Wednesday 03 April 2002 19:59, Chuck Hards wrote: > Did anyone else see a satellite pass just east (above) > the comet at 7:48 local time tonight (Wed.)? > > Chuck Yes, Moving in a NE direction at a pretty good pace... I grabbed a pair of 10x binos, but could not make out anymore that I did with the naked eye. Orange in color.. I searched thru the databases I have loaded in XEphem, but the only object that I find in the area, moving at about the right pace and direction, is METEOR 1-4 Sky List: Topocentric Apparent place, Epoch 2002.26, 4/03/2002 19:47:26 MST Name RA Dec Az Alt VMag Elong RisTm TrnTm TrnAlt SetTm Type --------------------- ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ---- ------ ----- ----- ------ ----- ---- METEOR 1-4 23:59:48.07 69:48:31.4 340:40:45 28:03:07 21:19 NoTrn NoTran 19:52 Earth Sat Warren. -- Warren Stockton mailto:Warren.Stockton@XMission.com

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Comet -satellite
by Chuck Hards 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

Did anyone else see a satellite pass just east (above) the comet at 7:48 local time tonight (Wed.)? Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Bolide??? 4/2/02 at 7:45 pm MST due south
by forrell＠es.com 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

I almost mentioned that I thought it was later, but since I didn't check the time, I didn't comment. -----Original Message----- From: Joe Bauman [mailto:bau@desnews.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 10:30 AM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: RE: [Utah-astronomy] Bolide??? 4/2/02 at 7:45 pm MST due south Jim, wasn't the one everyone saw (but me) later than 7:45? I was packing my gear to go home and that's why I didn't see it. But wasn't that after 9 p.m.? Were there two? -- Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-astronomy mailing list Utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

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Re: Bolides
by Chuck Hards 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

A check of the SkyWatch Website (http://www.sky-watch.com/meteor.html) indicates that the bolides seen last night MIGHT be associated with the Lyrid meteor shower, which is supposed to occur this year from April 16 to 25. Two weeks prior is very early, but they could be associated with a distant related stream. Another alternative is re-entering space junk, I believe there are Websites related to that flotsam and jetsam orbiting Earth The third alternative is that of garden-variety sporadic bolides. Two of them within hours of each other is slightly unusual. Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bolides
by David Dunn 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

I found a meteor shower that is currently on. The Virginids run from January 25 to April 15. Here is a little description from http://www.namnmeteors.org/ The Virginids (VIR) continue until about April 15th, as the radiant moves along the path of the ecliptic in the sky. These meteors are almost slow, with a velocity of about 30 km per second. ZHR rates are about 5 meteors per hour. On April 10th, just before new moon, the radiant will be at 203 degrees, ie RA 13h 31.8m, Dec -7, which is about 4 degrees up to the left of the star Spica in Virgo. Last night I was in my hot tub about midnight, recovering from a pollishing session at Brent's hanger, I thought I saw a couple of meteors. They were dim but they might have been coming from Virgo. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 1:48 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Bolides Debbie Whitaker and I observed a nice one slightly East of Zenith approx 8:30 Saturday night, but it was traveling -- in the same direction I saw two other dimmer meteors -- out of the north going south within 5 minutes of each other; made me wonder if there was some shower afoot that I was unaware of... Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > A check of the SkyWatch Website > (http://www.sky-watch.com/meteor.html) indicates > that > the bolides seen last night MIGHT be associated with > the Lyrid meteor shower, which is supposed to occur > this year from April 16 to 25. Two weeks prior is > very early, but they could be associated with a > distant related stream. > > Another alternative is re-entering space junk, I > believe there are Websites related to that flotsam > and > jetsam orbiting Earth > > The third alternative is that of garden-variety > sporadic bolides. Two of them within hours of each > other is slightly unusual. > > Chuck > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-astronomy mailing list > Utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Utah-astronomy mailing list Utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Bolide??? 4/2/02 at 7:45 pm MST due south
by forrell＠es.com 03 Apr '02

03 Apr '02

My son and I were out viewing the comet from the Lakeside area and saw it. It was pretty spectacular! Your description agrees pretty close with what I saw. By the way, although the skies were not all that clear, the zodiacal light was visible. The comet looked pretty good in my CG-11, but I didn't get any pictures. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Stitley [mailto:sitf2000@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 8:09 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Bolide??? 4/2/02 at 7:45 pm MST due south I was traveling south on Bangeter Hwy, and stopped at the light at 5400 South. At 7:45 pm MST, A HUGE bolide(?) came into my view. It was about 25-30 degrees above the southern horizon. Angle about 75-80 degrees off vertical heading west. There was a bright white trail, followed by a yellow-orange flare followed by a fine bright blue one. The entire duation was several seconds and all extinguished at about the same time. The distance from the end of the white trail to the blue fireball was appro. 4-5 moon diameters. Did any else see it??? It was very bright - I would say the white trails might have been -2 magnitude or brighter. It was an incredible display!!! Wonder if anyone caught on film by accident. Would be interested in whether anyone else saw it. Jim Stitley __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Utah-astronomy mailing list Utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

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