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

Re: Eclipse Time
by Steve Trottier 31 May '02

31 May '02

What time on the 10th should I look? Thanks. >>> chuckhards(a)yahoo.com 05/31/02 09:55AM >>> How's the western horizon from Harmons? The sun will be getting low in the west at eclipse time, so you'll need an unobstructed site. C.

2 1

Naked Eye Sunspot Complex
by David L Bennett 31 May '02

31 May '02

Sorry, this may be a duplicate...I wasn't sure if it went out. dlb Hi Y'all, I just had a peek at the sun this morning and can confirm that the 9973 complex is visible to the FILTERED naked eye. With 16x it's a fairly nice grouping of 9-10 sunspots near the Southeastern limb. It's not exactly easy right now but should become more so as the group rotates into view over the next few days. I have to admit I'm pretty lazy when it comes to solar observing...I won't even set up my rig unless I can see a sunspot grouping with just a filter. Take a look! Dave Bennett <File attached: iPhotoiPhoto-mailtmp-0.jpg> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick wrote: > > Possible Naked Eye Sunspot Complex > > A large and potentially active sunspot complex rotated into view around > the > south-eastern limb of the Sun on 27 May. This sunspot complex, > identified as > active sunspot Region 9973, currently measures 960 millionths of the > solar > hemisphere. This is large enough to completely map a little more than > five and > half times the entire surface area of the Earth into the sunspot > complex. It may > be large enough to spot with the protected naked eye (never look at the > sun > directly without protection - doing so could permanently damage your > eyes!). > > http://www.spacew.com/astroalert.html

1 0

Bushnell Voyager Review
by hanksdc＠plug.org 31 May '02

31 May '02

I wrote a few weeks ago about a telescope I was planning to buy from a co-worker. It is a Bushnell Voyager 4.5 in reflector. Well, I decided to go ahead and buy it. Looking at ebay, the $100 I paid for it looks to be about street price, but as Chuck mentioned, probably a bit steep for the scope. But compared to what I previously had, it's definitely a step up. I've had it out on a couple of occasions now in my backyard in Orem, and it's been fun to use a better scope than whatI've personally owned before. Particularly nice for me are the fine-tune Dec/RA adjusters. On my older scope these were non-existent, so it was a game of 'find the object in the spotter scope, then hunt around by man-handling the tube while looking through the eyepiece, and find it if you're lucky.' On the new scope it's find it in the finder, then star hop with the fine-tuners until you get where you want to be. So that's nice--for me anyways. The scope is generally good quality. I believe the tube is aluminum or some other metal. There is some vignetting as Chuck mentioned. Perhaps I can find a different secondary mirror to fix that problem. The focuser mechanism is one of the weaker points of the scope. My old scope had much smoother focusing than this one. After opening up the focusing mechanism on the new scope it looks to be a metal gear in a plastic track. The focusing movement is rough at best. Perhaps I can try some graphite or something to smooth it out. The finder scope is probably the weakest point of the whole scope. If you use the trick of keeping both eyes open while hunting an object in the finder scope until the object meets itself in both eyes, this finder is strange that the object doesn't meet itself at the meeting of the crosshairs, like other scopes I've used. Strange. The scope came with three low-quality eyepieces, a 20mm, a 12mm, and a 4mm, with a 3x barlow magnifier. I think I'd like to eventually pursue some of Chuck's designs for homemade eyepieces. All in time. At any rate, despite its defects the scope meets my needs for now, although finding the ring nebula rather dim in Lyra last night only whetted my appetite for more aperature :-). Being able to actually find and identify the nebula is a step up for me though... Fwiw, -- Dan Hanks

1 0

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse Glasses
by David Dunn 31 May '02

31 May '02

I just checked out Rainbow Symphony and they have eclipse shades in stock. I bought 100 of them a couple of years ago for the Christmas Ecplise. I gave them out to family and friends as a gift along with instructions telling them when to look. I think I will order a few more. It looks like they sell them for $25/25, $42.50/50, $75/100. http://www.rainbowsymphony.com/soleclipse Dave -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 9:00 AM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse Glasses Joe, I don't know of any local place that sells them. You might try the Chem Shop. Hands-On Optics (Gary Hand) is the eclipse-glasses czar in this country. He bought-out a manufacturer's inventory several years ago, and I think he still has thousands of them. You can also purchase a sheet of Mylar from Astro-physics or Thousand Oaks (Baader is still the best) and make your own inexpensively. I have a couple of pair myself, and a few of Tuthill's "cards" that I could loan you if you strike out completely. I plan to make dual solar-filters for my 70mm binos for this eclipse, from the Baader material and PVC pipe. Chuck --- Joe Borgione <jborgion(a)xmission.com> wrote: > Does anybody know of a local (Salt Lake) source for > eclipse veiwing > glasses? If I can, I'd like to pick a few. I'm > considering getting > some welding helmet lenses as an alternative; I > think I can get those at > a place like Wasatch Metals. > > Joe Borgione > > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

1 0

Converting non-tripod binoculars
by Chuck Hards 31 May '02

31 May '02

Dave Dunn took a pair of binos to Gallenson's in Salt Lake, and they were able to replace a tripod-adapter on a pair of his binos, for a few bucks. Thanks for the tip, Dave! Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

2 2

Drivel
by Patrick Wiggins 30 May '02

30 May '02

Did anyone else receive a very long track from the guy worried about the mystery planet from "orian"? Patrick

1 0

Re: orian
by Richard Tenney 29 May '02

29 May '02

--- georgeschmidt <georgeschmidt2000(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > I received an email saying a large planet is coming > near earth from the Orian constellation. It will > arrive next may and cause a pole shift. I received an e-mail saying you owed me about $10,000. Better pay up! > Gov. has known this for 3 years. Gov. Mike Leavitt is only a distant relative, but he said to me just last week that the escape pods are all full and there's no room left for the rest of you. Tsk! >What have you seen. I assume this is a question, but difficult to answer, as I've seen quite a lot in my lifetime, and it would take me dozens of journals and probably thousands of hours of writing to fully answer it. Sorry, I don't have time to adequately answer you. > Since I am aware of this, I am entitled to > know the truth so I can come up with some > preparations. > Since Orian is south, if the pole shifted, what temp > zone would it put salt lake city? I would definitely say it would put SLC in a lot of hot water (as well as hot air!). > > george > Okay, enough pulling your leg George. If you are sober and in posession of all your mental faculties, and since you ARE entitled to know the truth, here's an honest response: 1. There is no such constellation as "orian". There is a winter constellation known as Orion (not currently visible this time of year, nor will it be next May). 2. I have found in my 22+ years in the computer industry that 99% of what gets passed around in e-mails as "fact" is actually FICTION. The ludicrous story you've been told falls into that category as well. There is no alien conspiracy; there is no government cover-up. There is nothing in any credible scientific journal or publication that supports this ridiculous claim. Of the tens of thousands of amateur and professional astronomers in the world that have their telescopes trained on the heavens every clear night of the year, there are ZERO in number that can confirm your story! You've been had, George. Check this out: http://www.planet-x.150m.com/where.html 3. Here is a web site you should fully explore: http://www.badastronomy.com/ 4. The world is full of kooks. Don't believe everything in print. Stay skeptical, ask questions, and be informed. You also might want to purchase a good telescope and do some exploring of your own! Especially in and around Orion next winter -- there are some wonderful nebulae to be discovered there (and it might just set your mind at ease as well)... -Rich __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

2 1

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: orian
by Paul Witte 29 May '02

29 May '02

All joking aside, I personally feel it is our responsibility to at least try to set people straight on stuff like this (though I must agree giving him the SLAS schedule might be a bad idea). Rich, you might want to forward that email to Phil Platt at www.badastronomy.com. ---------- From: Chuck Hards Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 3:09 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: orian If you reply at all, you risk never getting rid of the guy. Please don't give him the SLAS schedule of events! The sad part is, he's not the only one, in all probability. I'll bet it started with some lonely guy calling the Art Bell show at 2 a.m. Do this: Tell him that yes, we know about it, but there isn't room on the escape ship for him, too, sorry old chap. Then give him Orin Hatch's phone number. C. --- Richard Tenney <retenney(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > This is hilarious! Thought y'all might get a kick > out > of helping me come up with a clever response > (despite > the sad fact that this Gomer appears to be taking it > seriously...) > -Rich > > > Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

2 1

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: orian
by Paul Witte 29 May '02

29 May '02

I just did some quick searching & found this: http://www.planet-x.150m.com/where.html There's one born every minute, eh? ---------- From: David Dunn Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 2:39 PM To: 'utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com' Subject: RE: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: orian Maybe Dennis M. Hope (the guy that sales moon property) will claim it. He could sale properties so that people would have somewhere to go after the Earth get ruined. Then all they would have to do is figure out how to get there. I still haven't figured out how to get to my property in Pitatus on the Moon. One interesting thing is that someone asked me a similar question a week or so ago. I think it was at the Antelope Island star party. I wonder where they are getting this from? Dave -----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 2:14 PM To: Utah-Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: orian This is hilarious! Thought y'all might get a kick out of helping me come up with a clever response (despite the sad fact that this Gomer appears to be taking it seriously...) -Rich Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

1 0

Fwd: orian
by Richard Tenney 29 May '02

29 May '02

This is hilarious! Thought y'all might get a kick out of helping me come up with a clever response (despite the sad fact that this Gomer appears to be taking it seriously...) -Rich Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

2 1