January 2003 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Shuttle reentry update, 23:08, 27 JAN 2003
by Patrick Wiggins 28 Jan '03

28 Jan '03

I've just received the new ground track map. It's posted in the "SHUTTLE REENTRY OVER S. UTAH" section of http://planet.state.ut.us . I did not include the "height above horizon" lines in this version since now that reentry will occur after local sunrise, it may not be visible from as far from the ground track as it would have with darker skies. Best bet now, IMHO, is you'll probably want to be as close to the ground track as possible. Weather forecast for St. George: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/UTZ017.php?warncounty=UTC053&city=Sa… Patrick

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Fwd: astronomy question
by Richard Tenney 28 Jan '03

28 Jan '03

Anyone care to take a stab at this? I'm not familiar with the tubes she's talking about. Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

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Urgent! Dark Skies resolution TODAY!!
by Josephine Grahn 28 Jan '03

28 Jan '03

This is a forward from the Utah Dark Skies group. If you want to see the advance of light pollution slowed, GET VOCAL!! Jo I know this is last minute, but... I just got this from Senator Allen. The Senate Natural Resources Committee will be holding a public hearing TOMORROW on our Light Pollution Control Resolution ( href="<underline><color><param>0000,0000,fefe</param>http://www.le.state.ut.us/%7E2003/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SCR001.htm</color></underline>">SCR001). Don and I will be there to speak in support of this resolution. As noted below, there are those who'd like to see this bill defeated. If there is any way that you can make it up to the Capital tomorrow afternoon and show your support it would be very helpful. Additionally, if you could contact Sen. Beverly Ann Evans (chairperson) and the other committee members and urge them to support the bill it would be helpful as well. Time: 3:00pm Place: Utah State Capital Room #131 - This room is on the lower floor on the east side Thanks! APA The resolution is on tomorrows agenda in committee. The public is allowed to speak. Several groups have mounted opposition: Billboard companies and grocers. See if a few people can show up, sorry for the last minute notice, I just got it. Thanks! <bold> Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee - 28 January 2003, 3:00 PM - Rm 131 </bold>

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Shuttle reentry update
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

Looks like the ground track has indeed moved further south. And the time is now a few minutes after local sunrise. It should still be visible but not as colorful as if the sky were dark. Here's the latest from my contact at JSC: > According to the updated entry predictions that I got today, > the peak elevation for Cedar City, UT will now be 45 degrees > in the south-southwest at 13:54:22 UTC (6:54:22 am MST). This > will be about 42 minutes before sunrise there. So the higher > altitude did shift it later and farther south, like I mentioned > before. I will try to send you an updated groundtrack map > tonight. Whenever he sends me the new map I'll get it posted at http://planet.state.ut.us . Patrick

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: astronomy question
by Kim Hyatt 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

Sounds like the Sun Tunnels near Lucin. I sent her an email with a URL to images she could look up. -----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 5:01 PM To: Utah-Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Fwd: astronomy question Anyone care to take a stab at this? I'm not familiar with the tubes she's talking about. Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Filter seminar
by David Dunn 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

I like the idea of a few people getting together to do the filter research and then reporting back on what they find. It could take several attempts to get the proper viewing conditions and it would be very difficult to get much more than a few people together on the short notice that it will take. I would still like to see us do a Utah-astronomy star party the on Friday 2/28. I don't think that this is a public party, however people wouldn't need to own a telescope to attend. I think that any "Astronomers" should be welcome. Are others interested in this? We should try to keep this centralized so that it isn't too far for Ogden and Utah Valley to attend. Any ideas on a good, reasonably dark place that is close to SLC? Dave

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Filter seminar
by Chuck Hards 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

The objectives are simple. What we want to determine is if filters are truly necessary at all- not which type of telescope they will work best in. The procedure will be comparing what person "A" sees, both with and without filters, with what person "B" sees, through the same scope, again with and without filters. The type of telescope used is irrellevant for purposes of the test, as long as the aperture is sufficient to support planetary magnifications. This is a test of perceptive abilities more than anything, not really a hardware issue other than filters will be used to assess those perceptions. Chuck --- Jim Gibson <xajax99(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > Chuck > > > > Brent makes an interesting point when he wrote: __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Planetarium at the Univ of NV, Reno
by forrell＠es.com 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

While I have never encountered any planetariums in US shopping malls, I have seen several in Japan. -----Original Message----- From: Joe Bauman [mailto:bau@desnews.com] Sent: Fri 1/24/2003 9:22 AM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Cc: Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Planetarium at the Univ of NV, Reno I am wondering if any other largish city has a planetarium in a shopping mall. All that I can think of off-hand are in more dignified settings, like the Chicago's Adler out on a penninsula in Lake Michigan near the public Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. Any thought about this? -- Thanks, Joe Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau(a)desnews.com (801) 237-2169 _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy

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In complete agreement...
by JonnyUtah 27 Jan '03

27 Jan '03

Hello all, This is my first posting to this group; however, I have been sitting quietly in the background reading the daily digests that come to my in-box. When I read todays posts about popular society, I had to respond. I am in complete agreement with you all concerning popular society. My wife and I are in our late 20's (28, 29) and are expecting our first child. When I heard that the planetarium was moving to Gateway, I was excited at first, and then I gradually became saddened that my child won't be seeing the star shows in the old building. I vividly remember the first time my parents took me to a star show at the Hansen Planetarium in the late seventies. I remember walking out in awe, and begging my parents to take me to the library so I could get some books on astronomy. I devoured anything and everything that had to do with astronomy. Sadly, my collegiate studies took me along another path, but my experiences at the planetarium awakened my mind to the fact that we occupy such a small corner of an infinitely vast universe. My theory is that popular culture demands that everything must be new. I think this is due to the fact that people's attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. People don't appreciate anything that's more than a few years old anymore. When it's "out-dated", it no longer holds any interest and the individual moves on to the next fad. I truly feel that we are losing something as a species, the curiosity that drives us to expand our minds and challenge our beliefs. For example, I just started a new job, and I have been telling people that I just built my first telescope, and am working on my second. The usual response I get is "cool", or "I wish I had the energy and time to do that." No really shows any curiosity in seeing them, and balk away when I invite them to come and peer at what's over their heads. Then I realize, the subject matter is truly "over their heads" because they don't really grasp the universe above them because they don't care to. If its not on NBC on thursday nights from 7-10, they just don't care. Sorry for the long message, that was my $0.02 worth. Jon

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 4 inch focuser ?
by Josephine Grahn 26 Jan '03

26 Jan '03

Does this mean none of you are coming to my New Years Eve party tonight? Living in the past works best for some of us.... Jo At 08:04 PM 1/26/2003 -0800, you wrote: >Jo, > >What happened to your PC's system clock? The >date/time stamp on this message is 31 Dec. 2002! > >

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