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

beautiful meteor
by Thomas Sevcik 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

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Today's NASA Briefing
by Patrick Wiggins 03 Feb '05

03 Feb '05

Two things of note out of today's briefing. 1) The briefer noted they have received 132 reports of found debris in CA, 130 in AZ and 9 in NM but that none had been confirmed. He made no mention of Utah. 2) The picture mentioned in the Aviation Week article was shown. Some of the media has been playing it up as being "hi resolution". Don't know that I'd call it hi-res but it does show the shape of the orbiter and maybe there's "something" with the left wing but the image is so pixcelated it's hard to say for sure. No doubt the picture will be all over the TV tonight.

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New Saturn Picture
by Siegfried Jachmann 27 Oct '04

27 Oct '04

Joe, I see it the same way and wondered the same thing even before reading your post. The ring is not parallel with the belts. I'm also wondering where the top of the planet disappeared to. Siegfried Jachmann Family History Network Comptroller 801-553-8881

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moon photo
by Joe Bauman 27 Oct '03

27 Oct '03

Hi Friends, if anyone is interested, here's a view I took of the moon through my little 8" Thursday night -- I would love to know what star that is by the right. It's similar to the photo the Deseret News ran with my article about the eclipse, because our photographer shot through my telescope. But this is one I took with a different DN digital camera than the one he was using. It's part of a series of views I made. Once I get a freeware stacking program working better, I may be able to provide a much nicer view. Best wishes, Joe Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau(a)desnews.com (801) 237-2169

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15x70's are back
by Richard Tenney 06 Oct '03

06 Oct '03

FYI Although the Sportsman Guide 15x70 Galileo binoculars were out of stock when I sent the last emailing out about them, a list member checked back today and they are in stock again. The total with ground shipping is $82.45 Chuck Hards also informs me that he still has 2 sets of Solar Filters for these babies leftover from his last e-bay auction; $25 a pair (it's a steal). -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Report on Friday nights Star Party at Wolf Creek
by David L Bennett 01 Oct '03

01 Oct '03

A 'quick' note on last night at Wolf Creek as I have been up all night a need a few zzzz's...sorry if my rambling is more discombobulated than usual....wow! my spell checker says I spelled discombobulated correctly even in my current state (Utah), what are the odds? As Jim mentioned, the clouds from the NE went to bed fairly early and left us with good dark sky for the remainder of the night. The satellite animation that I saw yesterday afternoon showed both the incoming bands of clouds from Wyoming and the smoke from the Cascade Uncontrolled Burn. In the animation, the smoke was blowing between Utah Lake & Strawberry Reservoir so I thought our chances looked good and they were. You could see the layer of smoke skirting the SW & S horizons but it never crept up to interfere with viewing. There seemed to be a fire to the East of the site but again the smoke on the eastern horizon stayed low and removed. I just checked the National Weather Service satellite site again and today's animation shows not a tenth of the smoke I saw yesterday and the forecast is for clear for the area from Salt Lake to Duchesne. The temp remained 40-45 for most of the night with occasional bouts of wind chill factor. Not nearly as cold as I had imagined it would be and was prepared for. I left my back-up heavy coat off all night. We saw a 25 hour-old moon last night through a pair of 10x70 binoculars after looking at Venus. Mars started out with Solis Lacus nicely placed (about 115 CM) for easy identification before it rotated out of view. Mare Sirenum then took over as well as Mare Cimmerium later on...look for the connection between these two Maria...it isn't shown on most Mars maps. We also tried out a Sirius Optics Mars 2003 filter with very encouraging results...more on that later. Kim found both Uranus & Neptune. I hunted (and do I mean hunted) down Comet Encke which is directly below (East) of Beta & Gamma Triangulum and which is also directly below 22nd magnitude...lol...or so it seemed. I just found out it was a little over 13th mag, quite diffuse and can attest that it was very tricky to find. This comet is predicted to reach 6th or 7th mag by the end of November or early December so keep an eye out for it. http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1036_1.asp Limiting magnitude (using stars in Ursa Minor) was 7.1 and the seeing varied throughout the night. At one point near 5am I was using Jim's 12.5" f/7 at 318x & 462x to look at Saturn...the 318 held details fairly steady and at 462 I glimpsed Encke's Gap for the briefest of moments. Jupiter stayed mostly in the soup but I did get a nice high power (318) view just before sunrise. Mercury was just below Jupiter (3 or 4 degrees) and was quite easily seen for almost an hour. Through Kim Hyatt's 10" f/5 dob at 90 power I could make out its gibbous shape despite the frantic scintillation. I took quite a few photos (astro & the fall colors) and will post the better ones on my homepage after I wake up...in several weeks. G'nite, Dave Bennett P.S. Many thanks to Jim Gibson, Tom Watson, Mike Bailey, Kim Hyatt, Steve (?), Damon and Christina for letting me commandeer their great telescopes throughout the night. Amateur astronomy sure attracts some wonderful people. P.P.S. Watch out for road delays caused by sheep. Advice: bring your own sheep dog! Theirs were useless.

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Saturday @ Wolf Creek?
by David L Bennett 30 Sep '03

30 Sep '03

Hi Folks, Did anyone make it up to Wolf Creek on Saturday night? How were the observing and smoke conditions? Dave

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Jim, In the "The Caldwell Objects" book, don't forget to read about the twenty spectacular non-Caldwell objects at the end of the book. There are a couple of objects there that even I need to check out. Debbie

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by Kim Hyatt 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Yeah, thanks Debbie. I like the looks of this list, although I'm not ambitious enough to prepare an observing list that extensive. Jim, 891 is relatively easy - looked at it (observed?) awhile Friday night with both my 10" Newt and 8" SCT. Even in the 8" dust lane was easy with some mottling. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 2:40 PM To: Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery. Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party. Debbie Thanks! I bookmarked it and will peruse through it well. Just remember I haven't seen all of the M objects yet. I stayed home from work today to catch up on my sleep from last Friday and Saturday night. With a little time to play I got out the Caldwell Objects book and entered several of the NGCs listed there and some M objects that I haven't seen yet in the Sky Commander's User List that is attached to my scope. So now I have to go out this weekend to try it out. I think I will take my daughter to the Rush Valley site because she is a nut too. I like the layout of the list. I like all the objects together by constellation with the magnitudes and sizes. I just put NGC 891 in my User List (6th from the top of the DeepMap 600 List). I am betting that 9.9 mag spread out over 13' is going to be hard to see. It is in my Caldwell book as C23 with a picture. Looks like a nice dust lane thru the center. Thanks again Jim _____ Do you Yahoo!? The <http://shopping.yahoo.com/?__yltc=s%3A150000443%2Cd%3A22708228%2Cslk%3Atext %2Csec%3Amail> New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Jim, Have you checked out the DeepMap 600 list. I printed out all 25 pages and I just go to the constellation that I want to focus on. It is a great reference. Here is the url http://pages.sbcglobal.net/raycash/dmcon.htm. It is always rewarding to view something new. This will keep you busy for a while. Debbie

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