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

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

29 Sep '03

Sorry to join late - I didn't see your comments and Rich's reply until this morning. I figure if I "observe" two or three new objects a session, that's plenty. I always have my favorites and others I may have forgotten about. I "observe" without putting things in writing - recording observations feels too much like work. Howver, even if I did write down everything and keep a written log, I would still limit an observing list to no more than five. (I remember reading this advice from an experienced observer in S&T years ago.) For me the important thing is to enjoy. If you miss one or two things on your observing list, they'll always be there again next time around. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 3:31 PM To: Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery. Subject: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party. According to my log book, I attended my first private star party on May 30th 2003 at the Gravel Pit. Up to that point (which included all my experience from November through May) I had gone out by myself or with my son. I found out that planning ahead was useful and more productive than not plannig. I went to the Gravel Pit star party with a plan and imagined doing like I had always done. Generally I always like to take the Sky & Telescopes centerfold and I like to be able to identify a few new constellations each time and re-acquaint myself with ones I had learned before. Then I like to use a Telrad to locate objects that I have found before and add a few new ones each time out. I also like to write things down in my log book as a learning aid. When I got to the Gravel Pit I set up and began to follow my plan and by 9:53 I found M3. My log ends there because before I got very far into my plan Don Colton found the some really cool object that I had never seen and wasn't in my plan for the night so I had to run over to his scope and check it out. After observing the object for a minute I noted the Telrad position and then ran back to my scope to find the same object. Then Kim Hyatt found an ooh - aah and I had to go check it out, noting the position as well, then Rich Tenney found NGC 4565 in his beautiful 16" scope, then Mike, Tom and Dave all found neat stuff and round and round I went all night long. My plan and my log went down with the sun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But I'm not sure if I learned anything. To plan or not to plan that is the question. How do you plan for a star party when complete lack of discipline possesses your mind such as described above? I think I need to attend lots of them. 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] Report on Friday nights Star Party at Wolf Creek
by David L Bennett 27 Sep '03

27 Sep '03

The current map to Wolf Creek on the SLAS website still only shows the directions to get to the Wolf Creek Summit campground and not to the actual observing site, so, until further notice, please see my maps at: http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/PhotoAlbum4.html

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by Richard Tenney 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

Jim, You just have to also plan for the unexpected yet inevitable distractions, and therefore put more realistic limits on your own list; don't make it as ambitious and then you won't have any regrets at the end of the night that you didn't get to all the objects on your list. I'm working through the Herschel-400, a rather huge list, and consider myself successful if I manage to get more than about a dozen objects or so logged in an evening, but I also don't feel too bad if I log fewer because I'm too busy being distracted by what my neighbor is oohing and aahing about and wanting to go have a look, or giving a newcomer a first glimpse at one of the flashier M-objects we've all seen a hundred times. At the last public star party I attended, when a young woman climbed the ladder and caught her first glimpse of M-13 in a big dob, and she let out that low moaning kind of "ohhhhh wowwww", those of us standing below all shared in her joy of discovery all over again. While it may be hard for some to comprehend why that shared experience is so satisfying, I think all of you know what I mean. Anyway, as they say, the joy's in the journey, not [just] the destination, so don't sweat the list. Keep planning, but also remember to include a plan for contingencies... -Rich --- Jim Gibson <xajax99(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > According to my log book, I attended my first > private star party on May 30th 2003 at the Gravel > Pit. Up to that point (which included all my > experience from November through May) I had gone out > by myself or with my son. I found out that planning > ahead was useful and more productive than not > plannig. I went to the Gravel Pit star party with a > plan and imagined doing like I had always done. > Generally I always like to take the Sky & Telescopes > centerfold and I like to be able to identify a few > new constellations each time and re-acquaint myself > with ones I had learned before. Then I like to use a > Telrad to locate objects that I have found before > and add a few new ones each time out. I also like to > write things down in my log book as a learning aid. > > > > When I got to the Gravel Pit I set up and began to > follow my plan and by 9:53 I found M3. My log ends > there because before I got very far into my plan Don > Colton found the some really cool object that I had > never seen and wasnt in my plan for the night so I > had to run over to his scope and check it out. After > observing the object for a minute I noted the Telrad > position and then ran back to my scope to find the > same object. Then Kim Hyatt found an ooh aah and I > had to go check it out, noting the position as well, > then Rich Tenney found NGC 4565 in his beautiful 16 > scope, then Mike, Tom and Dave all found neat stuff > and round and round I went all night long. My plan > and my log went down with the sun and I thoroughly > enjoyed myself. But I'm not sure if I learned > anything. > > > > To plan or not to plan that is the question. How > do you plan for a star party when complete lack of > discipline possesses your mind such as described > above? > > > > I think I need to attend lots of them. > > > > Jim > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search> _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >

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And the winner is....
by Chuck Hards 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

Turn to page 76 in the Nov. S&T. A fellow finally did what many of us have dreamed of for years...He mounted his binoculars on an honest-to-god La-Z-Boy recliner, complete with cup holder! The "couch potato" binocular mount! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Wolf Creek...One Last Hoorah!
by David L Bennett 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

Howdy folks, For those of you who may not be able to make it to Jerry & Cindy Foote's (is that Feet?) in Kanab this new moon weekend for the CCD seminar, please let me offer a 'cool' local alternative. On both Friday & Saturday nights - the 26th & 27th - there will be several of us heading to the higher climes of Wolf Creek to get up above any remaining smoke & haze in the valleys. I've spoken to people who are going up for just Friday, those going up for Saturday only, and a few diehards that will be up there for both nights, so pick and choose as need be. A moment ago I spoke with a nice woman from the National Weather Service here in Salt Lake. She says that the smoke is mostly staying in the valleys along the Wasatch Front and will continue to dissipate throughout the heat of the days. There is a chance, as the smoke dissipates, that some will make its way west but she said our altitude at the site should be above the haze line. I've included a link below to my homepage that has two maps that I have compiled to and of the site. The 1st shows the site in relation to Salt Lake (my apologies for my SugarhouseCentric view) and the 2nd shows the site in relation to the Wolf Creek Summit/Campground. The 2.5 mile dirt road from the Summit/Campground is not bad at all. I've driven it often in a Saturn sedan without any worries...just avoid the puddles if there are any. Note the photo in the map album of the 'Dead End' and 'Fuelwood Cutting Prohibited' signs. This is where you would turn LEFT (NNE) at the 1.7mi mark. The last time I was up there (June), one of the signs was hanging kind of skawampus from a series of bullet blasts so don't be surprised if it is missing altogether. Please feel free to direct any questions about the observing site or the weekend to me dlbennett(a)mac.com or call me at 583-3295. http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/ Just click on 'Wolf Creek Maps'...my site is being revamped but the maps and photos from a few of the W.C. Fields star parties are the still available. Hope to see some of you there! Regards, Dave Bennett P.S. Below you'll find a written description to the site that was supplied graciously by Jo Grahn in an earlier email....(Thanks so much Jo!) Estimated travel time; 1 hour and 15-30 minutes ** depending on where you live in the Valley. **Unless of course you stop for pizza or a malt in Kamas! P.P.S. Be sure to come prepared for a late September night at 9890 feet!!!! Bring lots of layers, thermals, moon-boots if you got 'em, and hot coffee/cocoa/possum/postum ************************************************************************ **************** Take I-80 East (past Park City exit) to Exit 148. (Rt. 40 East). Stay to the right on the exit, as it splits. Head East on Rt. 40 to Exit 4. At the bottom of the exit ramp, go left towards Kamas. (I think this is Rt. 248, but I won't swear to it.) Follow this road as it winds through the hills to Kamas. In Kamas there is a stop sign at the intersection of this road and Rt. 32. Go right (South) on Rt. 32. Take Rt. 32 several miles to the intersection with Rt. 35 in Francis. Go left (East) on 35. You will go through Francis and Woodland and up past the Mill Hollow reservoir turnoff. Towards the top of the pass, you will see a sign for the Wolf Creek campground on your right. Go to and through the campground on a dirt rd, and continue on about two miles heading south, until you reach the edge of the world (ormaybe it just looks that way). The road comes to an abrupt "T". Go left, past the dead end sign, .8 miles. There is a beautiful wide grassy area to the right that Dave Bernson and Dave Bennett found several years ago. The sky is dark enough that the milky way casts a definite shadow.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Dave Dunn, are you out there?
by DunnDave＠aol.com 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

We had to turn off my albertsons id because someone was using it as the return address for spam. I have kept this aol address enrolled in the group. Dave

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Frontiers of Science Lecture Series
by David L Bennett 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Hey folks, forwarded info of an upcoming lecture: FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE LECTURE Strange Views of Space and Time: From Einstein to String Theory Lecturer: Gary T. Horowitz, professor of physics, UC-Santa Barbara Date: Weds, October 8, 2003 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology auditorium, University of Utah FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Modern physics has presented a picture of space and time which is very different from our usual "common sense" understanding. Precise experiments have confirmed that space and time really do have very strange properties. Most of these properties were predicted by Einstein. In this talk, professor Horowitz will describe some of them, including: 1) The time you experience depends on your state of motion. This means that not only your mechanical watch, but also your biological clock which governs aging, proceed at different rates depending on how you move in space. The time you experience also depends on nearby gravitational fields. Time slows down in a gravitational field. 2) Different people can disagree about which things happen at the same time. The notion of two events being simultaneous is not fundamentally well defined. 3) Space is curved by matter. Light rays, traveling along the straightest possible paths, are bent when they pass near heavy objects. Black holes are excellent examples of this. Modern work on string theory has suggested even more strange properties of space and time. Although they have not yet been confirmed by experiment, many physicists take them seriously. These include the possibility that space has more than three dimensions. Horowitz will explain what this means and why it does not obviously conflict with observations of our world. Some recent speculation about these extra dimensions includes the possibility of parallel universes. Professor Horowitz will give a live radio interview on KCPW 88.3 FM on Monday, October 6, 9:40 AM. The College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences are working together this year to offer an expanded schedule of presentations. A total of five lectures will be given in the 2003-2004 academic year. Frontiers of Science talks are free and open to the public. Videotapes are also available to the public. For more information, please contact the College of Science at 581-6958 or visit www.science.utah.edu.

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Dave Dunn, are you out there?
by Chuck Hards 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Dave, messages to your Albertsons email address are bouncing back. Do you have a new email address? Thanks C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Low priced 100mm binocular
by Chuck Hards 23 Sep '03

23 Sep '03

This month Apogee is advertising a 20x100mm binocular for $199.95. This one doesn't look like the 25x100mm unit (still $249.95) or the 80mm units they sell. It does have the "bar" type mount that connects the hinge with the objective assemblies. This unit would yield a 5mm exit pupil. This is listed as a "Christmas Special", the regular price will be $349.99 when the sale ends. www.apogeeinc.com (877) 923-1602 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Off topic
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 23 Sep '03

23 Sep '03

Rich, Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Bill Gates steal the GUI idea from Apple Computer? I have to be careful at home so my mom doesn't hear me swear about Bill Gates and his operating system. LOL. Sometimes it can be a pain in the but. My 2 Cents, Debbie

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