February 2004 - 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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utahastronomy.com email?
by lucyblue＠xmission.com 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Soo.. would anyone be interested in a whoever(a)utahastronomy.com email address? =D Would be accessable by web or by a POP3 client. I'm looking into the options. Cyn -- http://www.utahdogs.com http://www.cynthiablue.net

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Pix of geosats
by Patrick Wiggins 02 Mar '04

02 Mar '04

Nice thing about imaging geosats is that a clock drive is not needed. http://mysite.freeserve.com/satcom_transits/geosfeb28.jpg Patrick

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An "ahh" moment
by Richard Tenney 29 Feb '04

29 Feb '04

I got home late last night to find that my wife was still at school working on a paper and that the horses were still not fed. I changed and went outside, and found myself under a canopy of wonderful, glorious stars -- I timed it well; at close to 10pm in Utah County the clouds parted for a time and it sure was nice after all these wintery weeks to see my photonic friends again in full splendor. I didn't even mind the moon -- the sky was crystal clear and wonderful. Slogging through the semi-frozen mud was therapeutic for a change. Did I mention that the horses were also grateful? :o) Amazing how weeks of cloudy weather can help you appreciate the little things in life... -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools

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Eyepieces
by Paul C Johnson 29 Feb '04

29 Feb '04

I am looking to upgrade my eyepiece collection this year. Last year, I bought an 8" Nexstar. I love it so far but I bought the set of eyepieces that came with it for an extra $100. I am starting to think these eyepieces aren't going to give me very good images. I was wondering if anyone would be able to recommend a better alternative to me. I am a bit poor, especially after buying the Nexstar, and am looking for some nice mid range type of eyepiece. I have considered the Meade 4000 and Celestron Ultima eyepieces. Any recommendations out there? Thanks, Paul.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Regulus Transit
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 27 Feb '04

27 Feb '04

Thanks James and Jim. I went to the Sky and Telescope Interactive Sky Chart and my results were close to James. I will try to observe NGC 3132 at about 10:30 to be sure I'm not too late. This time I hope to crank up the magnification to at least 345X. This planetary has high surface brightness and takes magnification well. This time I won't use the OIII filter. I want to see every blue photon of this nebula. I think Kohoutek 1-23 will transit at about the same time as Delta Corvi. It rises 9 degrees above the horizon so it will be a challenge. Usually I try to stay above -40 in Dec. Maybe I'll have clear skies by March 20th. I've never seen so much rain in St. George. Debbie

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Laser pointer and imaging "basically" an urbanlegend
by Dale Hooper 27 Feb '04

27 Feb '04

Good questions. It wasn't specifically stated, but, looking at Chris Peterson's observatory instrumentation (www.cloudbait.com) I would assume it was narrow field imaging . His scope is a 12" LX200 (~3000mm fl). It would probably be good to also do a widefield experiment. But, generalizing from the various comments (as I'm prone to do <g>) I would think the results should basically be the same. In other words, for a widefield image I would expect: 1) If the laser is very close to the imaging scope pointing at the same location (for a long time) there would be a background gradient caused by the laser. This could probably mess up the image to some extent. 2) The greater the distance from the scope to the laser - both pointing at the same location in the sky - the slighter the gradient. The image should be okay. 3) If the laser is "zipped" across the location where the telescope is pointing, it would probably be no big deal. It would be a fun experiment. Clear skies, Dale. > -----Original Message----- > From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] > Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 3:04 PM > To: Utah Astronomy > Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Laser pointer and imaging "basically" an > urbanlegend > > > > --- Dale Hooper <Dale.Hooper(a)sdl.usu.edu> wrote: > > There was a discussion on the SBIG CCD yahoo group > > over the past couple of days about laser pointers > > and whether they really do mess things up for > > imagers. There was some really good empirical data > > presented that says it is basically much ado about > > not much. > > What was the system focal length for the test shots? > Was this for through-the-scope, high powered imaging > only, or was wide-angle imaging tested also? (50mm & > shorter e.f.l.) > > C. > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Get better spam protection with Yahoo! Mail. > http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com > >

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[Utah-astronomy] Laser pointer and imaging "basically" an urban legend
by Dale Hooper 27 Feb '04

27 Feb '04

There was a discussion on the SBIG CCD yahoo group over the past couple of days about laser pointers and whether they really do mess things up for imagers. There was some really good empirical data presented that says it is basically much ado about not much. Chris Peterson (Cloudbait Observatory) performed a couple experiments: 1) He allowed a tripod mounted green laser to momentarily intersect an area he was imaging - comparison of images with and without the laser revealed no difference. 2) About twenty feet from his telescope, he had a laser pointer track the same location as he was imaging for two minutes. The background level was slightly elevated but not significantly. The only ones that actually had any real problems with lasers in their images - had been themselves using the lasers as a finder on their telescope. The bottom line was that the only significant danger to imaging was if someone accidentally pointed the laser at the telescope (or the imager <g>). However, it was also mentioned that some star parties do ban them. In addition, etiquette would dictate that if someone really objects - then it's not something worth starting a row over. Clear skies, Dale.

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