March 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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[Utah-astronomy] Weekend observing report from Gravel Pit & Rush Valley
by Richard Tenney 19 May '04

19 May '04

Friday night proved to be pretty good from the Gravel Pit. Three scopes showed up; my 16, Daniel "Galaxy Hunter" Turner's 17.5" and Lou Griffin's 20-inch, joined later by a group of enthusiastic young adults. The seeing was poor/fair until the clouds fully departed about 10:30, and seeing was decent as we lingered until about 1:30. I managed to log about 25 H-400 objects there, mostly open clusters and galaxies in Orion, Auriga, Cam. and Gemini, and one nice PNe, NGC 1501. The weather was downright balmy. Over 40 degrees at least until midnight, and I never even donned the gloves. The most difficult object of the night was NGC 2185, a diffuse nebula in Orion. Very challenging object. Anyone on the list have any luck with this one? I barely saw the nebulosity, but the seeing was poor and it was low in the sky. Any personal observing notes on this as to what to expect with good seeing would be appreciated. Saturday at the "pit 'n pole" in Rush Valley the sky was much clearer. Unfortunately I arrived late and a bit frustrated from getting lost (sorry to bark at you Jim!), joining a large group (including my 2 compainions from the night before) that was quickly dissipating about 10-ish. While it has a better South-Western horizon than the gravel pit (in spite of some light pollution from the chem depot), overall isn't a better site, and was actually much colder than the gravel pit ironically. Again I managed to bag approx another 25 objects, spending most of the night hunting galaxies in Leo and UMa; some nice galaxy cluster surprises, e.g., NGC 3681,3684, 3686, and 3691 in the same eyepiece field (@115x in the 22 Nagler), and 3185, 3190, and 3193 in another view, etc. Lots of fun multiple galaxy pairs, trios, and quads, including groups near NGC 3395 and NGC 3607. Saw the beautiful dual transit on Jupiter (with superb color banding in the 17.5") about 11:20, and was treated to an easy find of Omega Centauri (my first view ever) skimming along just above the horizon approx. 2 a.m. (just two of us left by then). I'd sure love to see that baby overhead before I die in a big dob under clear dark skies... Tired (yet happy) after two nights of getting to bed after 3am and not being able to sleep in past 8. Yawn. (Sorry, I suspect this post is a yawner too), -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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utahastronomy.com email?
by lucyblue＠xmission.com 21 Apr '04

21 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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Another Binopalooza?
by Chuck Hards 04 Apr '04

04 Apr '04

Some folks have expressed an interest in having another Binopalooza. If we do, when is best? The local "brick and mortar" clubs have just about every "dark" weekend booked for something, so we may have to ask people to make a choice, though I am loathe to do this. Comments? Thanks C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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Finally, a decent night of seeing
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

It's been 2 1/2 months since I had a good night of seeing. I set up the TV-102 refractor on the Losmandy GM-8 mount to view some doubles, planets, and the moon. I was surprised to see the "C" ring on Saturn. I saw a clean split of the Cassini Division plus detail on the globe at 125X. Instead of reaching for the 5mm Radian, I grabbed the 4mm Radian. It was an awesome view at 220X. I've never seen Saturn this good in this telescope. It made we wish I had a 3mm Radian and a 6" refractor. I first checked the seeing with Theta Aurigae. It was an easy split at 125X. I thought Ithis is supposed to be a tough one. Then I went to Epsilon Canis Majoris. I could see the faint secondary star at about the 4 o'clock position. It was a clean split tonight. Then I went on to Kappa Puppis. This is a 3.8 and 4.0 mag, 9.9" almost equal matched pair. It was a pretty sight at 125X. I went north to Eta Puppis, a 5.1 mag, 9.8" equal matched pair. This was also a pretty double. My next target was the Tau Canis Majoris cluster, a pretty open cluster despite the light pollution from the half moon. I just love viewing this cluster. I viewed it on March 19th with the 15" and it is one of my favorite star clusters in the Milky Way. Just to the north of this cluster is the "Winter Albeiro", a pretty 27" wide gold-blue double with a striking color contrast. Nice view at 40X. My next target was the triple star Beta Monocerotis. This is a 4.7, 5.2, and 6.2 mag triple with 7.2" and 2.9" separations. I got a clean split at 125X. All three stars are white. My last double was Gamma Leonis, a striking bright pair of yellow suns. I turned my scope to Jupiter and I could see much detail at 125X with the 7mm Nagler. When I put in the 4mm Radian(220X), Jupiter was larger than life. The Great Red Spot was readily apparent and I could see a smaller storm to the left of the Great Red Spot. After looking at all the bands of Jupiter I thought I'd take a high power look (220X) at the moon. The craters along the terminator were amazing. I felt like I was hovering over the moon in a spacecraft. The mountains on the moon almost looked 3D. I can only imagine how Jim Lovell saw it on his Apollo 8 mission. Clear Skies, Debbie

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Saturn image through an RV-6
by Richard Tenney 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

Got the following from a fellow on the Criterion Dynascope list today. Amazing webcam image obtained from this humble classic 6-inch newtonian (I'm still the original owner of a vintage 1972 RV-6, still my preferred grab-n-go scope)... --------------------------------------------------- This was captured with a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam through a Tele Vue 2x barlow with an extension tube: http://www.unm.edu/~abqtom/images/Planets/Saturn/2004-03-22-TEW-Sat.jpg __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Saturn image through an RV-6
by Corr, Tom 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

Speaking of webcam's . . . does anyone on the Utah Astronomy listserv have any information about building one's own webcam recorder that is adapted for astrophotography? If someone does, we could communicate offline to keep the traffic controlled. Aside from cost savings, I like the idea of building my own recorder - at least initially. I was going to build the Cook Book CCD, but that is no longer possible since chips are no longer available for that CCD. I recently read on article in either S&T or Astronomy that whetted my appetite to make a webcam substitute for the CCD. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:25 PM To: Utah-Astronomy; UVAA Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Saturn image through an RV-6 Got the following from a fellow on the Criterion Dynascope list today. Amazing webcam image obtained from this humble classic 6-inch newtonian (I'm still the original owner of a vintage 1972 RV-6, still my preferred grab-n-go scope)... --------------------------------------------------- This was captured with a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam through a Tele Vue 2x barlow with an extension tube: http://www.unm.edu/~abqtom/images/Planets/Saturn/2004-03-22-TEW-Sat.jpg __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html _______________________________________________ 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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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Finally, a decent night of seeing
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

The thing I like about refractors is that you get consistent good views despite mediocre seeing. When seeing is good, you get razor sharp images. I think that is why astrophotographers like refractors so much. Debbie

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