April 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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Questions sturred by Dr. Bromley
by Jim Gibson 02 May '04

02 May '04

I was intrigued by Dr. Ben Bromleys presentation on planet building at SLAS the other night. My mind moves slowly these days so I didnt think of a coupe of questions until it was too late to ask him. I was also pleasantly suppressed at the number of intelligent questions put forth by the SLAS members and I could see that there are a good number of folks that can answer my basic questions. In Trapezium (Orion Nebula) there is one large star in the group that is surrounded by a half dozen proto-planetary discs. From what Dr. Bromley said those discs usually disappear after about 1 million years. So, Can I assume that that star is less than a million years old and it is the youngest of the group because the others don't have disc about them? A gravitational force is computed by gf = ((6.67) * m1 * m2) / (d**) m meaning mass and d meaning distance). If I have some forming planet (m1) and there are two objects (m2) & (m3) in space above the planet, m2 is 1000 times bigger than m3, and both have centers of gravity at exactly the same distance from the planet but for purposes of simplicity they are on opposites sides of the planet or otherwise situated so m2 & m3 dont attract each other, then my understanding is that m1 and m2 will have the greater gravitational force. I dont know what angular momentum or inertia might play here, but would not the bigger object hit the planet first? Like when the moon was formed, in general wouldnt the larger objects tend to coalesce out of the debris and impact the moon first? Jim Gibson --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Autoguiders
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 01 May '04

01 May '04

Hi Rob, I have the Olympus OM-2N camera with a "B" setting. Are the other settings 1 2 4 8 15 30 60 for the flash? I don't know if the camera has mirror lockup. What color negative 400 film do you recommend? I'm going to shoot some point and shoot pictures first to get more familiar with the camera. Thanks for the advice. Good luck with comet Bradfield. Debbie

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Autoguiders
by Rob Ratkowski 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

Hi Deb Went out this AM at 4, set up and found M31 but couldn't really see Comet Bradfield all that well. I did this from my from yard (in a WELL lighted neighborhood) and with my digital camera and did learn a few things. I had the camera set at 800ASA equivalent using a 105mm lens (equal to 150mm on the digital) set at F2.8 wide open AND an exposure OF 30 sec. mounted on my C8 sidesaddle. I got a decent exposure of the sky and M31 but missed Comet Bradfield due to the camera being aimed more north than needed. I'll attempt this again from the 9300' level of Mt.Haleakala Sunday morning IF we have clear weather. With your OM-1 and a film of 400ASA (at F2.8 or 4), I'd start exposures at 1 minute and go up to 8 minutes and do this from a dark sky location w/ a good view of the horizon. I do believe that you'll be successful .............. Aloha,have fun Rob

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Autoguiders
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 30 Apr '04

30 Apr '04

Thanks guys. The film is history. What slide film is recommended for piggy-back astrophotography? Rob, I'm using the Olympus OM-2 camera for piggyback wide-field shots and my Nikon Coolpix 4500 camera for lunar/planetary and maybe some deepsky shots of the winter Milky Way. Also, should a shoot a roll of film in the daytime just to get used to the camera? I haven't used this camera much and my last roll of film didn't turn out too good. Debbie

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Thank you, Patrick
by Chuck Hards 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

Over the years, few individuals in the community have given back more to the hobby than Patrick Wiggins. Most of you know he practically lives for astronomy and space exploration, and has for as long as I've known him, about 30 years now. But devoting his life to it isn't enough, he has given a sizable donation to SLAS, several thousand dollars earmarked for the observatory complex, I believe. Thank You, Patrick. Well done! You never cease to amaze me with your devotion to the science & hobby. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Thank you, Patrick
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Apr '04

29 Apr '04

I don't know Patrick that well except that he gives good advice. I'm going to have to drive up to Tooele and check out the big refractor. I love refractor telescopes and the views they give. Thankyou Patrick and thanks for the news. Debbie

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