May 2004 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Backyard report
by Chuck Hards 17 May '04

17 May '04

>From the valley, Friday night started promising, but was totally overcast by the end of twilight. Saturday also overcast. Only viewing was some dusk glimpses of Venus, Jupiter & Saturn, through the cirrus on Friday. Pretty much a washout. Gave up on Sunday and went to see the movie TROY. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Backyard report
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 17 May '04

17 May '04

How was the movie TROY? Observed till midnight both Thur and Fri at Dead Horse State Park till clouds came in. Great skies there. We should have a star party there sometime. Lots to do in the daytime too. Want to go back there in the fall. Debbie

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Inexpensinve Ortho
by Chuck Hards 17 May '04

17 May '04

New this week at Surplus Shed: 11mm ortho eyepiece, 1.25" barrel, $24.50 + s&h http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3189.html I have not tried this one personally. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/

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Wedge roads
by Michael Carnes 14 May '04

14 May '04

Weather appears to be holding for at least Friday night at the Wedge. Can anyone tell me what the roads are likely to be like after this couple of days of rain? I've got 2-wheel drive, so I don't want to get stuck somewhere, if that's a likelihood. Thanks, Michael

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Weekend Weather
by Jim Gibson 12 May '04

12 May '04

There is a high pressure moving in which will keep most of the clouds away over Utah From Thursday night until Saturday night state wide. The Vernal Area could be bad for viewing Thursday night. By midnight Saturday a weather system will be coming in from the Northwest. There will be some wind ahead of the storm Saturday night, but there may be a few good hours of viewing before it gets here. The weather report did say partly cloudy during the day and mostly clear during the night both Thursday and Friday nights. Thursday and Friday nights look very promising. Saturday night is iffy. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2'

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Q4 NEAT pictures posted
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 12 May '04

12 May '04

Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 film. I went to WalMart and looked for Kodak Ektachrome 200 but I couldn't find it. Anything more than 3 minutes is overexposed. Debbie

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Q4 NEAT pictures posted
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 12 May '04

12 May '04

I managed to get a few pictures of Comet Q4 NEAT. Most of my pictures were throw-aways because of my balance problems with my C8 scope. When I switched to the f/5.6 setting the piggyback bracket came loose so I tightened it down. I then recentered the comet in my 55mm Plossl eyepiece and managed to get a few pictures of the comet, although not great. The last 5min picture as you can see is overexposed so I darkened it with my digital software. In the future, I think I am going to purchase a piggyback bracket from TeleVue and use my 4" APO to piggyback my camera. I wanted to shoot some pictures with my Nikon Coolpix 4500 camera but the digital camera would not fit on the piggyback bracket because the camera swivels. I also have a lot of airplane traffic down in Southern Utah so I think digital cameras are the way to go for me. Debbie

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Comet NEAT easy binocular target even in the city
by Richard Tenney 12 May '04

12 May '04

The comet was an easy find in my 9x binoculars last night when the clouds parted just after 10 pm from my rather light-polluted home in Lindon. Soon as the weather clears you should check it out if you haven't seen it already. (see the link below to a nice map) Debbie W. also snapped some good pics of it; hopefully we'll see them in the gallery shortly (hint hint). -Rich http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/article_110_1.asp __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861

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What is an element?
by Chuck Hards 12 May '04

12 May '04

(Besides an incredibly ugly vehicle from Honda?) There is only one element, hydrogen. All the others are just collections of hydrogen nuclei. If we allow the others, then there will be just too many. It offends my sensibility. We simply can't have 100+ elements, how could you possibly name them all? Only Tom Lehrer could recite them all quickly. We live in enlightened times. We now know with certainty that there is only one element, not 4 as previously thought, for the past few thousand years (earth, air, fire, water). I'm rejecting any claims to the contrary, after all extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Prove to me that other "elements" are not just hydrogen nuclei all bunched together, with an appropriately-sized electron cloud to give it the proper charge. Allowing many elements will only open the door for those wild chemists and biologists, and let me tell you they are loose cannons for sure...before you know it, they'll have us thinking all kinds of unconventional thoughts! Like flies are not the product of spontaneous generation, or witches don't weigh the same as a duck, or leeches are not the cutting-edge of medical science! Scary stuff, people... Don't allow the renegade "elements"! ;) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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What's a planet?
by Jim Gibson 12 May '04

12 May '04

Patrick I read the link you provided in your news letter, http://planetary.org/news/2004/planet_vote.html Personally, I dont feel I should vote because my decision would be based on emotion or something non-scientific and therefore I dont feel justified in voting. I believe I read where you expressed your opinion that Pluto is not a planet. You must have set in your own mind some criteria where the cut off is between a planet and the next level down; planetoids or asteroids. What criteria do you think should be considered in making such a judgment? Anyone else can answer for that matter. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs

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