October 2005 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

No Mars Watch Monday
by Patrick Wiggins 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

I just heard from the "advance guard" at SPOC that the weather is great and telescopes are already showing up. That being the case, and assuming the weather does not go south, I will not be holding a Mars Watch tomorrow (Monday) night. Of course that does not bar someone else from organizing additional Mars Watches. Patrick

1 0

Mars
by Chuck Hards 30 Oct '05

30 Oct '05

The sky miraculously cleared up Friday night, so I set-up the 6" and watched Mars until 2 am. I am posting this before bed, while still clear in my mind. I've been up since 5 am! I first had to replace the batteries for my mirror fan- eight AAA, four of which had leaked since I last checked them in July. Of course I didn't discover this until I was already outside in the dark. Anyway, there was no damage (plastic battery compartment), to the scope anyway; my middle-aged knees took a bit of abuse, the insulated coveralls helped. Once the fan was running, the image snapped into crisp focus- the seeing was exellent right after the front passed. The air was clear and clean, and only a bit of high-altitude turbulence but there were frequent satisfying moments of absolute stillness. I didn't check a Website to make sure, but it appeared that Meridiani Sinus was just about dead-center and very obvious, with Syrtis Major on the limb- that feature should be well-placed before dawn. During moments of extremely good seeing, I could just detect a brightening over Chryse- the location of the current dust storm outbreak. Not obvious, fleeting, but just convincing enough to make me believe it. This is an exellent opposition so-far. Lots of visual detail in a small telescope, but I wouldn't advise much less than about 4" aperture. I did most of my observing at 293X, near the theoretical limit for a 6", and I found myself wishing that I had the energy to set-up the 10", the seeing would have accommodated the larger aperture tonight easily- and then some. Best views were with the 12.5mm Konig-2 and good old UO 9mm ortho, both used with the Klee 2.8X Barlow working at closer to 3X or slightly more. Best filtration was with a #80A and #82A stacked, also a #56 gave good contrast, surprisingly the #11 also increased contrast noticeably. But the two blue filters together gave the most natural view while still yielding the most detail and cutting the glare. You may be able to use darker filters if you have a much larger aperture to offset the dimming. It's amazing how fast 2-1/2 hours can go by, with one's eye to an eyepiece and butt on a stool. I'm sure I'll be dreaming about Mars tonight, and scheming to get to SPOC on Monday night if the weather cooperates. __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

5 20

Standard Time vs. DST
by Chuck Hards 29 Oct '05

29 Oct '05

A comment in Patrick's latest editon of News reminded me of a discussion I recently had with a non-astronomically-inclined acquaintance. Like many people, he abhored Daylight Savings Time, seeing it as an arbitrary fiction of convenience. His reasoning centered around the idea that "it should be noon when the sun is highest in the sky". I conceded that while that idea sounded good, even under Standard Time it only happened if you by chance lived right-on the central meridian of your time zone. If you live at the western or eastern extreme limit of the time zone, the sun is still far from it's highest point- and the borders of those time zones are highly erratic and arbitrary in places. Salt Lake is about 28 minutes off of the central meridian for Mountain Time, meaning even when not on Daylight Saving time, the sun is still about 1/2 hr. away from it's highest point in the sky at noon. An extreme example in the US would be a person living in western Texas, where the sun can be up to an hour off the local meridian at noon, even on Standard Time. In places the Central time zone is well over an hour wide in terms of longitude, as is the Eastern zone in the northern U.S. and southern Canada. And even with that, there are other complications... Standard Time zones were introduced world-wide in 1884. Before then, people used "Apparent Solar Time", or true sun time, which is governed by the passage of the sun across the sky. This is the time reckoned when one reads a sundial, for example. If the sun happens to be right on your LOCAL meridian, then it is exactly noon Apparent Solar Time. Mean Solar Time is an averaged time obtained by dividing 365 days of equal length by all the time in a year. An averaged type of time, it is governed by the "mean sun", and the difference between the apparent (real) sun and the mean (average) sun ranges from zero to about 16 minutes. This correction is sometimes incorporated into your better sundials and sometimes referred to as the "equation of time". A lucid explanation of this difference can be studied at: http://www.sundials.co.uk/equation.htm The notation of time passage (as opposed to merely repetitive and cyclical events) is a strictly human artifact and has no analogy in nature. In fact as we all know, time passes at different rates depending on one's velocity relative to other objects in the universe. Any system of measurement, therefore, is valid as long as it functions reasonably well, and has a working concensus. And I must say I hate sunset at around 5 p.m. for weeks every winter. __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

4 7

Is United States becoming hostile to science?
by Patrick Wiggins 29 Oct '05

29 Oct '05

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9853293/ Patrick

1 0

Mars Watch Monday night anyone?
by Patrick Wiggins 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

The forecast for Monday night looks pretty good for a Mars Watch. I'm still hoping the Mars Watch scheduled for Sunday night will work, but if it is clouded out would anyone here be interested in a Mars Watch at SPOC Monday night? Mars transits about 00:45 MST so I'd think a Monday night watch would run from midnight to 01:00. Patrick

2 1

Classic 6" f/8 Newt. can still deliver
by Richard Tenney 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

The Venerable Criterion Dynascope (RV-6), now a collector's item, continues to amaze. Check out these images: http://www.digital-flight.com/thebigeye/page_13.htm Of course, a NICE camera and good seeing always helps... ;o) __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

3 2

Comparison of green laser pointer and car headlight
by Canopus56 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

Back in January 2005 when this was a hot topic, I took some photos comparing the brightness of a green laser pointer and a car headlight at 500ft (152 meters) and 1000ft (304 meters) and observed the brightness of the beam out to approximately 1300ft (396 meters). Just got around to typing up my notes and posting the pictures. http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/observed/Glptst/index.html Hope this provides a useful collection of references. Regards - Canopus56 __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com

3 3

SLAS members: News?
by Patrick Wiggins 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

Have any of the current SLAS members here received today's (28 OCT 2005) issue of News? I tried sending it out early this morning and again just after 11 this morning but since I have not received the confirmation notices I usually get, I can't tell if either attempt actually went out. Thanks, Patrick

6 8

Re: Green lasers
by Chuck Hards 28 Oct '05

28 Oct '05

I emailed Siegfried a few days ago, and asked if the laser brightness test can be formally scheduled for the SLAS November meeting. I know he's already asked someone to give a presentation that night, so I'm not sure if there will be time. There is no regular meeting in December. Checking the list roster, I see that he is not currently receiving postings so I emailed him directly. No reply yet. If November is not possible, I'll ask Lowell about the possibility early next year. And we'll get the word out as soon as possible no matter when, so we can get as many lasers assembled as we can. I'll try to think of a little prize for the owner of the brightest LEGAL laser pointer, to sweeten the deal. I want to remind everyone that this test is safe and poses absolutely no visual risk at all to participants. Thanks for your patience! __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

1 0

Incoming!
by diveboss＠xmission.com 27 Oct '05

27 Oct '05

NASA Science News for September 3, 2004 On September 8th, a daylight fireball will streak across the western United States. It's Genesis, returning samples of the Sun to Earth. FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/03sep_genesisreentry.htm?list1153573

2 2