February 2006 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

M57 +73PSW-3
by daniel turner 27 Mar '13

27 Mar '13

Mark your calendar for early evening May 7. Their will be a close encounter between the Ring nebula and periodic comet 73P. The comet will be close to earth so its exact position in the sky will depend stongly on your location on the globe. Go to spaceweather.com and use the link at the bottom of the page for "Observable Comets". 73p is in the list and includes orbital elements and a link for daily ephemerides. DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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beautiful meteor
by Thomas Sevcik 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

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New address
by Patrick Wiggins 28 Feb '06

28 Feb '06

I have a new email address. Old: paw(a)trilobyte.net New: paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com I'm going to keep the old one active for a few months and anything being sent there is being forwarded to the new but I'd appreciate all future emails being sent to the new address. Cheers! Patrick

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Re: The Porter Garden Telescope
by Chuck Hards 28 Feb '06

28 Feb '06

Here is a link to the Wiki article about Porter. It also has several external links to other materials about him. His famous cut-away drawings of Palomar are among the best ever done. And remember, they were done before the telescope was constructed. He worked from the engineering drawings and blueprints! There is also a photo of an original garden telescope: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Williams_Porter __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Darwin Wins
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

I just saw on the news that Senator Butters' ID bill failed today. Good news to be sure but I've a feeling it will be back. Patrick

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The Porter Garden Telescope
by Chuck Hards 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

Someone is re-issuing the Porter Garden telescope in a limited edition: www.telescopesvt.com 617-292-0042 Or see the ad in the April S&T, page 88. If you haven't read the biography of Porter by Bert Willard, I highly recommend it. Porter is responsible, more than just about any other single individual, for the popularization of amateur astronomy & telescope-making in America in the 20th century. He also was part of the design team that was responsible for the Hale 200" telescope on Mt. Palomar. I would love to have even a reproduction of the Porter Garden scope in my yard. It is a most elegant, beautiful piece of sculpture in addition to being a functional equatorial telescope. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Ordered list - 2006 Messier Marathon
by Canopus56 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

Saguaro Astro Club 2006 Ordered Messier Marathon Checklist http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/messier-images/Marathon_order.pdf There is usually a minor latitude difference for the starting and ending object and starting and ending time. - Canopus56(Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Next Frontiers of Science Lecuture Wed. 8 March 2006 7:30 p.m.
by Richard Tenney 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

Frontiers of Science Lecture A Cool Early Earth This event will feature John W. Valley, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His presentation will focus on the climate and geology of the young planet Earth, and how life grasped a beginning on the planet. Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 Time: 7:30 p.m. Location: Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology Auditorium, University of Utah campus 275 South 1430 East Admission: FREE and open to the public! Contact Info: (801) 581-6958 jdegooyer(a)science.utah.edu www.science.utah.edu Frontiers of Science lecture: A Cool Early Earth with Professor John W. Valley When the Earth was formed, some 4.5 billion years ago, it was an inferno of boiling metals, minerals and gases. Red-hot oceans of molten rock, massive meteorite strikes, and even brimstone in the atmosphere justify calling this time period the Hadean. These extreme conditions had to subside before continents could form, before the dense atmosphere could pool as liquid water, and before the first primitive life could survive and evolve. But when was the end of the hellish Hadean period? Evidence from rocks has placed the Hadean boundary at about 3.8 billion years ago. The oldest sedimentary (low temperature) rocks and hints of life are dated to 3.8 billion years, and the earliest known fossils are 3.5 billion years old. Recently, however, the discovery of crystals of the mineral zircon, as old as 4.4 billion years old, from isolated localities in northwestern Australia has provided evidence that the Hadean ended far sooner than previously thought Â perhaps by 400 million years! These zircons are exceptionally robust, and were separated from parent rocks by chemical weathering, dispersed across the Earth as wind-blown dust, and deposited in sand and gravel bars that are now solid rock. They carry chemical clues in the form of mineral inclusions, trace elements, and isotopes of uranium, lead, oxygen, and hafnium. The study of these tiny Âtime-capsulesÂ is driving new technology and each new result is avidly debated. While extreme opinions exist on both sides, a moderate suggestion is that small continental land masses existed by 4.4 byr, that oceans hospitable to life existed by 4.2 byr, and thus the Hadean ended before 4.2 byr. This concept of a cool early Earth represents a major departure from traditional ideas of how the Earth evolved. Valley earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor in 1977 and 1980, respectively. He spent three years at Rice University in Houston as an assistant professor before accepting a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983. He was promoted to a full professor in 1989, and is currently the Charles R. Van Hise Professor of Geology and Geophysics at UW-Madison. Professor Valley was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1992, and a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America in 1993. He is now the President of the Mineralogical Society of America. He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research, and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Science. In 2003, Valley received the N.L. Bowen Award, presented by the American Geophysical Union for his work on zircons from early Archean rocks of northwestern Australia. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: Comet Pojmanski
by Chuck Hards 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

Kurt and I rendezvoused at Little Mountain at about 5:00 am and were greeted by a star-spangled sky, with the exception of some ragged cloud strands to the south that were slowly drifting northeast, right over the target zone (of course). They never totally obscured the area, but it got a bit fuzzy for a while. Venus was dazzlingly brilliant- Kurt pointed-out a glare reflection off of ground ice that was startlingly bright. Kurt was using his binos, I had my 15x70mm binos and the 4.25" f/5 Dob, with 20mm Erfle ep for 27X and a reasonably wide field. I had mounted the Mars-eye finder earlier yesterday and was eager to try it out on the scope. Nice reflex sight, I found myself using the green dot at a low intensity. The thin, transient cloud cover and low elevation (atmospheric extinction) made star identification difficult, and even after we were sure the comet was above the horizon it wasn't apparent. Then at almost the same instant, we realized we were looking in the wrong place, and swung over to the correct position, where the comet was instantly seen. I estimated a coma size of about 3 arc minutes, I think I remember Kurt giving it another minute or two. My eyes had began to water by then and protracted views were getting difficult. It was dimmer than I had expected, but once located, an obvious object. The impression in the little Dob was similar to a small spherical galaxy seen in a larger instrument. This comet is nothing spectacular and is only going to get dimmer in coming days, albeit higher at the start of twilight. But I'm glad I went up there, the sky was spectacular, Jupiter was amazing in the small scope. Even though the light pollution has taken a toll on the Little Mountain site, it still holds up remarkably well for being so close to SLC. The skies to the east are still the best, fortunately for morning comet watchers. The temperature wasn't too bad thanks to the warm spell we are currently enjoying- it was much colder when I was up there shooting Hale-Bopp in '97. A Sunday morning well-spent. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Important new site
by Richard Tenney 26 Feb '06

26 Feb '06

I've been meaning to post this for a while... The Jan. '06 issue of S&T made mention of this, and I've now added a link from the UVAA webpage for it, but in case you missed it, Anthony Arrigo (of Utah Skies fame) has opened up a new online business for selling dark-sky friendly lighting. In the past, anytime IDA advocates would sell a contractor or city official on the idea of installing good outdoor lighting, we were left in the lurch when asked where someone could actually purchase such lights. No more! Anyway, he's not paying me to write this, I just felt compelled to share in case you want to be the first on your block to have a "proper" porch light! :o) You know, practice what you preach! Anyway, check it out: http://www.starrynightlights.com/ -Rich __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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