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

The Moon Tonight - 2/7 ~ 8:00pm (2/8/06 at 3:00UTC)
by Canopus56 08 Feb '06

08 Feb '06

Rukl's terminator position tables at 218-219 of Rukl's Atlas shows the terminator should be at about 27.3 deg W lunar longitude at 3:00 UTC 2/8/2006 (8:00PM 2/7, tonight). Some potential lunar objects along that longitude line are: 1) Hortensius Domes 1Â° N.E. of Crater Hortensius at 6.5Â° N, 28Â° W. Rukl Map 30. (Larger aperature object) (Equator north region) Each dome is about 10km in diameter per Rukl's map scale. May occur later in evening around 9:00pm. 2) Dorsum Zirkel. 29Â°N, 24Â°W to 32Â°N to 28Â° W. Rukl Map 10. 3) Montes Riphaeus. 7Â°S 28Â°W. Rukl Map 41. (Equator south region) 100km long mountain chain. 4) (Later at 10:30pm) Rima Hippalaus. 25Â°S, 29Â°W, Rima Agatharchides 20SÂ°, 28Â°W. Rukl Maps 52-53 (Larger aperature objects) S.E. of C. Bullialdus. 150km fracture zone on lunar west (celestial east) side of Mare Nubium. 5) Rima Hesiodus. 30Â°S running E-W from 21Â°W to 27Â°W. Rukl Map 63. (Larger aperature object) Near southern edge of Palus Epidemiarum. 6) Crater Scheiner. 60.5Â°S 27.8Â°W (110 km dia.) Rukl Map 72. Lunar west (celestial east) of Crater Clavius). - Canopus56 (Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: Chuck will want this
by Chuck Hards 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

I want the missle that originally came with it! ;) The only problem I see is that if some hostile government with ICBM capability images this thing in your driveway, you suddenly get a very personal upgrade on the target list. > From: Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)trilobyte.net> > Here's something every ATM will want. > http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=783179&convertTo=USD __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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The Moon Tonight - Clavius
by Canopus56 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Rukl's terminator prediction tables at pp. 218-219 puts the lunar terminator at 15.5 W deg longitude tonight 2-7-2006 at 3:00 UTC (2-6-2006 at 9:00 PM local time). It should be running through, and make for a nice shot of, Clavius. - Canopus56 (Kurt) P.S. To Joe. I was the one who mentioned the wide-angle view of the Moon and Mars. Photographing the Moon and the planets always presents a contrast-range challenge - the Moon being so bright. Some guys take two exposures, one for the Moon and one for the planet, and then digitally insert the Moon into the planet base-photo. I haven't done this, but since your're a photo pro, I assume you have all those fancy square filters for balancing the sky and ground exposures (the ones with only the top quarter of the filter glass with opaquing filter material). I've wondered if that also might not be a way to balance the contrast between the bright Moon and a planet. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Tiny URL
by Cynthia Blue 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

This is totally off topic, but neat. I thought I'd email it out because some posters occasionally post long URL to the list. TinyURL will shorten it for posting into email. :) http://tinyurl.com/ Cynthia -- http://www.hexwitch.com CH Pembroke Faded Glory CGC NA NAJ NAC OJC 0-TG-N S-TN-N NGC Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius CGC RN Angel Pumpkin Spice Lady CGC Spirit Chasers Spice CGC

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Chuck will want this
by Patrick Wiggins 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

Here's something every ATM will want. http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=783179&convertTo=USD I mean, just think how many scope parts & completed scopes you could store (and build) in your very own ballistic missile trailer. And since it's only up the road at HAFB it's not that far away. No bids so far. Minimum bid $50. Patrick :-)

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Re: Suitsat
by Chuck Hards 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Patrick, any predictions yet on Suitsat's re-entry track? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: A disturbing ID article
by Chuck Hards 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Here we go again. Sigh. Silly me, I was hoping it was a psychology-related thread. (Hmm, on second thought, maybe it is- since ID has absolutely nothing to do with physics, biology, geology, astronomy, or any of the physical sciences...) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Can you see this page?
by Patrick Wiggins 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Hi, I'm redoing my ambassador web site but while I can see it, I just heard from a friend who says the page times out when he tries to go to it. I'd appreciate it if a bunch of y'all on the list could try going to the following URL and let me know: 1) If you can see it. 2) If you can not see it. 3) The operating system you are using. 4) The browser you are using. Here's the URL: http://www.trilobyte.net/paw/test.html Thank you, Patrick

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Re: Venus
by Chuck Hards 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Hi Joe, that's exactly the same phenomenon. I have even seen "glasses" that consist of nothing but a grid of pinholes in place of lenses- and by golly, they do work, up to a point. The trade-off for increased depth-of-field and better focus when using a pinhole is ultimately a loss of maximum resolution, since that is a function of aperture. But most of the visible detail perceived for reasonable 1X vision doesn't require large aperture. I believe it was Kurt who posted the Mars-moon appulse notice, I can't take credit for that one. > From: Joe Bauman <bau(a)desnews.com> > Chuck, re. pinholes: When I was a junior high kid in > Florida about > 1960, I had to take a hideous TV history class, with > what seemed like > 350 other kids stuck in a huge auditorium. I had bad > vision and no > glasses. Anyway, to watch the TV screen from my > distant seat, I would > curl my index finger tightly, holding it in place > with my thumb, and > peer through the hole. In effect, I shut down the > f/stop and > increased the depth of field, bringing the picture > into a better > focus. It was uncomfortable and tiring and I missed > a lot of what > went on. Anyway, maybe that's part of what you did > with the pinhole, > improve focus, besides cutting down on the glare. > > Thanks so much for these reports. When I got home > from work last > night (earlier than usual for a Sunday night because > I had to begin > my coverage early), I tried to get a shot of the > moon-Mars combo you > told us about. I used a telephoto and tried > different exposures. Even > at 1600 ISO, it was a long exposure to get Mars to > show up at all. > That meant it moved around a bit. I lay flat on my > back on the > driveway and propped an elbow on the cement for > stability, and I did > get one photo that isn't awful. I stepped up > exposures, checking to > see when I could detect Mars. The first one that > worked had the moon > overexposed, since Mars is so much dimmer from this > part of the solar > system. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] A disturbing ID article
by Jim Cobb 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Earlier I wrote: > Interestingly enough, a few years after I had studied general relativity in college, I recall reading an article (in Science News, perhaps) > that stated that the rotation rate of the Sun differed from Einstein's understanding, and that the new data worsened the fit of GR's > prediction to the observe precession rate. I thought in the subsequent (lo, many) years I've never heard another peep on this subject, > though I've been on the lookup for a followup. I think my memory was playing tricks on me. I believe the article was actually regarding the asphericity of the sun (which of course, is induced by its rotation) causing the difference in the prediction by GR of the rate of precession of the perihelion of Mercury's orbit. Sorry for the confusion. Has anyone else heard of this? Has it been resolved? Jim

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