July 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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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Science Fair
by Michael Carnes 07 Jul '07

07 Jul '07

Don, you're cherry-picking your data. >I think there is still a controversy over how much economic development >contributes to global warming. While there is much yet to learn, the so-called controversy is largely clouding of the waters by those with an economic interest. Within the last month there's been renewed information of the rate of melting of the Greenland ice-sheet, in addition to melting in other zones, such as Mt. Kilimanjaro. Thousands of ice cores taken over the last century show that the ice goes back tens of thousands of years. If it had been as warm during the Roman era as your sources indicate, that ice would have melted then or would never have formed. Arctic permafrost that has been stable since the last ice age (as shown by the number of mammoths preserved in it) is rapidly turning to mush. Of course you can find a few scientists who disagree with this assessment, just like you can find a few scientists who don't like evolution. You can find a few scientists who believe in ghosts, in Sasquatch, in fairies, in alien abduction, and in all sorts of things. It is extremely rare in science that someone who goes against the grain is shown to be correct (Galileo, Kepler, etc). Most of them are just cranks.

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Minor planets
by Dale Hooper 17 Sep '06

17 Sep '06

Hi Patrick, I just got my minor planet observatory code today (G87)! - so I hope you don't mind a question or two. I saw your question on the mpml list and it made me curious. You were asking about problems with the MP images streaking higher than a certain magnitude. I thought it was okay to report the mid-point of the observation? I.e. it doesn't matter if there is some streaking if you get the mid-point position and time (or an end-point position and time). Are you observing NEO's or doing photometry? Is that why this would be more important? I'm more interested in Kuiper belt objects and main belt asteroids - so streaking wouldn't be as big an issue. But, I'm curious about why you needed to avoid streaks. Clear skies, Dale. P.S. I hope you don't mind me posting this here - I'm guessing that there are others that are interested in minor planet observing.

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Report (and pics) from Wolf Creek/SLAStrofest
by Richard Tenney 03 Aug '06

03 Aug '06

It was a fun weekend (especially sleeping in the "new" camper I recently got deeper into debt for) in spite of the hit-and-miss weather up at Wolf Creek. The company was great, the scopes were big and varied, including Utah's biggest, Steve Dodd's 33-inch marvel and Ron Vanderhule's 25-inch. Most of the observing happend after midnight, and we even got a break on the cloudier Saturday between 12:30 and 2:00 a.m. (no Joan, I still haven't determined wheter alpha Herculis is really green or not). Binoviewers abounded, and some of the views were spectacular. Some of us are also wondering if there's a new nova in M31, below/West of the nucleus); at least some of us don't remember seeing that bright dot there before (anyone else confirm this?). How does one go about reporting these things? Anyway, I've posted a few pics of Wolf Creek for those of you who haven't been up there to get an idea of how pretty the location is: http://jove.prohosting.com/uvaa/rich/wolf.htm (Many thanks to Lowell and Joan and Jo and others for planning a fun and worthwhile SLAS event!) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Monte Cristo report
by David Dunn 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

Here is something that I just sent out to OAS that I thought some of you might like as well. We recently had to buy a new mount for our SolarMax. We found that the cost of adding a 100mm refractor to the mount was cheap so we purchased cheap 100mm refractor and mount. Monte Cristo was quite fun last week. Dale Hooper and I enjoyed great views on Wednesday night. It rained a little bit in the afternoon. It then cleared off and dried up. The ground was dry and the air was perfectly clean. You couldn't even see a laser pointer. I spent most of the night pulling in planetary nebulas and faint galaxies. I really enjoyed the blue color that many of the planetaries had. M51 was fantastic. Thursday night, Dale and I stayed out a bit later. The viewing wasn't quite as good but was still great. I saw M33 through the 16" and saw why it is call the pinwheel, very pretty. Friday and Saturday, it clouded over quite a bit of the sky and the smoke was real heavy in the rest of the sky. We did see a few good things but the sky wasn't as good. The most noticeable object that I remember was the Cat's eye. It showed the elongated shape and some detail in BOB. On Saturday night we finally got to look at the Moon and Jupiter with the new refractor. The images are really nice. It does an excellent job of pulling in the white bands that are right next to the dark bands on Jupiter. I took it to 500 X on the Moon. It focused clear and tracked ok. We need to get our north alignment a little better. The anti fringe filter castes a green tint to everything. That isn't bad when you are viewing something bright. However, as Brent Watson demonstrated to me in St. George at a star party, the use of the filter takes away from the detail that you can see. The detail lost isn't worth getting rid of a little purple glow. Craig and I both really preferred the unfiltered image where we could see so much detail. I can see using the filter the way you would a Moon filter. Use it when the public is viewing and the object is too bright for them to see quickly. If you are viewing and can take the time to get used to the image, you will see a lot better detail. Thanks, David Dunn

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Design considerations
by Chuck Hards 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

After sitting on the optics for over 20 years, I'm finally about to start building my 17.5" f/4.5. I want to avoid collimation each time I set-up; due to the fast focal ratio it must be dead-on accurate. A laser collimator alone is insufficient and a star-test is mandatory for fine-tuning. The optical axis must coincide with the focuser axis to within a fraction of a milimeter and no commercial laser can accomplish this (that I'm aware of). I am a veteran of star-testing but have never done it with a Newtonian of this size- I've always been able to have my fingers on the collimation screws while looking through the focuser. Also the telescopes were driven, a big help at the high magnifications needed to see diffraction patterns big enough to be useful. I know many large scope owners only use the laser and call it "good enough". For deep-sky work at low and moderate magnifications, they are right, especially if the focal ratio is only moderately fast. But for maximum lunar & planetary detail, and splitting the closest double stars, "dead-on" collimation is mandatory on an f/4.5 scope. I've also thought about carrying an artificial star with the big scope, so a star-test could be performed before true darkness falls, and the scope need not be tracking- but this still means another chunk of time must be devoted to set-up each and every time. All this means I have all but made up my mind to make the scope with a standard tube, keeping the optics in-place at all times. It will still fit in my SUV (why I bought the thing in the first place, no kidding) and can be set-up quickly and easily by one person thanks to some design details- in less than five minutes (tops). I also like a "tubed" scope better for aesthetic reasons. I've never liked the look of trusses. I think I can get excellent contrast with a tubed design, as another bonus. If I ever build a larger scope, then certainly a truss-tube will be mandatory, but I can avoid it on this one. The scope will have a 3.5" ma secondary and a low-profile 2" r&p focuser. Active primary cooling, probably in the form of a blower across the face of the mirror. I already have all the hardware, optics, etc., and will be using composite materials for the tube and possibly the mount. A Dobsonian mount will be built initially but I'm designing a compact split-ring equatorial in Solidworks, for the future. The short f-ratio also means a tall ladder will not be needed. A step-stool is all that's needed for a person of average height. Observers over six feet may need nothing to stand on. So the reason for this post is one last chance for input from folks with different observing habits or ideas. I am pretty sure I've covered all the bases but it never hurts to step back and go over it all one more time before spending (more) money. Thanks! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: Wyorock focuser
by Chuck Hards 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

My Wyorock 2" Crayford focuser arrived on Friday and I am impressed. This focuser is a lower-cost alternative to the JMI- and even a tad better in function according to one reviewer. Rather than me repeating what is already on the Web, here is the Wyorock Website: http://home.comcast.net/~wyorock/wyorock.html With the photos of Steve's 6" refractor. The Cloudy Nights review: http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1363&pr=2x9x130 I ordered mine with a base to fit a 20" tube, for my 17.5" Newtonian. There are several photos at both of the sites above. And it's a Utah product, to boot! Thanks again for the recommendation, Steve. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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OT: killing time with an ET theme
by Chuck Hards 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

I sprained my lower back on Friday and was laid-up in excruciating pain all weekend, so I had some rare time to explore the sedentary side of life. I started playing a PlayStation game called "Destroy All Humans". You play an alien (Roswell-type) on a mission to extract DNA from humans. This game turned out to be fun! The alien has a death ray, and even an "anal probe" that can cause it's targets much pain, suffering, and death as their heads pop off and their brains fly out (due to excessive "back-pressure"). I'm no expert on video games but I had a darn good time playing this one between spasms of racking pain. The UFO theme was a hoot. The whole game has a '50's - '60's theme and feel to it that even extends to newspaper "headlines" that "explain" what happened on each mission. Highly recommended if you're into this kind of thing (the game, not the pain...) __________________________________________________ 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] New photos added
by Tyler Allred 30 Jul '06

30 Jul '06

What a beautiful place Deb! I love the photos. Tyler _______________

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] New pic
by Tyler Allred 30 Jul '06

30 Jul '06

Nice one Joe! Keep it up. Tyler ________________

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