January 2007 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Aurora Visible?
by Michael Carnes 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

>I don't see reports of any activity south of the Arctic Circle. You may have to use all your diplamatic skills with your coworker, but I think she saw skyglow (city lights off of particles and droplets in the sky). It would be accentuated by the smog (ahem, haze) that's currently filling the valley. > Hmm. Joe says there was a mention on TV last night. I just checked a couple of aurora watch sites and didn't see anything current. Usually for an aurora to get this far south, there will be a widespread notice of a coronal mass ejection a few days in advance. Now you've got me wondering.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Northern hemisphere discrimination
by Michael Carnes 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

>It's just not fair. >http://skytonight.com/news/home/5231826.html Bummer. At least people in the Southern Hemisphere have to walk around upside down.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Aurora Visible?
by Michael Carnes 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

>A co-worker/friend in my office who lives on Scenic Drive (about 2200 >South and 2700 East) tells me that she saw the aurora both last night >(the 16th) and the night before around 4 to 4:30 a.m. I don't see reports of any activity south of the Arctic Circle. You may have to use all your diplamatic skills with your coworker, but I think she saw skyglow (city lights off of particles and droplets in the sky). It would be accentuated by the smog (ahem, haze) that's currently filling the valley.

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Aurora Visible?
by Michael Carnes 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

>This is where a home-made magnetometer comes in handy. >Just set it up somewhere in your house as far from >other magnetic fields and large masses of ferrous >metal as possible. How come it always points at me?

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Aurora Visible?
by Ann Blanchard 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

A co-worker/friend in my office who lives on Scenic Drive (about 2200 South and 2700 East) tells me that she saw the aurora both last night (the 16th) and the night before around 4 to 4:30 a.m. Is she just "up in the night?" or have any of you heard of or see the aurora in the last two nights? Her place has a great view of the valley, we watched the comet from there last week, but I'm confident I'm not heading to her house at 4:00 a.m. tonight to investigate. I would be willing to set the alarm and stagger outside tonight if any of you think there is a possibility of seeing the aurora. Let me know, thanks!

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McNaught in the Desnews
by Chuck Hards 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

Joe Bauman's latest terrific write-up: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382,650223070,00.html?textfield=comet ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need a quick answer? Get one in minutes from people who know. Ask your question on www.Answers.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Parachute use to prevent death and major traumarelated to gravitational challenge
by Michael Carnes 16 Jan '07

16 Jan '07

>Have to ask: What on earth do you do, Michael, that you spend time looking >for sites such as this? Actually heard the guy interviewed on the Scientific American weekly podcast. For anyone who doesn't know about podcasts, there are a lot of very good science programs free for the downloading. This includes things like Scientific American, Science Friday, Nature Magazine, Skeptic, a couple of excellent shows from Australian Broadcast, New York Times, etc. The Keck folks do a podcast every month or so. There are a few other good astronomy podcasts as well. You don't need an iPod to listen. iTunes (free for both PC and Mac) is a good way to find things, but that's not strictly required either. So I don't waste time looking for this stuff. Instead I waste time by farting around on Utah Astronomy ;-)

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Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge
by Michael Carnes 16 Jan '07

16 Jan '07

Some people on this list intentionally jump out of perfectly good airplanes. You may wish to glance at this scientific paper ;-) http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7429/1459 Michael Carnes MichaelCarnes(a)earthlink.net home.earthlink.net/~michaelcarnes

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From arrows to sunbeams
by Patrick Wiggins 15 Jan '07

15 Jan '07

This was on another list the other day. Now that the volume of comet related traffic is waning I thought folks here would like to see this. Talk about a historic, classy place to observe from. I have to wonder if the the builders ever expected the place would be used this way. After all they built the battlements to block arrows, not sunbeams. :) pw ++++++++++ Here at 52 degrees North the sun is low in the sky. I went to the medieval Motte Castle here in Leiden, a castle on an artificial hill in the center of the town. It has a nice open view over the town to low sky elevations. An attempt to use the battlements to block the sun from view failed, as the resulting keyhole of visibility between two battlements was too uncomfortably small. Plan B worked however, I leaned on a battlement with outstretched arm, and blocked the sun with my fist. And thus, at 14:35 local time (CET), I managed to see a small smudge on a 7-8 o'clock position relative to the sun. It was not easy, but once located visible beyond doubt. Cool! ++++++++++

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Green streak
by Patrick Wiggins 15 Jan '07

15 Jan '07

I just posted this to the OAS list but thought some here might find it interesting too: I took some friends up over the GSL today. The main reason was to see and get aerial photos of the Spiral Jetty. The jetty looked better than I had expected in that it's nearly covered with water and much of the exposed surface is covered with ice. But, for me, the highlight happened on the way to the Tooele airport right at sunset. We were still over the lake and the uneven western horizon made for several sunsets and rises, some with green flashes. And then the Sun approached a long, flat, sloping surface. Between the surface sloping and me doing a bit of climbing I was able to keep the green flash in view for 2 to 3 seconds at a time. I can't call something lasting that long a flash, hence the title of this post "Green streak". Much fun! Patrick

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