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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Are we human because we gaze atthestars?(MostlyOT)
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

Hmmmm. Not good enough. I feel compelled to give he/she/it more credit than that. :) ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Are we human because we gaze at the stars?(MostlyOT)
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

In a message dated 8/20/2007 1:26:05 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, kimharch(a)cut.net writes: What if there is no other life in the universe and the Intelligent Designer created all that we see just for us? I wonder why the Intelligent Designer would create things that we can never see. I realize that as our technology evolves, we perceive things that were previously invisible to us. But aren't there physical limitations that would create a "barrier" to our awareness even though they do, in fact, exist? Mike ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour

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See station and shuttle tonight
by Patrick Wiggins 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

This just went out to media but I'm guessing there's interest here too: +++++ The weather looks perfect for seeing space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station tonight. Utahans will see the station leading the way over in the NW at 8:57 p.m. MDT, in or near the bucket of the Big Dipper, with the shuttle a short ways behind. The two will then pass high in the NE at 9:01 p.m., still with the station in the lead, and then set in the SE about 9:03 p.m. Both craft should be very bright and easily seen with just the naked eye even from the heavily light polluted Wasatch Front. They will look like two bright stars moving slowing across the sky. +++++ pw

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Lunar Eclipse Cruise - Interested Parties?
by Seth Jarvis 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

Avast, me hearties! I just received an invitation from Todd Frye of the Bonneville School of Sailing & Seamanship asking for volunteer astronomers to participate in a moonlight sailboat race in the wee-small-hours of Tuesday, August 28th. That's right - the night of the Total Lunar Eclipse. Their plan is to race around by moonlight on Utah Lake from roughly midnight to 2:30 AM and then observe the eclipse when it begins in earnest at around 3:00 AM from the Utah Lake State Park Marina, which is located at the end of Center Street in Provo. They're asking if there are any astronomy-enthusiasts who'd be willing to share a telescope and their knowledge of lunar eclipses with the sailboat racers. I think you're also invited to go sailing, provided you don't fall overboard in the moonlight. I offered to communicate Mr. Frye's offer to Utah Astronomy and see if there are any takers. If you'd like to join these sea-faring insomniacs please communicate with Mr. Frye by telephone at 801-404-0098 (Provo) or email him at (I swear I'm not making this up) nowbringmethathorizon(a)sisna.com Maybe you can practice giving eclipse information while talking like a pirate. "Yarr, 'tis a fine moon, see how she slips into the umbra." And if you need to brush up on your skills as a pirate-talker, here's some helpful instruction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWgxuc45YCY I hope someone on this board can be of assistance to Mr. Frye. Thanks, Seth Jarvis, Director Clark Planetarium

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Should the Shuttle crew come back on a Souyez?
by Kurt Fisher 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

On August 17, NASA administrators concluded that the damaged tile on the underwing of the shuttle will not be repaired prior to reentry. See - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/status-20070817.html Damage to the tile extends fully through the tile to the aluminum structure underneath. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts118/news/msb_0… Should part of the Shuttle crew remain on the ISS and retun via a Souyez pickup? - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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What's a "Light Teaspoon"?
by Chuck Hards 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

It's the opposite of a "Light Bucket"! ;o) As if I didn't have too many projects and not enough time to build them all, I've got one more. This one will only take a couple of hours, though, and tonight I ordered the last component required for the OTA. For some time I've wanted to build a very-long-focus 50mm refractor- something with a focal ratio exceeding f/20, so I can obtain reasonable magnifications without having to resort to a barlow. I wanted a telescope somewhat like Messier might have used, with a concession to modern optics but not monster aperture. I have a 50mm f/9, but it's somewhere between a finderscope and spotter. I want a much longer focal length. Finding such small diameter, long-focal-length achromats is difficult. They are not off-the-shelf items unless one wants to pay hundreds of dollars (I don't). In the last few years I've managed to acquire three, of varying focal lengths, that will suit the project. I want to essentially take the "Small Scope Sampler" tour and see just what is and what isn't visible through such a telescope, pushed to it's limits. It will probably take at least a year to log a representative chunk of the sky as seen from our latitude. What I'd like from the group is suggestions for observations, and ideas for a portable mount. I'll definitely be using it with one or two of my small, driven equatorials, especially for planetary observations, but a lightweight, alt-az mount would be usefull too. If nothing strikes my fancy in the alt-az departmet then I'll use it on my "Weightless" mount (see S&T, Oct. 2000, pg. 138) if the long tube doesn't foul the tripod legs (a possibility if I go with the f/40 objective). Stay tuned.

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Ealing scope - misc repair needed?
by Kurt Fisher 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

I used the Ealing (#33 on the manufacturer's stamp on the side) for a few minutes at last night star's party. One of the Dec control buttons (north travel) on the hand paddle was non-responsive. Dave tells me that if the Dec control wheel is tightened down "superhard" that then the paddle wheel will then respond and move the scope. Might be something to tell the curator about. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Suppressing mirror flop in 10" GEM mounted Newt
by Kurt Fisher 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

Chuck wrote: > Very busy until the week of Aug. 26th. I'll have some > breathing room then. Thanks for the offer. I was able to make the repair affixing the mirror in a set position and miniminzed the perpendicular error to 0 arcmins at RA0h, 0 arcmins at RA18h, and 1.5 arcmins at the RA6h position. I tested the accuracy pointing with the Orion 10" Newt on the Synta mount EQ6 mount at last night's star party. After 3 star alignment and setting 4 pointing accuracy ehancement stars ("on the fly" synch of the star positions), the mount would do 50+ deg slews (Deneb to M11) with 0-10 arcmin pointing accuracy in the east hemisphere of the local horizon. This was sufficient pointing accuracy to quickly run through about 10 objects during the star party and is sufficient for my intended general observing - that is picking one or constellations on side of the sky during a night's session. I felt that further minimization of cone error could be achieved. The source of the remaining error seems be divided between play in the focuser locking set screw, inherent tube flexure and mount flexure. I'll probably buy a compression ring for the focuser for the heck of it, but for now pointing errors seem to be minimized to a level sufficient for my intended purpose, so I'll live with the rest of the cone error as is. So for now, its on to polar drift alignment, tracking images and tweaking the dec and ra motor speeds. In summary for an Orion 10" Newt (35-40lbs) and a Syntax EQ6 (Orion Atlas branded), cone error was excessive for the out-of-the-box model. Slews under hand-paddle control beyond 20-30 degrees resulted in the pointing errors that exceeded an average 1 deg TFOV e.p. view. The following modifications reduced cone error to 0 arcmins at RA0h, 0 arcmins at RA18h, and 1.5 arcmins at the RA6h position: 1) The primary source of error was flexible in the stock Orion aluminum extruded mounting bar. Subsituting a 12" LX-55 solid bar from Scope stuff was not sufficient to adequately control flexure in 10" Newt (35lbs) but was sufficient to control flexure in a lighter 5 1/4" (20-25lb) refractor. An extra-heavy duty extra-length (16") Ken Dauzet solid mounting bar was purchased. Although expensive, this brought flexure under control to the tolerance discussed above. 2) The Synta and Orion instructions for reducing perpendicular error, if implemented as written, consistently resulted in the center of field at the RA0h park position to be below the centering target. To address this, the instruction procedure was modified as follows. Cone error was minimized using the instruction proceedure. With the scope at the RA0h position centered below the alignmnet target (either Polaris or a small bush 3 kilometers away on a mountain). 1/2 the cone error was reintroduced using the alignmnet bolts thus raising the center of field near the alignment target. Then, the L-latitude bolts were used to raise the center of field about 5 arcminutes above the alignment target. The perpendicular or cone error procedure in the instructions was repeated a second time. This on the second run, the center of the field of view again lowered, but this time ended up aligned to the alignment target and with the cone error minimized. 3) This scope has been previously upgraded to a Moonlight Crayford focuser, so the degree of cone error that might be attributed to the low-end stock Orion focuser could not be determined. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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Galaxy clusters for amateur telescopes
by Kurt Fisher 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

Wanna see more than one galaxy in an e.p. view? After the end of last night's star party, there was some discussion of (I believe) NGC7336 in Peg as an example of galaxy clusters that are visible in amateur telescopes. Stephen's Quintet is another common example. Here's a list that I ran across sometime ago on the Saguaro Astronomy Club website by Steve Coe listing galaxy clusters from Abell's catalogue that may be visible in amateur class telescopes. http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/Abel-Galaxy-Clusters.htm - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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Passing on thanks from a dad
by Kurt Fisher 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

Yesterday afternoon, I was in upper Millcreek parking lot using the tip of a bush on a ridgeline three kilometers distant as an alignment target to minimize perpendicular error. While in the parking lot, a gentleman in his fifties walked up with his elderly 75+ old father. They were going to go for a short hike. He asked if I was with "that group that does those astronomy things at Little Mountain and out in Tooele." I said that I was a SLAS member. He stated that some years ago, he had taken his daughter to the Little Mountain star parties. She became inspired and switched her interests to science. She currently is studying engineering at university. Not being a SLAS member during that era, I told him I would pass on his thanks to the appropriate persons. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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