January 2008 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Asteroid orbital elements for Starry Night?
by Canopus56 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

You are welcome Seth. BTW, I was just trying to update Cartes du Ciel last night with respect to 2007 TU24 and ran into the same problem that I mentioned before. I had to up the number of download lines to 1500. At 1000, there were so many astreroids the file was cutting off in 2006 new asteriods. Happy Hunting. I'd say "Clear Skies", but considering its Utah in winter. -:) - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Asteroid orbital elements for Starry Night?
by Canopus56 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Seth, You're welcome. - Kurt P.P.S. - As a point of amateur practice beyond the scope of your original question, there are three other sources for the most recent orbital elements for current "hot" inbound comets and asteriods. Sometimes there is a delay between the announcement of the newest orbital solution for a reacquired inbound comet and the updating of the MPC third-party-software data files. In that case, the orbital elements have to be entered into your software manually, something that personally I'm useless at. Personally, I don't go this far for simple visual observing. NEO Minor Body applet http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/ JPL NASA Ephemeris http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi Harvard MPC Comet Orbital elements list http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/index.html Sometimes the NEO-JPL sources are more timely in updating the most current orbital elements than the master Harvard Minor Planet Center list (e.g. for P17/Holmes). I like the NEO applet the best. Orbital elements change on each pass due to non-gravitational forces (like jets coming of a comet or the pressure of sunlight on asteriods). The NEO applet lets you choose between the most recent hot-of-the-press orbital elements and the historical passes, sometimes going back to the 1800s. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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NASAs's software
by Gary Vardon 26 Jan '08

26 Jan '08

Fellow SLASers, I just read a NASA technical brief on scientific software for the space program. 58 programs were mentioned. Subjects such as solar sail space flight simulations, antenna logic controllers, multibody dynamics, an algorithm for precision landing, magnetic data analysis, and space propulsion design among many others were described. Specialist programs seem vital for the space effort. Sincerely, Gary Vardon see my website www.wealthbuilder.wwdb.biz use gary1234 as the id -----Original Message----- From: Canopus56 Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:50 PM To: Utah Astronomy List Serv Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Current online journals and zines AstroPhoto Insight Dec 2007 http://www.skyinsight.com/astrophoto/current.php?r=&s=s AstroPhoto Insight requires a login. It includes a good article overviewing autoguiding techniques and a second on high-resolution lunar imaging. Journal of Double Star Observing Winter 2008 http://www.jdso.org/ The Lunar Observer Jan 2008 http://www.zone-vx.com/tlo.pdf - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Current online journals and zines
by Canopus56 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

AstroPhoto Insight Dec 2007 http://www.skyinsight.com/astrophoto/current.php?r=&s=s AstroPhoto Insight requires a login. It includes a good article overviewing autoguiding techniques and a second on high-resolution lunar imaging. Journal of Double Star Observing Winter 2008 http://www.jdso.org/ The Lunar Observer Jan 2008 http://www.zone-vx.com/tlo.pdf - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Moonbeam?
by Canopus56 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Tom, They are call moonbows. I haven't seen one or photographed one personally, but I understand that if you expose for a long enough period, the camera can pick up the rainbow colors in the nighttime "bow" that are too faint to see with the eye. Because the Moon is high this time of year, this is the season for Moon halos - which is just a Moonbow that covers 360 degrees because it is not cut off by the horizon. Moon halos also occur between the observer and the Moon, while Moonbows occur behind the observer with the Moon at the observer's back. - Kurt P.S. - Wonder if they can be seen or photographed around the Utah Bridal Veil Falls? Kim, are you there? Utah astro listserv member Rob Ratkowski's spectacular 2004 Moonbow pic at Maui on the Atmospheric Optics website http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/bowim15.htm Moonbow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_rainbow 1-18-2007 Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD) of a Moon halo http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/LPOD+Jan+18%2C+2008 My bad pic of a Moon halo from last month http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=10795 Ansel Adams tricks for photographing moonbows at Yosemite Falls http://www.anseladams.com/content/newsletter/lunar_rainbow.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Female Figure on Mars (it's just a rock)
by Canopus56 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

P.S. - Notice how dirty and dust covered the rover's panels are in the original? http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA10214.jpg That rover must be on its last legs. Let's hope another dust devil cleans the panels off again so we'll get another good season of images. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Female Figure on Mars (it's just a rock)
by Canopus56 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324800,00.html Now that's were Osam Bin Laden has been hiding! Fox "infotain" news. Why am I not surprised? Danged if I can see it anywhere in the original. Oh, there it is in lower-left hand corner but "she" must only be three inches tall. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA10214.jpg On the other hand, the old half-filled ruts left by the aliens' four-wheel drive are clearly visible in the right-hand side of the full-frame. -:) "Female figure"? Patrick, you've been in Utah way too long! - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Moonbeam?
by Darin Christensen 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

several years ago, while sailing on Great Salt Lake, I saw a moon rainbow. We were heading southward toward a full moon. It was raining and behind us was a ghostly grey/white rainbow with variatious shades of grey instead of colors. We were about 20 miles north of the south shore and there is very little man made light interference out there at night. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Corr, Tom" <TCorr(a)co.linn.or.us> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 2:37 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Moonbeam? >I just returned from a vacation in Hawaii. While I was on Kaua'I, it rained > one evening during the recent full moon. When the rain passed by me toward > the Po'ipu Bay, exacty opposite the full moon appeared a clear, disctinct > white-ish arch against the distant remaining clouds and night sky. It > appeared for all visual purposes to have been a moon-version of a rainbow. > Any comments? > > [signature] > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com > Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Moonbeam?
by Corr, Tom 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

I just returned from a vacation in Hawaii. While I was on Kaua'I, it rained one evening during the recent full moon. When the rain passed by me toward the Po'ipu Bay, exacty opposite the full moon appeared a clear, disctinct white-ish arch against the distant remaining clouds and night sky. It appeared for all visual purposes to have been a moon-version of a rainbow. Any comments? [signature]

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Asteroid orbital elements for Starry Night?
by Canopus56 25 Jan '08

25 Jan '08

Seth - Minor Planet Center Starry Night http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Soft07.html For other packages: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/SoftwareEls.html For Cartes du Ciel use: Comets: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/Soft06Cmt.txt Asteriods: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Bright/2008/Soft06Bright.txt + Soft06Unusual.txt When importing in some packages, there may be an import cut-off setting to worry about. In Cartes and (per one report) in Starry Night, the defaults are to import only about 1000 comets or asteriods. For asteriods, this can be a problem. You'll do the import and then the newest asteriod or comet will not show up on the pull down list. That's because the newest items are at the end of the file. The last time I updated, I had to raise the comet limit setting to 1500 to get the most recent comets included in the desktop pull down list. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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