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

Help ID old timers
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

As part of the SLAS history project we are trying to ID several SLASers in a couple of old photos Bruce Grim found in his files. I have posted temporary annotated versions at: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/baldmtnid.jpg We can't ID #s 1, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 19 & 21 http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/spocid.jpg We can't ID #s 2, 6, 12 & 13 Any help appreciated, patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] End of Spirt?
by zaurak＠digis.net 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Nothing lasts forever. The report I saw said it was caput. --- David.Dunn(a)supervalu.com wrote: From: "Dunn, David" <David.Dunn(a)supervalu.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] End of Spirt? Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:53:28 -0700 Here is another link that shows pictures of the panels and talks about the loss of power and communication. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20081112a.html Dave -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Robert Taylor Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 9:39 AM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] End of Spirt? I was reading this morning that NASA lost contact with Spirit and it may near its end. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081112/sc_space/marsroverspirithasseriou spro blem What a great mission. Opportunity is still going strong and hopefully will be with us for some time yet. Robert Taylor _______________________________________________ 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 _______________________________________________ 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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End of Spirt?
by Robert Taylor 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

I was reading this morning that NASA lost contact with Spirit and it may near its end. http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081112/sc_space/marsroverspirithasseriouspro blem What a great mission. Opportunity is still going strong and hopefully will be with us for some time yet. Robert Taylor

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OT: Government and science funding
by Robert Taylor 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Erik: A lot of places benefit from science funding including Utah but the bulk of the science going on in this state and most others is privately funded by for profit corporations and in some case private and not for profit organizations. In some cases it's in combination with government money like Huntsman. I don't think anyone is suggesting that the government should stop funding science research but let's not forget that there is a lot of progress being made in the private sector and science would not come to a screeching halt if Federal funds dried up and I include space in that. While a scientist may not be motivated by money often the company paying him to do the research and supporting him or her is. They need profit to continue to invest and expand. Private companies use profit to expand and grow, if all they did was pocket their profits they would soon be out of business. Every company I have worked for churns profit back into the business and when I ran my own business I put all of my "profit" back into the business. We all know the exceptions but that is not the rule. Profit is not evil, profit like money in neutral; it can be used well or poorly. Stop paying a scientist and you'll find out quickly where their priorities are. While the most valuable doctors you know may not be motivated by money they rely on medicines and treatments from profit driven companies. Again profit is not evil. And again try not paying your doctor. Certainly money is not the only motivator and many in science and medicine take their professions very seriously but we all need money to live. NASA is a civilian agency but its roots are military, all of the original astronauts were military offices, now we routinely see civilians going on missions and this is a credit to the maturing of space exploration. However the military today spends more on space than NASA. I really wonder where we really are on space access??? I'm not so sure we shouldn't put NASA's budget up for a vote, I think it has more support than you might believe. When NASA announced the end to the Hubble servicing missions it was public outcry that changed the minds of NASA and congress. Yeah, people did care and we'll have the Hubble for a few more years as a result, I think we all agree that's a good thing. I also don't think there are too many people that would object to the tax dollars that went to support the Apollo missions either. Remember how many people showed up for the Mars watch a few years ago? There is a real interest in space and people see it as ennobling, maybe it suffers from poor PR but I think space exploration is a science people really like and enjoy and support - willingly. NASA just needs a good ad agency. Robert Taylor ___________________________________ Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:14:38 -0800 From: <zaurak(a)digis.net> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Government and science funding To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <20081112161438.72DCABC0(a)resin18.mta.everyone.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Richard, Utah benefits greatly from government funding. I doubt a science would progress much without it, scientist I know are not motivated by profit. The most valuable doctors I know are the least paid. Capital for space innovations comes form government spending in concert with free market. Space exploration is not covered by constitution, I would not put its funding up to vote. I say to Kevin Poe, right on brother. Erik

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Fly to visit Jerry Friday?
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

The weather looks great for flying on Friday so I'm headed to Kanab to visit and have lunch with Jerry Foote. Anyone care to come along? Leaving SLC International around 11 am and returning around 7 p.m. patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Politics
by zaurak＠digis.net 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Point taken, I responded to insults direct toward me. Those individuals were hardly civil. At least Obama can be blamed for everything now, enjoy. Erik --- retenney(a)yahoo.com wrote: From: Richard Tenney <retenney(a)yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Politics Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:23:38 -0800 (PST) Ah, nothing like politics (which is just another form of religion) to make enemies of friends! Let's all take a deep breath and relax. I think it's OK to debate the merits or demerits of the role of government and/or political figures regarding science and science funding, but probably a good idea to omit the name calling and labels (e.g., right-wingnuts, leftist-loonies, etc.). I've been guilty of waxing political, and there's surely a lot of emotion and strong feelings on both sides. For those that want to keep the discussion (and it should be a CIVIL discussion, sticking to facts and on-topic with SCIENCE) going, keep the "OT:" in the subject line so those that want to bow out can just delete them if they are only interested in utah-astronomy related posts. Carry on... _______________________________________________ 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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Working again
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

As some already discovered the list was down for several hours yesterday and today. Not sure what happened but since someone has already asked off list I'll add that it was not an intentional shut down spurred by the recent political thread. So, no, no one was blacklisted. Blacklisting is something the ____________ (insert political party of your choice) would do. :) FYI, one way to check the status of the list is to check the list's main webpage at http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy . If you can't get to that page the list is almost certainly down. Also, if you send a post and it does not appear to have either been received by or rebroadcast by the list you can check: http://mailman.xmission.com/lurker/list/utah-astronomy.en.html . Clear skies! patrick List co-moderator

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Government and science funding
by zaurak＠digis.net 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Richard, Utah benefits greatly from government funding. I doubt a science would progress much without it, scientist I know are not motivated by profit. The most valuable doctors I know are the least paid. Capital for space innovations comes form government spending in concert with free market. Space exploration is not covered by constitution, I would not put its funding up to vote. I say to Kevin Poe, right on brother. Erik --- retenney(a)yahoo.com wrote: From: Richard Tenney <retenney(a)yahoo.com> To: Utah-Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Government and science funding Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:30:10 -0800 (PST) It seems pretty clear to me that without government support (National Science Foundation (NSF) grants are funded to a large extent by taxes, are they not?), our hobby would be without ANY of the large observatories, since the Market (aside from amateurs wanting to look and take pretty pictures) doesn't have any commercial incentive to fund astronomical or cosmological research. Am I wrong? Likewise, would colleges even offer degrees in Astronomy if government funding of science education were to go away? _______________________________________________ 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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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Introduction and advice on a new scope
by zaurak＠digis.net 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

I would not disagree with Robert or Don. My thoughts are that a dobson is best first scope, they are inexpensive simple and easy to set up. SLAS does loan out dobsons with finder cards. The size of scopes does seem to drop with age. Thanks to Bruce for the Grim big scopes are rare at star parties, 17 inch seems current limit. I do enjoy goto features (better on your neck muscles anyway) but they seem to be contrary to learning constellations. Learning the Sky seems to be a common request from SLAS members and learning to star hop is the best way learn constellations, beyond a few bright stars. --- robtaylor3661(a)comcast.net wrote: From: "Robert Taylor" <robtaylor3661(a)comcast.net> To: <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Introduction and advice on a new scope Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:49:01 -0700 Dan: I would second Don Colton's comments. I had an XT8 for several years and it is a great if not perfect scope to get started on. It's light enough move easily, big enough for real deep space viewing and has a long enough focal length to be great on planets and the price is right. The XT12 is a lot bigger and more difficult to move and use although the aperture is nice. But I'll bet you'll use it a lot less than the XT8. The XT8 is a very good combinations of what you want in a scope without a major financial commitment or gym membership to lug it around. Either with or without the COL (Computer Object Locator) a great scope to get started or get back into astronomy. ++++++ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:46:28 -0700 From: "Dan Hanks" <danhanks(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Introduction and advice on a new scope To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Message-ID: <abb33cbd0811111146l79d9c3ecsc172af3ce5e1f799(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi folks, By way of introduction, I just joined the list. I've been a subscriber before but life just got too busy and I had to drop off for a while. Life has calmed down somewhat, so I'm back. I've been into astronomy for as long as I can remember, probably started with backyard sleepouts in my hometown of Parowan, UT, and looking up at the stars on warm summer nights. Though I've enjoyed astronomy for many years, I've never had a real good-quality scope. I currently have a lower-quality Bushnell 4" reflector with an EQ mount, and am looking to upgrade to a much better instrument. I imagine some better eyepieces might make a world of difference. Altogether, though, my current scope provides more headaches than celestial enjoyment, so I'm looking to move to something of better quality, easier to use, and more likely to get me out more often. I have my eye on the Skyquest XT12, but that would probably stretch our budget a bit. As an intermediate step I've considered going with the XT8, as a smaller investment to see if I'll actually get out and use the thing. If that turned out ok, I could probably graduate to the XT12 (or perhaps the XX12 if prices came down on that after some time). Any recommendations? Thanks, Dan _______________________________________________ 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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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Bush Administration
by Jim Cobb 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

<zaurak(a)digis.net> wrote: > The few, the proud....... the Bush supporters (24% approval). By the way unemployment is skyrocketing and Reagan and Bush grew government greatly, along with the deficit. Who was in charge during 9-11, can it really be claimed Bush protected our country. > > Thank You to all veterans, I hope your service was a pleasure. To all veterans: Unlike zaurak's smirking salute, I am truly grateful for your service. Regarding the Bush bashing, perhaps no one cares, but if this obnoxious thread doesn't end soon, I'm outta here. I bet there others that have already departed. Jim Cobb

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