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

All night all sky
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Feb '08

26 Feb '08

Nice movie: http://publicmissiles.com/franku/AllSkyCam.wmv patrick

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Sir Arnold Wolfendale lecture at Clark Planetarium
by Seth Jarvis 26 Feb '08

26 Feb '08

Clark Planetarium is pleased to present a special lecture by Sir Arnold Wolfendale, FRS, 14th Astronomer Royal, United Kingdom, and Emeritus Professor at Durham University. Sir Arnold's lecture, "Astronomers Royal through the Ages" begins at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, March 4th. Clark Planetarium is located at 110 South 400 West in the Gateway. This lecture is free and limited to 200 guests. Please RSVP by calling Carl Malaret at 801-456-4973 or email cmalaret(a)slco.org <mailto:cmalaret@slco.org> . Please, no children under the age of six. I hope to see many of you folks there! Seth Jarvis, Director Clark Planetarium

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15,000 views and counting
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

You may have noticed the U-A gallery has been a bit slow since yesterday morning. That may have something to do with the mention of Rob's pictures on Space.Com ( http://www.space.com/news/080221-sat-shoot-spot.html ) which linked to Rob's U-A gallery ( http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/ main.php?g2_itemId=5819&g2_page=4 ). As of a few minutes ago Rob's USA 193 and eclipse pictures been viewed over 15,000 times in just over 24 hours! Talk about being in the right place at the right time... patrick

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Shuttle Launch
by erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

Hi All, Below is a YouTube video of a very beautiful shuttle launch. Erik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdjID2osZ0A&feature=related

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Synta mount club members - SkyScan firmware v 3.21 is available
by Canopus56 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

A new hand controller upgrade has been posted at Skywatcher for the Synta mount hand controller - http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/customer_support.php?id=91&class1… "Update includes: Smoother guiding command and PC Direct Mode. Download and see the release note for details." There is also a new Firmware loader v. 2.8 that can be downloaded through the above page. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Saturn at opposition
by Canopus56 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Although cloud-out continues to be a problem, Saturn will be at opposition tomorrow morning (near alf Leo) and will be at its closest to the Earth. If there is a break in the clouds, it is a good time to pull out the grab-n-go scope and take a peak. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Antenna for radio meteor observing
by Canopus56 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Well, I can see I've made this _way too_ complicated. Here's what NASA uses for a radio meteor antenna. I can see that this PVC ground mounted Yagi is easily adaptable to a portable model - http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/192889main_msfc_forward_scatter_radar_ya… at http://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/outreach/forward_scatter_detail.html The PVC pipe version is the "upgrade" from their "professionally mounted" commercial Yagi from Radio Shack that they used to use - http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/images/Ch4meteorantenna_med.jpg - 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] Utah amateur radio astronomy mentor sought
by Canopus56 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

Dale wrote: <snip all> Dale, I am not the SARA mailing list. If possible would you field a request for any _portable_ Yagi designs that would be appropriate for use for radio meteor scattering with the SNOTEL system at 40.53 mhz? Slumming the net, I located the following three portable _6 meter_ designs, principally based on using whip antennas as the horizontal side elements for a Yagi: ARRL ANTENNA Vol 5 COMPENDIUM (2003) A portable 6 meter Yagi http://www.shelbrook.com/~ve7ca/AntA6m.htm A portable 6 meter by Bruce H. McIntosh WA4UF http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=17038 and a Moxon - http://www.moxonantennaproject.com/backround.htm - which seems to be easily adaptable to make a 40mhz portable antenna that would fold up into a nice 4 foot by 1 foot sack. Expanding the two Yagi designs to the SNOTEL frequency at 40.530 MHz with a portable design looks impractical. The horizontal elements just get to big. At this moment, the Moxon is the front runner in my mind because it appears to be practical to build a sufficiently small portable antenna. My question is this: 1) If I were to build a 6 meter portable for use on detecting meteor reflections from Channel 3 TV sidebands, what kind of db increase could I expect if the antenna is not matched to the transmission signal. 2) Since using TV Channel 3 sidebands as a beacon will be going away soon with the HDTV transition leaving the SNOTEL master transmitter at 40.530 MHz as the beacon, can I still use this kind of 6 meter antenna to detect a signal, and if so what kind of dB, since the antenna and signal are not matched? Thanks again for your patience with this newbie question. Here's a list of the antennas, frequencies and signal strengths that I compiled from the RMOB live station web page - to see what others are using: http://www.sportscliche.com/wb2fko/N0PB.wav Location Antenna Freq (mhz) Alt orientation France ITA-102 2 element 50mhz 59.257 0 Canada 5el Log periodic 61.260 90 Canada 2 element quad 61.260 0 USA (CO) 5 element yagi 55.260 45 Spain 3 element yagi 49.739 20 UK 1/4 wave dipole 48.25 n/a UK 1/2 wave vertical 55.250 n/a France Yagi 5 element 48.2493 0 UK T2FD folded dipole 55.249 30 Belgium crossed dipole 49.990 45 Belguim 2 element quad 49.990 31 Belguim 2 element yagi 49.990 52 UK Jaybeam 3 element yagi 55.25 0 Spain TV 3 ele yagi 55.249 15 US (CO) Discone 61.25 ssb n/a - Kurt P.S. - Here's a guy in New Mexico who did something similar at 144Mhz using a smaller _portable_ Yagi appropriate for that frequency. http://www.sportscliche.com/wb2fko/ms.html At that higher frequency the radio meteors are not counted, but they make a cool noise when entering the atmosphere - http://www.sportscliche.com/wb2fko/N0PB.wav ____________________________________________________________________________________ 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: eclipse
by Canopus56 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

Lunar eclipse images and vids: Spaceweather http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_20feb08.htm A slideshow from an amateur in Connecticut http://www.flickr.com/photos/22853954@N04/sets/72157603956886939/show/ A nice set of pics and video from a guy in Pasadena California http://eclipsechaser.blogspot.com/ - Kurt P.S. - There were a couple live international webcasts last night. Something to file away for 2010. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 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] Utah amateur radio astronomy mentor sought
by Canopus56 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

Dale wrote: <snip> I haven't had a chance to look at all the > emails about amateur radio astronomy in this > thread to see specifically what you are interested > in. But something that can certainly help you > out is the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers > (SARA). I've been a SARA member for a number of > years. They have a bi-monthly newsletter, > website and yahoogroup. > Here is their web site URL: www.radio-astronomy.org Thanks Dale, I'll track SARA down. I have a thread going on the Utah Amateur Radio Club yahoo group. It may be more efficient to read over there, if you are member of that newsgroup. In short, I would like to start in on radio meteor observing. I have a receiver but am trying to buy the right antenna - not knowing a lot about radio. I rent, so a 5 element Yagi with a two or three meter span sitting on a 10 meter mast isn't an option. What I think am after is a smaller Yagi optimized so that I can use with the SNOTEL master transmitter at 40mhz as the beacon signal, but still be small enough to fit in my van, mount on a portable mast or tripod, and to drive with to the Unitas. Obviously, there is a performance trade-off with a smaller ?quarter-wave? Yagi as opposed to a half or full wavelength model. Basically, not knowing radio, I'm trying to buy an antenna that can reasonbly be expected to work with radio meteor reflections, and not shell out $150 for an antenna that will not work - because of my ignorance of radio. Thanks, Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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