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

Free observatory building
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

This was on the OAS list earlier today. I checked with the poster and he said it's ok to post it here. If it doesn't go to a member of OAS it'll be available to all. BTW, he said his new place in Idaho will be in the 2017 path of totality and he's already planning a party. patrick +++++ Hi All: This summer, I will be relocating to the clear skys of Idaho. I plan to build a new observatory there, so will be leaving the current one in Utah. As the buyer of my current home will probably not want an observatory, I am offering it free to any OAS member who can find a way to move it to his or her location. I have uploaded images of the observatory to the OAS_News site. If anyone is interested, contact me at jimborm(a)aol.com to arrange for an inspection of this 10' x 10' observatory. This offer includes the building only---telescopes are not included. Jim McCormick 4889 West 800 North West Point, UT Cell: 540-8560 +++++

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It ain't over till it's over
by daniel turner 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Don't give up on the weather for the eclipse. Although the forecast has been consistently for rain and snow for that night, over the last day a few subtile changes have crept into the wording. Language about the storm has shifted from "mid week" to "mid to late week". Wednesday has been downgraded from "chance of snow" to "slight chance of snow". And the front has "split" with much of it going south. As we get closer to the time of the eclipse, the event is comming in range of the more detailed forcast data. Wednesday afternoon cloud cover is set at 86% but wednesday evening is set at 63%. In other words there is a good chance for significant sucker holes. DT ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Your opinion, please
by Beverley B Getzen 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

It does make a kind of sense, once you realize he is talking about the vectors as approaching the black hole and when energy is max. "Block" is what he writes for "black" holes. Maybe poor English and poor spelling, but still trying to communicate. Okay with me to block this person, but it doesn't seem like other pure spam I've seen. Just a thought. Beverley

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Rob had better duck (USA 193 update)
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Quoting Ted Molczan on SeeSat-L: +++++ I have made the following plot, which shows that USA 193 will pass through the restricted zone on 2008 Feb 21, near 03:30 UTC (Feb 20, 10:30 PM EST): http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/06057A/USA_193_NOTAM_unverified.pdf +++++ As is shown in the referenced plot, the restricted zone is SW of Rob on Maui. Closer to home, Heavens-Above is calling for 193 to be visible from northern Utah this evening: 19:20:39 Rise in WSW 19:22:46 1/3 up NW 19:23:39 Fade from view low in N They are calling for +2.7 but they were off about 2 magnitudes last evening and comments on SeeSat-L confirm 193 continues to be bright. patrick

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New Image Posted - NGC2244 - The Rosette Nebula
by Tyler Allred 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi all. I FINALLY got a little imaging time last night and decided to go for the Rosette Nebula. This image turned out pretty good considering the slightly mucky atmosphere. Let me know what you think. Here is the link to the thumbnail page. Click the small image for the larger versions. http://tinyurl.com/2lunm9 Thanks for looking. Cheers, Tyler _____________________________________________

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Your opinion, please
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

UAers, Someone has asked to be added to Utah-Astronomy. I think they are a non-native English speaker and do not want to bar them just because of that (I'm on a number of lists with non-English speakers and enjoy their posts). But I don't understand what they are trying to say and wonder if it's just over my head. At any rate, here is what they are asking to post. Please read it over and let me know if it makes any sense to you. +++++ dear astronomies vector and energy motion and potential equations in blockholes . if we consider to this fact as a macroscopic viewpoint more of quantities has a minimax -property. if we have not a block hole ghaning operator is equal one. when we see final stae of block holes we have a changing operator approache to zero. when we approaches to the final state of block hole mass convertes to energy. when we entre to the block hole we have maximum potential energy. in a spin manifold blockholes has more then four dimensional. +++++ Again, I don't want to block someone because of lack of English skills or because I don't understand. But if the above does not make sense to anyone here I guess there's no reason to have them posting to UA. Thank you, patrick U-A co-moderator

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Exposure calculator resources for lunar eclipse images
by Canopus56 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Kodak publication P-150: Lunar Eclipse photography - exposure tables http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/p150/p150c.shtml Same as pdf http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/p150/P_150.pdf A Covington Exposure Calculator implemented as online Javascript calculator http://www.rphotoz.com/astrophoto/expcalcs.html Covington's original desktop calculator application http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/astro/astrosoft.html - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Utah time info for 2-20 total lunar eclipse
by Canopus56 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

As always for Utah events this time of year, cloud-out is the probable outcome. Eclipse chart markups for SLC by Kaf http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=10957 MST Map from Mr. Eclipse at NASA http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/image/TLE2008Feb2… http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OHfigures/OH2008-Fig02.pdf Saturn Regulus and Moon will be within a 5 degree circle during event. Mars will be transiting at greatest eclipse. MST Times P1 Penumbral Eclipse begins 5:36pm Az 71 Alt -4 First red tinge appears on east side of Moon U1 Partial Eclipse begins 6:43pm Az 82 Alt 7 Moon covered in reddish tinge U2 Total Eclipse begins: 8:01pm Az 95 Alt 21 Moon dark-brown black Greatest Eclipse: 8:26pm Az 102 Alt 29 Moon disappears U3 Total Eclipse ends: 8:51pm Az 104 Alt 30 Moon dark-brown black U4 Partial Eclipse begins: 10:09pm Az 119 Alt 42 Moon covered in reddish tinge P4 Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 11:15pm Az 140 Alt 52 Last red tinge on west side of Moon disappears Horizon chart markups for SLC by Kaf For 6:43pm U1 http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=10930 UT Times Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 00:36:35 UT Partial Eclipse Begins: 01:43:19 UT Total Eclipse Begins: 03:01:10 UT Greatest Eclipse: 03:26:05 UT Total Eclipse Ends: 03:50:57 UT Partial Eclipse Ends: 05:08:47 UT Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 06:15:39 UT Events correspond to: P1 - Instant of first exterior tangency of Moon with Penumbra. (Penumbral Eclipse Begins) U1 - Instant of first exterior tangency of Moon with Umbra. (Partial Umbral Eclipse Begins) U4 - Instant of last exterior tangency of Moon with Umbra (Partial Umbral Eclipse Ends) P4 - Instant of last exterior tangency of Moon with Penumbra. (Penumbral Eclipse Ends) See: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2008.html All events list defintions: P1 - Instant of first exterior tangency of Penumbra with Earth's limb. (Partial Eclipse Begins) P2 - Instant of first interior tangency of Penumbra with Earth's limb. P3 - Instant of last interior tangency of Penumbra with Earth's limb. P4 - Instant of last exterior tangency of Penumbra with Earth's limb. (Partial Eclipse Ends) See: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2008.html Not all eclipses have P2 and P3 penumbral contacts. They are only present in cases where the penumbral shadow falls completely within Earth's disk. For central eclipses, the lower right corner lists exterior/interior contact times of the Moon's umbral shadow with Earth's limb which are defined as follows: U1 - Instant of first exterior tangency of Umbra with Earth's limb. (Umbral [Total/Annular] Eclipse Begins) U2 - Instant of first interior tangency of Umbra with Earth's limb. U3 - Instant of last interior tangency of Umbra with Earth's limb. U4 - Instant of last exterior tangency of Umbra with Earth's limb. (Umbral [Total/Annular] Eclipse Ends) See: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2008.html >From the Utah astro gallery Rob's images from 8-27-2007 eclipse http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=9797 http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=9794 - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Wow! USA 193 bright and fast
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

I was just outside trying to spot the soon-to-be-engaged USA 193. I was using binoculars since Heavens Above was predicting magnitude +1.5. But out of the corner of my eye I saw something bright and lowered the binos to see a very bright and very fast object approaching. It's obviously in very low, low Earth orbit as it was really screaming across the sky. Most impressive! There's another pass tomorrow, albeit much lower in the sky. Anyone else see it? I'm especially interested to know if anyone saw it from in the city. Since it was every bit as bright as Mars I'm guessing it should have been visible even through light pollution. patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Article on Alder Planetarium
by Debbie 16 Feb '08

16 Feb '08

I went to the Adler Planetarium in early June of last year. They had a wonderful show on Black Holes. It was in 3D as I recall. Debbie On Sat Feb 16 14:48 , Canopus56 <canopus56(a)yahoo.com> sent: >>From another newsgroup - > >An interesting NY Times artile on Chicago's Alder >Planetarium > >http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/arts/design/16plan.html > >I liked the photo of the antique paper planisphere in >a book: > >http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/15/arts/20080215_PLANET_SLIDESHOW_… > >- 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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