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

M57 +73PSW-3
by daniel turner 27 Mar '13

27 Mar '13

Mark your calendar for early evening May 7. Their will be a close encounter between the Ring nebula and periodic comet 73P. The comet will be close to earth so its exact position in the sky will depend stongly on your location on the globe. Go to spaceweather.com and use the link at the bottom of the page for "Observable Comets". 73p is in the list and includes orbital elements and a link for daily ephemerides. DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Mars
by Naz & David 07 Aug '08

07 Aug '08

The higher mass of Phoenix ruled out the use of air bags. Apparently its possible but the increased weight requirement of the bags makes the Viking/Phoenix method a more efficient approach (less launch mass). It will be interesting to see how NASA chooses to get the Mars Science Laboratory to the surface, it looks very heavy....http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/spotlight/images/MSL_20080512.… Cheers David

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Porrima split - documentation pic 20080531 Ealing
by Canopus56 02 Jun '08

02 Jun '08

Posted a small documentary image showing the newly enlarging split of Porrima A-B (gam Vir) now at around 1". After being unseparable for a couple of years at perigee, Porrima B is now again becoming accessible by small telescopes. This binary split is discussed in Alan MacRobert's S&T note on page 68 of the June 2008 issue. http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11377 Porrima was only at 38 degs alt at my op and seeing was Pickering 1 or 2. Because of this, an asthetic image was not possible. 83 short 0.125" exposures where taken of the atmospheric speckle pattern. The two best images showing the split and the two components are included in the posted image. Visually, at 564x with a 16" apeture, Porrima AB, in moments of still air, appeared as figure-8 pattern or a just-touching kiss split, using Haas's 2006 split nomenclature. My computed split of 1.4" has a high degree of uncertainty and, due to observation error, is not in consistent with the S&T article predicted separations of 1.0" on April 20th, 2008, increasing to 1.1" on Sept. 15th. It is not consistent with the 6th Orbit Catalogue ephemeris split (rho) values of 0.91" for 2008 increasing to 1.168" in 2009. The WDS 6th Orbital Catalogue ephemeris plot of observations for Porrima can be viewed at: http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/orb6/PNG/wds12417-0127r.png The entry for Porrima in the WDS 6th Orbital Catalogue references neither the ids gam Vir or Porrima. Search the catalogue using the alternative id STF1670AB. Alternate designations for Porrima include: gam Vir 29 Vir WDS12417-0127 STF1670AB ADS8630 HD110379 Peace - Kurt WDS 6th Orbit Catalogue: http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/orb6/orb6frames.html

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My first exo-planet
by Patrick Wiggins 01 Jun '08

01 Jun '08

Thanks to the suggestion, assistance and encouragement of UA list members Cindy and Jerry Foote I nabbed my first exo-planet transit early last month. http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11354 While the graph may not be all that exciting to look at, it is kind of fun to look at it and know that the tiny dip in light was caused by a planet transiting another star some 1,500 light years away. Carpe Noctem! patrick

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Misc nature pic - Iridescent cloud 2008-05-31
by Canopus56 01 Jun '08

01 Jun '08

Posted to gallery. Not much to look at; just a documentation example. Typically, these can be seen in July and August when hiking in the Wasatch and Unita Mtns - usually around 1-4pm. Visually, a finer division and range of the rainbow colors was seen that was not captured by the camera. - Kurt http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11362

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Fwd: astrophotography activity + star party
by Richard Tenney 01 Jun '08

01 Jun '08

Anyone on either list want to respond to Denise as far as volunteering to coming down to BYU and talk about astrophotography? Denise, I think we should have some local interest in a joint star party on July 25 (I'll probably be there). Please reply to all if you can help with either event. Thanks, Rich --- Denise Stephens <denise_stephens(a)byu.edu> wrote: > Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 10:20:00 -0600 > From: Denise Stephens <denise_stephens(a)byu.edu> > To: retenney(a)yahoo.com > Subject: astrophotography activity > > Rich, > > I'm the faculty advisor for the Astronomy club over > at BYU, and we were > wondering if there was anyone in the Utah Valley > Astronomy Association > that knows something about astrophotography and > would be willing to come > and talk to our group during an activity sometime in > August. We'd like > to learn about the kind of equipment you need, basic > techniques, see it > in action if weather permits, and just general > information. We don't > have any definite dates yet, and are quite flexible. > We can work around > the guest's schedule. We'd like to try out some of > the techniques, so > we'll probably plan on having them speak to us in > the evening and then > we would head for a dark sky site for a star party. > If there is > interest within your group, we could combine > together to make this a > joint event. If you don't have anyone within your > group or know of > anyone locally, then I'll trying writing to the Salt > Lake Astronomical > Society next. > > We are also planning to hold a public star party in > the valley on July > 25th. We just set the date yesterday, so it's still > in the relative > planning stages, but this would also be a great > event for our two groups > to team up together to host a star party for the > public if any of your > members are interested. > > Sincerely, > - Denise Stephens

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Shuttle
by erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net 31 May '08

31 May '08

>Shuttle launched, "Rising Sun in honor of Japan" , "4.5 million pounds of payload of humans and hardware" Erik

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Shuttle Discovery tonight?
by Patrick Wiggins 31 May '08

31 May '08

It looks like if Discovery gets off the pad on time this afternoon we have a chance (albeit a poor one) of seeing it tonight. CalSky reports for SPOC (should be good for northern Utah too): Appears 0h27m03s 3.9mag az:306.3° NW horizon Disappears 0h29m06s 2.4mag az:307.0° NW h:10.7° patrick p.s. Off topic: I'm going to make a short flight this afternoon from SLC International to out over the Burning Man regional Burn near Grantsville. Anyone care to come along? If so call me at 435.882.1209 by 2:45 p.m. I plan on taking off at 3 but could push that back if needed.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] hello
by erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net 31 May '08

31 May '08

>Not sure why the 1st kink was bad. Try this one. http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/astronomyprograms.htm

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Hello
by David Roberts 31 May '08

31 May '08

Hi, let me introduce myself. I'm David from Tropic UT, which most of you know is just outside Bryce Canyon. I run a B&B in Tropic all day and work in the Art Gallery at the big hotel (I WONT give them a plug) during the evenings. I studied in the Humanities, but science (well not geology) has always been my mistress. I don't have much time to get out my cheap Sears retractor much these days, and the star parties in the park are almost always on working nights for me. Just the same, I thought it would be great to contact some like minded people in the area, and this group showed up on the SETI@Home website. I some times post on the Bad Astronomy Blog as Buffalodavid. Now with your kind permission, I'll pull back and lurk for a while.

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