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

Star party tonight, Mars landing get together tomorrow
by Patrick Wiggins 24 May '08

24 May '08

Weather permitting the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex (SPOC) will be open this evening (Saturday) from sunset until 11:00 p.m. Just wait until you see Saturn and it's beautiful system of rings through the observatory telescopes! No charge for admission but dress warm. Map to SPOC: http://slas.us/maps/SPOCMAP.HTM And for the real space geeks, NASA will be landing a spacecraft on Mars tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, just before 6:00 p.m. If you'd like to watch NASA coverage live I've arranged for a small "mom 'n pop" restaurant near the observatory to host a "Mars Landing" get together starting about 5:30. Come on out, have some munchies and watch the landing live (and watch me bite my nails, hold my breath and turn blue in the minutes leading up to the landing...). Venue is the Kraver's restaurant located just off highway 36 in the strip mall at the south end of Stansbury Park. Y'all come! patrick

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Mars talk on KSL radio tonight
by Patrick Wiggins 23 May '08

23 May '08

I've been asked to spent an hour talking and taking calls about Sunday's Mars landing tonight (Friday) on KSL radio from 9 to 10 p.m. 1160 AM 102.7 FM Turn on, tune in and enjoy! :) patrick p.s. Guy, remember that KSL has caller ID and I know your voice... :)

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Wasatch Journal article on Natural Bridges observing
by Canopus56 22 May '08

22 May '08

The current issue of the _Wasatch Journal_ has a nice article about Natural Bridges being designated an International Dark Sky Heritage site by the IDA. The article features a local discussing the experience of dark sky observing Milky Way objects familiar to club members. Christopher Cokinos. Early Spring/Summer 2008. Into the Dark: Utah's Milky Way Wilderness. Wasatch Journal 85-92. Cokinos actually uses the term "Bortle Class 2 sky". Tne Wasatch Journal can be purchased at newstands or the article can be read online at: http://sgsdigital.com/pubs/wasatch/current/ - Kurt

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New laser tool maybe coming soon
by diveboss＠xmission.com 22 May '08

22 May '08

...to an airport near you. I think this is just a way for the aviation community to fight back against all the lasers that we, uh, errrr, that some of you point at them. ;) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357322,00.html

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Hello everyone, and a request
by Sheena McFarland 22 May '08

22 May '08

Hi astronomers, My name is Sheena McFarland and I am a reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. While I cover state government, my favorite part of my beat is covering astronomy. I have been trying to find more events and especially issues and profiles to cover in regards to local astronomy and astronomers. Late last week, I met with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society and found some great ideas to write about. I'd love to hear from any of you who have any ideas about astronomical topics you'd like to see covered in The Tribune. I'd love ideas ranging from telescope making to astro-imaging to any other idea that I don't know about. Feel free to self-promote, I don't know what a lot of you are up to, but it sounds like there are good things happening in Utah astronomy. I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reply to this post, or, if you prefer, you can contact me on my Tribune email at smcfarland(a)sltrib.com. Sheena McFarland State Government Reporter The Salt Lake Tribune 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700 Salt Lake City, UT 84101 Office: (801) 257-8619 Cell: (801) 510-5567 Fax: (801) 257-8525 smcfarland(a)sltrib.com

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Vandals damage Stonehenge
by Chuck Hards 22 May '08

22 May '08

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080522/wl_uk_afp/britainarchaeologyhistoryher…

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] High Altitude Southern Utah Astronomical
by Daren Campbell 22 May '08

22 May '08

On 2008-05-22 02:37, Patrick Wiggins wrote: > On 21 May 2008, at 16:53, Daren Campbell wrote: > > > Please excuse my ignorance as this may be old news but I read this > > article > > http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=070506-1 a while back and I have not heard > > anything mentioned since. Does anyone know if plans for this are > > still > > going forward and if so, has there been a location selected? Thanks > > There was some talk of this at last night's SLAS meeting. > > Apparently the U is leaning toward a site near Milford. > I did a search on Frisco Peak which is the site mentioned near Milford. According to this recent blog by Kyle S. Dawson http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/tag/frisco-peak this looks to be the chosen site. That is, if it's the same project which it never really mentions. >I do hope you're not planning on developing land near what ever site >they choose. >Patrick No worries Patrick, we will be sure not to develop near Frisco Peak..unless I can convince my wife to make that our home under the dark sky. Daren Campbell

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Virtual Moon Atlas v4.0 released
by Canopus56 21 May '08

21 May '08

Christian Legrand et Patrick Chevalley have released VMA v4.0. http://ap-i.net/avl/en/start http://ap-i.net/avl/en/download It is simply astounding lunar observing freeware - something that will blow your socks off. The Pro version is 400Mb but integrates all the major lunar maps (geologic, Clementine false ratio, Apollo and Lunar Orbiter, best amateur images) into one interface. I am preparing a DVD which will be made available for lending to local club members. - Kurt

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High Altitude Southern Utah Astronomical Observatory
by Daren Campbell 21 May '08

21 May '08

Please excuse my ignorance as this may be old news but I read this article http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=070506-1 a while back and I have not heard anything mentioned since. Does anyone know if plans for this are still going forward and if so, has there been a location selected? Thanks Daren Campbell Tri-Co Realty & Investment Co. Ph. 801-571-8833 Fax 801-571-9888 -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:27 AM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 63, Issue 15 Send Utah-Astronomy mailing list submissions to utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com You can reach the person managing the list at utah-astronomy-owner(a)mailman.xmission.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Utah-Astronomy digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Aristarchus plateau 2008-05-17 (Canopus56) 2. 16% of US science teachers are creationists (Patrick Wiggins) 3. Look familiar? (Chuck Hards) 4. Re: Look familiar? (Chuck Hards) 5. Re: 2 new pics and a plea for imaging help! (Canopus56) 6. Re: Look familiar? (Chuck Hards) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 23:16:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Canopus56 <canopus56(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Aristarchus plateau 2008-05-17 To: Utah Astronomy List Serv <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <626560.4810.qm(a)web32608.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Thanks, Tyler. It's a primitive beginning but at least it is progress in the forward direction. I figure I'll have to use negative or positive projection to get the image scale up to 300 meters / pixel - or an effective focal length (EFL) of around 6000 mm - what most of the master lunar imagers seem to use. I was also working on the terminator with Sun angles of less than 15 degrees with a low altitude Moon. By increasing the EFL and moving to targets at a higher Sun angle I expect the next batch of images will be something closer to a current prevailing amateur imaging standard instead of what could be done in 2001. Too bad the Moon will stay low to the horizon through September. - Kurt ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 00:38:44 -0600 From: Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] 16% of US science teachers are creationists To: utah astronomy listserve utah astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <D50C75D1-C56E-4C40-9D0D-72B04568DED6(a)wirelessbeehive.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed 16% of US science teachers are creationists http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13930-16-of-us-science-teachers-are-cr eationists.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news1_head_dn13930 Sigh... patrick ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 10:06:04 -0600 From: "Chuck Hards" <chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Look familiar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <2541d8030805200906i2cbda88eod9c013d1285f8dd9(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.648278,-112.297893&spn=0.001437,0.0025 &t=h&z=19 ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 10:16:49 -0600 From: "Chuck Hards" <chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Look familiar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <2541d8030805200916g52bacdaq24a1d4458af5a163(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Here's another one. Can you identify the structure in the center of the image? http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.766213,-111.849999&spn=0.001434,0.0025 &t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=40.773835,-111.851107&panoid=-7aT6AmETMOl2vvkwGgFnQ ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 09:20:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Canopus56 <canopus56(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2 new pics and a plea for imaging help! To: Utah Astronomy List Serv <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <525539.55216.qm(a)web32606.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Howard, I forgot to mention the all important "Quality estimator - Lowest Quality" [percent] filter on the "Align" tab. This controls the number of rejected vs. accepted images-for-stacking based on an abstract scalar. So, for an avi movie file of a planet or a larger number of fits or jpg images saved from a short exposure time on a bright planet, you might want to try 95% first. If the resulting filtered and stacked image looks bad, ramp the "lowest quality" value back to 90%. Repeat going down to atleast 75% until you get the best image with the highest quality filter percentage. There is no reset button on the Align tab, but you can run it multiple times reseting the "lowest quality" percentage until you get the best result. - Kurt ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 10:26:25 -0600 From: "Chuck Hards" <chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Look familiar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <2541d8030805200926s7cf268c3p73f16bb3fb60ae4c(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 One more that some old-timers might recognize. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.774533,-111.719193&spn=0.002868,0.005& t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=40.765722,-111.694908&panoid=x3jN4YOBlMgUgcK5TiccpA No cheating, now! ;o) ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ 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://www.utahastronomy.com End of Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 63, Issue 15 **********************************************

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SLAS meeting last night - Messier's1784 catalgoue scanned pages
by Canopus56 21 May '08

21 May '08

Scanned pages from Messier's 1781 catalgoue Connoissance des Temps (1784) (french) http://messier.obspm.fr/xtra/Mcat/mcat1781.html English translation of the above (scroll down below fold) http://messier.obspm.fr/xtra/history/m-cat.html - Kurt

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