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

Planetary plays 8-13 to 8-23
by Canopus56 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

8/13 08:81 pm MDT. At sunset, Venus (-3.9) and Saturn (1.1) within one eyepiece view at az 275 alt 8.25. Mecury (-0.6) is about 3 degs PA 109 of Saturn. The Venus Saturn pairing will be at the limits of the telescopic visibility of planets at twilight. May not be observable. Begins a sequence where Mercury sweeps up to the northwest and has conjunctions with Saturn and Venus continuing through 8/22. 8/13 10:34 pm MDT - 8/14 2:25am. Jupiter - Io single planet and shadow transit sequence. (2008 RASC Guide). 8/13 11:00 pm MDT - continuing to 8/18 at 11:00pm each night. C/2008 J1 (Boattini) is within 1.5 degs of del UMi and 3 degs of Polaris. Sweep 3 degs south in dec from Polaris. Moonlight washout likely but decreasing through 8/22. Last reported on ICQ/MPC Comet Brightness list on 8/9 at mag. 9.5, dia. 6' using 25x100 binos. At 11:00 pm MDT position is J200936.62+870125.1. 8/14 04:00 am MDT - continuing to 8/23 each night. C/2007 W1 (Boattini) moves along a line between del Aries towards alf Aries. On 8/14 at 4:00am is within 1 deg of nu Aries, about midway between alf and del Aries and about 7 degs from alf Aries. 8/14 04:00am MDT Pos: J023517.78+205554.2. Last reported on ICQ/MPC list on 8/9 at v7.2, dia. 15'. 8/14 ~4:30-5:00 am MDT - continuing to 8/23. Zodical light between astronomical and civil sunrise. Two SLAS members reported strong zodical light at this time when observing the 8/12 Perseid shower. The 2008 RASC Guide (p. 111) suggests good zodical light beginning on 8/28. 8/14 10:54 pm MDT. (Intermountain only). Occasional Io ECR event. Io "winks" on, exiting the shadow of Jupiter, at some distance from Jupiter's disk. 8/15 10:31 pm MDT. At sunset, Mercury (-0.6) and Saturn (1.1) within one eyepiece view at az 275 alt 6.75. The Venus Saturn pairing will be at the limits of the telescopic visibility of planets at twilight. May not be observable. 8/16 02:00 am MDT - continuing through evening of 8/16. Neptune is at opposition and at brightest (7.8) and largest (2.4") size. RA 21h41.2m Dec -14h14' - 2.0 degs dec slew above gam Cap or 2.0 degs dec and 1 deg ra slew from delta Cap. (Aug ST.; Chart Sep. ST at 63). A slitless diffraction grating, like the Rainbow Optics grating, is a useful tool to distinguish background stars from a planet like Neptune. The stars project spectra; Neptune does not. 8/16 10:55 pm MDT. Jupiter - GRS transit. 8/17 12:09 am MDT (Intermountain only). Occasional Europa ECR event. Europa "winks" on, exiting the shadow of Jupiter, at some distance from Jupiter's disk. 8/18 08:31 pm MDT - continuing through 8/22 at 8:31 pm each night. At sunset, Venus (-3.9) and Mercury (-0.6) within one eyepiece view at az 273 alt 6.27. The Venus Mecury pairing will be at the limits of the telescopic visibility of planets at twilight. May not be observable. 8/18 11:00 pm MDT. C/2008 J1 (Boattini) crosses line between Polaris and del UMi. Sweep alt/az between Polaris and del UMi. Moonlight washout likely but decreasing through 8/22. Last reported on ICQ/MPC list at v9.5, dia. 6.5' using 25x100 binos. 8/19 12:33 am MDT Jupiter - GRS transit. 8/19 12:58 am MDT - 8/20 4:38 am MDT. Ganyemede - single planet and shadow transit sequence. (2008 RASC Guide). 8/19 04:00 am MDT - continuing to 8/23 each night. C/2007 W1 (Boattini) moves along a line between del Aries towards alf Aries. On 8/14 at 4:00am is 5 degs from alf Aries along the alf-del Aries line. 8/19 04:00am MDT Pos: 022844.71+215658.0. Last reported on ICQ/MPC list on 8/9 at v7.2, dia. 15'. 8/21 12:27 am MDT - 8/22 3:40 am. Jupiter - Io single planet and shadow transit sequence. (2008 RASC Guide). 8/21 10:01 pm MDT Jupiter GRS Transit 8/22 08:31pm MDT At sunset, Venus (-3.9) and Mercury (-0.6) within one eyepiece view at az 270 alt 6.40. The Venus Mecury pairing will be at the limits of the telescopic visibility of planets at twilight. May not be observable. 8/23 11:42 pm MDT Jupiter GRS Transit 8/24 10:08 pm MDT Jupiter - End of Io single planet and shadow transit sequence. Io shadow leaves Jupiter's disk. (2008 RASC Guide). - Kurt

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Of space flight and paper airplanes
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

When I first heard about this I thought it was a joke. But judging from what I've found on the web the Japanese really are serious about launching paper airplanes from ISS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7230949.stm patrick

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Perseids: How was the show?
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Aug '08

13 Aug '08

How are the Perseids going for y'all? I just came in from an observing run lasting from 0316 to 0346 MDT. Clear sky. Dark enough to allow me to see all the primary stars in the Little Dipper so that would put the limiting magnitude at about 5. During the half hour I observed I saw 14 Perseids and one sporadic. Also saw another 5 or 6 "maybes" but they were too faint for me to feel confident enough to count them. As I was climbing down off the room I saw two more Perseids within 30 seconds of one another. Astronomical dark doesn't end until about 0450 so I'll probably have another go between 0430 and 0500. patrick

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Perseids
by Kim A. Hyatt 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Hi all. I just returned from a couple of hours of observing at Skyline Drive. For me, it was the best Perseid show in many years. I arrived at 2:30 and began observing at 2:40. I forgot to take note of the limiting magnitude, but the sky was very clear and dark (for a change this summer) so I’m sure it was at least 6.5 and maybe 7+. I made six 20-minute counts (time below is given in MDT, accurate to 1 sec.; P=Perseids, N=Non-Perseids): 2:40:30 – 3:00:30 P: 23 N: 5 3:10:00 – 3:30:00 P: 30 N: 4 3:37:00 – 3:57:00 P: 30 N: 5 4:00:00 – 4:20:00 P: 37 N: 5 4:23:00 – 4:43:00 P: 26 N: 2 4:46:30 – 5:06:30 P: 37 N: 1 Total: 120 min. P: 183 N: 22 About one-third of the Perseids ranged in brightness from magnitude 1 to -1, with these brighter meteors usually leaving trails lasting up to five seconds. I also noticed a spike in activity from about 3:15 to 3:20. In about five minutes’ time I saw 10 or 12 Perseids, with four of them arriving in as many seconds. I also noticed something unusual about the non-Perseids. I haven’t called them “sporadic” because just over half of them seemed to come from a point in Pegasus. These 12 were all about the same brightness, perhaps magnitude 2 or 3, and a noticeably slower than the Perseids. I centered my observations on the region around M31 and M33, and most of the unusual meteors that I saw were moving opposite to the Perseids in that part of the sky. I’m positive this isn’t coincidental. I’m too tired to research now, but if any of you know of minor showers that fit the meteors I observed, please let me know. Kim Kim A. Hyatt Architect P.O. Box 124 Mt. Pleasant, Utah 84647 Tel: 435.462.9207 Fax: 435.462.5013 Mobile: 801.631.5228 kimharch(a)cut.net Architectural Design ▪ Historic Preservation No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.6.0/1604 - Release Date: 8/11/2008 5:50 AM

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Perseids
by Canopus56 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Also of interest: Chris Peterson's photographic count of the Perseid's last night showing several peaks with the highest at 3:45am MDT. http://www.cloudbait.com/science/perseid2008.html - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] USA 193 shootdown update (& Perseids podcast)
by Canopus56 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Patrick also wrote: > And, just for fun, here's a podcast I helped put together for Utah > Public Radio about tonight's Perseids: > http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/upr/local-upr-742497.mp3 Good media presentation, Patrick. Thanks for the update on the Vandenburg launch. - Kurt

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Perseids
by Canopus56 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Kim wrote: > Total: 120 min. P: 183 N: 22 Wow. That's quite an effort. Congrats. - Kurt ================== Kaf Report from Little Mtn. 5:05am-5:30 MDT Since the peak shower was estimated by the NASA Fluixmater for 5:22am, I showed up at Little Mtn. at 5:00am to enjoy just the peak shower. A key characteristic of the Perseids as compared to other showers, is the distinct sharp shower peak centered within a 1/2 hour time frame. Unlike last year's Perseids that occurred at midnight to 1am where the Little Mtn. parking lot was packed and overflowing down Emigration Canyon Road, the early morning 2008 shower drew 8 cars, including myself. The experience was more intimate this year. The advancing civil twilight was on the eastern horizon with an NELM of 1 to 2 mags (alf Ori, alf Gem). ZLM: mag 5.0. The Milky Way was easily seen with dark cloud detail and was broken by a bright zodical light from the northeast-east horizon to Taurus. The Perseus Double cluster and M31 were naked-eye. All the shower peak Perseids seen were all bright fireballs (0 to 1.0 mags) with 0-2 deg smoke trailers clearly emanating from the shower radiant at about 65 degs alt. The deteriorating sky condition generally obscured any fainter meteors. Counts were: 05:00-05:10 P: 0 N: 0 05:10-05:20 P: 4 N: 0 05:20-05:25 P: 7 N: 1 mag. 2-3 05:25-05:30 P: 0 N: 0 By 5:30am, civil twilight was sufficiently advanced to make further observing not warranted. All-in-all, the fireballs of the shower peak had a duration/frequency pattern that was similar to last year's peak shower. This year's shower had more of an abrupt peak. Last year, immediately after the shower fireball peak, there were more post-peak fainter meteors at the zenith and to the southwest. Last year's shower was more dramatic, visually. The peak occurred with the radiant at about 10-20 degs alt and under broken skies, so the peak shower fireballs had longer, smokier, horizontal trails. This 2008 shower was more of a classic high altitude shower under clear, cloudless skies. Really quite nice. The observed peak rate count is consistent with the NASA Fluximator estimate for a suburban transition sky. The 5:22am MDT (11:22 UTC) visual peak was not consistent with a peak of 4-5am MDT (10 UTC) shown in the real time radio meteor data from the closest RMOBS network member station of Jeff Brower in Kelowna, British Columbia. See url - http://radio.data.free.fr/main.php3#Jeff%20Brower Brower's and other USA RMOBS radio stations also show an earlier peak at 1 am MDT (7 UTC). - Kurt

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0430-0500 = 32
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Aug '08

12 Aug '08

Between 0430 and 0435 I counted 10. Between 0430 and 0500 I counted 32. Only one was really bright (~ -4). patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] USA 193 shootdown update
by Canopus56 11 Aug '08

11 Aug '08

There's a Vandenberg Minuteman III launch scheduled for Aug. 13 with no specific launch time. http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/launch-alert/2008-August/000462.html http://www.spacearchive.info/vafbsked.htm Patrick, if it is a nighttime launch, please let us know if the time firms up. - Kurt

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USA 193 shootdown update
by Patrick Wiggins 11 Aug '08

11 Aug '08

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug08/6533 patrick

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