October 2009 - 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] Looked through an astrograph?
by Jerry Foote 02 Nov '09

02 Nov '09

Hi Patrick, As you may recall I had a 20" R-C when I lived in Salt Lake. This was at a time when CCD cameras were just coming out so I almost always used it with an eyepiece. The central obstruction isn't a problem except when the seeing is extremely good. I did shoot images with film and they came out good except for the slight field curvature due to the R-C design. With that said, taking a camera on and off for eyepiece use still will require you to align, focus and take new flats for the camera. The difference between running your C-14 at f/5 with a focal reducer and the 8" R-C at f/8 is only a couple of inches so the FOV would be about the same. And again with that said, a new telescope is always fun and often can't be justified on a logical basis. Good luck on your decision. Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote(a)scopecraft.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Site with good horizon to the east
by Canopus56 01 Nov '09

01 Nov '09

Michael, Tomorrow morning looks problematic due to weather. Here is where I would go, if I were going to try this: Mirror Highway Fee station N40d 37m 49.94s W111d 10m 55.82s Mirror Highway Equestrian Parking Lot N40d 35m 42.90s W111d 5m 41.61s Gravel Pit (Closed, can use entrance at State Route 189, on State Route 189 between Park City and Oakely ) N40d 44m 18.65s W111d 22m 41.78s These are all very cold sites (-5 to 0 degrees C) and would require due heaters, emergency gear, e.g. a down bag. Watch out for livestock (black dairy cows) and moose on the road. At 6am, the Virgo cluster is only at 12 degrees alt while the Sun is at -21 degs alt. This is a very narrow observing window against astronomical twilight, and again, problematic due to weather and for faint galaxies due to the low altitude and high atmospheric extinction. I'd wait for next spring. http://www.weather.gov/sat_tab.php?image=ir - Kurt

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Apollo 17 The Flag Still Stands
by JayLEads 01 Nov '09

01 Nov '09

Found this in several places on the web but will post a link to this site for two reasons: http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/flying-the-flag-for-apollo/ One, it shows the flag in the image. Two, for those who feel we faked the moon I love the poster down a ways with the Saturn V taking off and the caption, "ONLY A MORON . . . would think we fired off 12 of these monsters just for show. May have to see if I can round up that poster . . . cool on the flag still being up.

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Clear Packet of Sketches
by Jay Eads 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

I have lost my packet of sketches. It is a clear pouch about 11x17 with the sketches I've done recently inside. There are about 30 or so sketches inside. I believe I may have lost them at SPOC as that was the last time I saw them. I have them scanned but would love to find the originals again. If anyone has seen it or has it please respond here or email me at JayLEads@ Thanks, Jay

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Looked through an astrograph?
by Patrick Wiggins 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

Ever since reading the review in S&T I've been lusting after Astro- Tech's 8" f/8 Ritchey-Chrétien astrograph. If I mount it in place of the C-5 I currently have piggybacked on the C-14 I'd again have a portable scope (the C-5) and a hopefully even better scope for wider field imaging than I currently get with the C-14/ST-10. But I also like looking through the C-5, "eyeball-to-eyepiece" every now and then (I can't look through the C-14 very easily as removing the camera to install an eyepiece means later reinstalling/aligning the camera and shooting new flats). The manufacturer says it can be sued optically but the large central obstruction can be a problem. Anyone here have any experience with looking through an astrograph? Any thoughts? patrick

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Jupiter's moons occultations
by Stephen Peterson 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

S&T indicates the Gan/Io occultation on Oct 29 2004-2010 local, a Gan/Eur occultation occurs Oct 30 2155-2203 local, & Io/Eur occultation on Oct 31 2138-2143 local.

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LCROSS Team early results talk at SETI Instit
by Canopus56 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

>From the LCROSS Facebook page ============ 10-30-2009 LCROSS Lunar Impactor Mission For those of you who missed the SETI talk last Wed by Tony, Jen & Diane about Oct 9th. You can see it on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39kwTtI6cgU SETI Institute Seminar Series - LCROSS Mission Special Panel Source: www.youtube.com Special Panel Presentation and Discussion with Tony Colaprete, Jennifer Heldmann and Diane Wooden. ============

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Site with good horizon to the east
by Michael Vanopstall 30 Oct '09

30 Oct '09

Hello, all -- I'm curious, of the various observing sites 1-1 1/2 hours from SLC, is there one that has especially good view to the east (unobstructed horizon)? I'm guessing that something east of the Wasatch is best. Anyway, it looks like near town it'll be clear-ish tomorrow early morning around 5:00, and I was hoping to clear out the Virgo cluster to finish my Messier list. I was tentatively thinking Deer Creek SP, but I'm wondering if I can do better. Thanks ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall(a)math.utah.edu

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Meteor strike
by jim Gibson 27 Oct '09

27 Oct '09

I wonder if Patrick has been flying around with bowling balls again? Latvia receives a big strike! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569549,00.html?test=latestnews

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