February 2009 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Search for Comit Lulin
by Canopus56 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

If the weather doesn't close out the current observing window on Comet Lulin, Moon sky washout will close the window for a 5:15am observing time frame on February 6. Feb. 5 will be the last observing window day for Comet Lulin for this lunation. Yoshida's Comet page lists it at mag 6 (includes gross scale finder chart) http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2007N3/2007N3.html - Kurt

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Search for Comit Lulin
by Raeburn Kennard 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

I enjoyed Kurt's report on observing Comet Lulin. I also tried to find it with my son-in-law, early Saturday morning (Jan. 31) in McKinney, TX. We had a clear sky, but were unable to find the comet, either with binoculars or with his telescope (a 4" Meade reflector on an equatorial mount). I'll try again in a couple of weeks when it's in the evening sky and I can get up to the cabin above Oakley. Raeburn G. Kennard Kirton & McConkie 60 East South Temple, Suite 1800 Salt Lake City, UT 84111 (801) 321-4867 (direct) (801) 321-4893 (facsimile) (801) 328-3600 (switchboard) (801) 550-6143 (cell phone) rkennard(a)kmclaw.com

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U-A List problem
by Patrick Wiggins 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

Utah-Astronomy list subscribers: There appears to be a problem with the list. The last few days a couple of our members' messages have been bouncing before reaching the list. Tonight one of those person's messages had bounced so many times that the list that they were automatically blocked from the list. So in I went to "fix" the problem. I *think* the problem is now fixed for one of the two but in the process of doing that my fat finger managed to put everyone on moderated status. Augh! So I went through the entire list (nearly 200) and took the moderation off of those I recognized. Unfortunately, many subscribed with just an email address and no name. So since I didn't know who they are most of those got left moderated. Sooo, just know that the next time you post a message you may get a message saying your message has been sent to the administrators for approval. When that happens the moderation will get turned off. And in case you are wondering why anyone is moderated, the list is set up to put everyone who subscribes on "Moderated" status until their first post or two proves they are real. We've had a number of folks sign up in bunches all giving either really weird names or no name at all. Chances are those are folks like those that initially got through the old gallery's security and started posting "inappropriate" content. Apologies to all. Maybe my list co-administrator salary should be cut in half (now let's see, what is half of nothing?). patrick

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Following the newspaper blogs with RSS
by Canopus56 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

I have to admit I have not had the time to keep up with the Sheena and Joe competing blogs. I also find it difficult to negative to each blog page and it read every day. There is an alternative option to reading the blogs - the RSS push-information feature that is built into most modern browsers. At both blogs, there is a little RSS button on the page. Press this and it will add to an RSS push information tab in your browser. Then to get a filtered list of all the updates you have not read, just look in your browser under the "Feeds" tab. Sheena's RSS can be installed from the RSS button on her blog. The following direct link my work: http://blogs.sltrib.com/rss/frontier.xml There is some incompatability between Microsoft Internet Explorer RSS and other flavors of RSS. The flavor used by the DN on Joe's blog appears incompatable with my MS IE 7.0 copy. Joe, that might be something worth mentioning to your DN IT people. Some sites have a MS RSS and a RSS for everybody else button. I use RSS to follow various press release like items, including: Pamela Gay's astro pod casts http://feeds.feedburner.com/astronomycast NASA Earth Observatory Press Releases http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/eo2.rss NASA Press Releases http://science.nasa.gov/rss.xml Spitzer Press Releases http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer/updates.xml Astronomer Telegram Updates - current supernova http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?rss+supernova Clear Skies - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing Report Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) 2009-1-31 12:45UT (1-31 05:45 MST)
by Canopus56 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

Thanks, Chuck. I forgot to mention that alf Lib (Zuben Elgenubi) is a nice superwide (231") color contrast double. Valley smog robs alf Lib of its colors. From Little Mtn., the primary is an off-white, the secondary a silver steel color. Good bino object. Additionally, from images on Cloudy Nights, it appears that there is a tail. However, the unique Sun-Eart-target geometry of the comet is such that the tail extends directly out the apparent back of the comet from Earth-based view. Internet posted sketches look like an "-o-", but I have not seen this personally at a low 17x magnification. - Kurt

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Observing Report Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) 2009-1-31 12:45UT (1-31 05:45 MST)
by Canopus56 31 Jan '09

31 Jan '09

I tried to find Coment Lulin from the Salt Lake City valley floor at 12UT (5MST). Light pollution backscatter into valley smog prevented acquisition. I drove to Little Mtn. Pass, arriving at 12:45UT (5:45MST). Temperatures were are around -3C; ZLM was about 4.6 (del CrB); NELM near target area in Libra was 4.5 (psi Oph) with noticeably lower transparency. On the eastern horizon at 20 deg alt, the Milky Way was visible from Cass in the northeast through Aql in the east east south. It was the end of astronomical twilight. The first hints of nautical twilight could be seen on the southeast horizon. Because of the weather, 8x35 (3 deg TFOV) and 20x70 binoculars (1 deg TFOV) were used. Comet Lulin is a fast moving object. On this night, it was located by traversing from Zuben Elakrab (38 Gam, 4v), the southeastern star of the Libra square to a chevron of three prominent stars. zet4 35 Lib (5v), zet3 34 Lib (6v) and zet1 32 Lib (5.6v). The comet was easily acquired 6 degs north west west of this chevron in the 8x35 binos. After dark adaptation, it was possible to more directly navigate to the target by direct acquisition of iot1 24 Lib (4.5v). 1.5 degrees north east of iot1 Lib is a triangular asterism consisting of HD135208 (a double est 6.5v combined), HD134812 (6.8v) and HD135230 (6.2v). Above the eastern side of that triangle were two fainter stars, HD135152 (SAO159115, 8.5v) and HD135125 (SAO159113, 9v), separated by 10 arcmins. These two stars where within a 1 deg TFOV of Comet Lulin. Lulin itself was very pleasing. It was about 8 arcmins in diameter with a slight central coma definition - DC2. No tail was apparent, but I understand imagers have captured one. It was reminiscent of the Dumbbell Nebula, M27. Using the in-out method, I estimated it around 7.7 mags +-0.5mags. It was brighter than HD134812 (6.8v) and dimmer than HD135152 (8.5v). Mars was bright and directly at the zenith and 2 magnitudes brighter than Spica. (Mars was not positioned for binocular observing.) Saturn was well positioned about 35 degs off the south western horizon and was 0.5 mags brighter than Spica. By 13:15UT (6:15am), nautical twilight was clearly taking the eastern horizon; cold chill started to penetrate my parka; the session was ended. Lulin's apparent motion currently takes it along the ecliptic in a retrograde path along a line between alf Lib (Zubenelgenubi) and alf Virgo (Spica). This means it is traveling outbound from the Sun at a low inclination to the solar system's plane. Overall, this was worth the drive after a couple of weeks of cloud out in the valley. A nice early morning treat. If driving out of the city, I would recommend leaving about one-half hour earlier than I did and arrive at 5:15am. Plan to stay until 5:45am. Tomorrow morning (2-1-2009 12:15UT; 5:15MST), Comet Lulin will be a degree north of the HD135208-HD134812-HD135230 triangle and will still be easily found from a semi-rural sky using 8x35 binos. Clear Skies - Kurt

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