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

LCROSS outbound tracking ephemeris Earth to Moon
by Canopus56 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Launch visibility update from the LCROSS Flight Director's Blog Kaf Note: The flight director's comments regarding Perth, Australia as being favored for the initial launch track discusses only the first few hours of flight and not the subsequent trans lunar orbit trajectory through flight hour 30. Generate a Horizons ephemeris for an extended prediction across several days. The LCROSS-Centaur may be visible for up to the first 30 hours of its outbound flight by scopes of 10-12 inches of aperture. Source: http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog LCROSS Flight Director Paul D. Tompkins Posted on Jun 18, 2009 02:21:32 AM Paul.D Tompkins ============================= <snip> 3. Finally, one of my readers suggested a really great idea. He wanted to know if our Centaur would be venting gas as part of its sequence. The reason he asked is that under the right lighting conditions, the sunlight high above Earth can actually illuminate the vented gases, making them visible from the ground. He said he was able to observe this effect as a kid right after the Apollo 14 launch. Cool! So, I've tracked this down, and our Navigation team has provided some data for those of you with enough experience might be able to use to predict LCROSS's early-mission trajectory. Here is the information and some figures (attached). Best for our friends in the Southeast...and by that I mean Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand...enjoy...and thank you for such a great idea! From our extended Navigation team: -------------------------------- "I have used the P10 trajectory for 18 Jun in SOAP to assess visibility starting at separation from LRO. Attached are two SOAP screen shots showing links to some major cities. The yellow line running NNW to SSE is the terminator. Locations sufficiently to the left of this line (preferably with Sun elevation less than -12 degree though this limit occurs early) would be best situated to observe the blowdown event assuming it occurs before the sky gets too bright. Perth is most favored, with Sun El -6 degree at 22:49 UTC, almost an hour after LRO separation. The red line is the ground track (leading part only). The yellow line extending to the right is the link to the Sun (LCROSS in sunlight). The time ticks on the trajectory line (lower left, gray; upper right, light blue) are spaced at five minutes. There is also a light blue link from LCROSS to the current position of the ground track. We have posted the LCROSS trajectory on the JPL Horizons system (18 Jun P10): telnet horizons.jpl.nasa.gov 6775 lcross Availability of the LCROSS trajectory on Horizons has been announced on Seesat-L (where those interested in observing fuel dumps from Centaur rockets have been known to gather): www.satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2009/0077.html Horizons can be used to generate topocentric ephemeris data." -------------------------------- =============================

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LCROSS outbound tracking emphemeris Earth to Moon
by Canopus56 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

The LRO-LCROSS launch is set for a 5:12EDT (3:12 MDT) (21UT) today. (At the time of this posting, the launch counter is at 4:40.) The following message was just posted on another newsgroup by the Horizons Team. The LCROSS Centaur booster trans-lunar orbit projected coordinates have been updated into the Horizons system. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi Use "LCROSS" as the "Target Body". RA-Dec predicted positions are topocentric sensitive, so use your local "named location" city as the geographic location, not geocentric. Live coverage begins at 2pm EDT (20UT). http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html KSC live launchpad video of the launch can be seen at: http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/ Typical pre-launch countdown activities for an Atlas V launch can be found at: NASA Atlas V Countdown 101 FAQ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/launch/atlas_V_count_101.html A primitive first-order model of outbound Centaur visibility during trans lunar orbit can be found at physical pages 7, 74-83 (digital pages 10, 77-86) of Issue No. 13 of Selenology Today at: http://digidownload.libero.it/glrgroup/selenologytoday13.pdf (4.5 megs) (mag 6.5 at 5k decreasing to mag 13.8 at 150,000k) There is no magnitude estimate in the Horizons system empheris. There is no list of scheduled hydrogen fuel dumps. At a mission briefing on June 16, an LRO project scientist stated all fuel dumps would be completed before hand-off of the Centaur to LCROSS team flight control 4 hours into the flight. - Clear Skies Kurt ======= Horizons Message With the shuttle launch scrubbed, the Moon-fated LCROSS mission is currently go for 2009-Jun-18 21:12 UTC launch (tomorrow). The trajectory has been updated accordingly in Horizons (based on navigation team planning), for those who want to track it, or avoid confusing it for an asteroid in Earth vicinity. http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons ---------------------------------------------------------- Jon Giorgini | Navigation & Mission Design Section Senior Analyst | Solar System Dynamics Group Jon.Giorg...(a)jpl.nasa.gov | Jet Propulsion Laboratory ==========

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Seattle Lake City
by JayLEads 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

Looks good starting next Wednesday or Thursday. Downsize, think of all the extra mosquitos that will be out. Time to get some Thermacell. On 2009-06-17 23:29, Canopus56 wrote: > > http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705310050/June-has-dark-cloud- over-it.html > > Clear Skies - Kurt > > > > >

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"The Mechanical Universe"
by BRay 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

I just ran across a channel, 9411, on DISH network, called NAUHS. The "NAU" is Northern Az. U, but I don't know about the "HS." Anyhow, they have mostly educational programming, including several college level TV courses. One of these is "The Mechanical Universe," presented by David Goodstein, of Califonia Institute of Technology (CalTech), apparently a cross between elementary physics and the history of science. Of particular interest are the presentations on Galileo, Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. If nothing else, I'm sure that the opening sequence for each show will be of interest to members. I don't know if this channel is available on cable or Direct-TV, but usually most of these channels are available to all TV vendors. Have a look. -- Thanx, /*B. Ray*/ A *Kiss a malamute today *D

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Seattle Lake City
by Canopus56 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705310050/June-has-dark-cloud-over-it.ht… Clear Skies - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Globular Cluster Blue Stars
by Joe Bauman 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

That's a nice view. And it's notably blue. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 6/17/09, John R. Peterson <docpity(a)earthlink.net> wrote: From: John R. Peterson <docpity(a)earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Globular Cluster Blue Stars To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 8:55 AM Today's Astro Picture of the Day is of M13, and they mention something called "blue straggler stars'. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090617.html The phrase is a hot link to an old APOD that gives more infor: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971104.html John R. Peterson _______________________________________________ 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.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Riding In the MS 150 Tour
by John R. Peterson 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

Once again, I have a big bike ride coming up. The weekend of June 27 sees the annual Utah MS 150 Bike Tour, and I'd like to invite you to dig out the coins from under your couch cushions and car seats. You could send me cash or checks (made out to Utah MS Society), or more easily, do it online. Start at the following site: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/index.aspx Then click on “Donate” over at the top right. Next, scroll down and click on “Pledge” and then search for participant by entering my first and last names (leave out the middle initial "R". Several people with my name come up, but one of the first is JP for Team Rowland Hall, Utah, Harmon’s Best Dam Bike Ride 2009. That’s the one! Click on my name, and right above the Thermometer of Progress (my phrase. . .) just click on “Donate to John”. So go for it! As always, your generosity is much appreciated. (and pray that this "global wetting" that we've been experiencing doesn't affect Cache Valley weekend after next. . .) John Peterson

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Solar activity
by Chuck Hards 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

I took the PST out in the back yard a little while ago, to check the sun before it got too low and dipped behind the neighbor's trees. Well, whatdya know! A group of 3 little prominences on the limb. A spike, a broad feather, and a thin tendril. All three slowly morphed for the fifteen minutes I watched them. My best views were with a 16mm Erfle and 12mm Konig, no Barlow. No obvious active regions were noticed on the solar disk itself.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Latitude/Longitude list
by Joe Bauman 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

OOPS, I didn't read the FAQs about sending a URL. It says to send it this way: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic -- Sorry, Joe --- On Wed, 6/17/09, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> wrote: From: Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Latitude/Longitude list To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 12:27 AM Hi Chuck, I have some for my own favorites, like the Wedge Overlook, which is 39.06 N, 110.44 W. You can find almost any location by checking out the U.S. Geographic Nameserver at http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=116:1:3028946113452536. Best wishes, Joe --- On Tue, 6/16/09, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> wrote: From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Latitude/Longitude list To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 7:47 PM Does anyone have a list of the local (Utah) observing sites with their respective latitudes and longitudes? I've been using the app. in Google Maps to find them, but it's time consuming. I'm hoping somebody has already done the legwork. If not, I may just bite the bullet and buy a GPS. I'm getting disconcertingly lazy, the older I get. Harrumph. _______________________________________________ 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.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com _______________________________________________ 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.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Globular Cluster Blue Stars
by John R. Peterson 17 Jun '09

17 Jun '09

Today's Astro Picture of the Day is of M13, and they mention something called "blue straggler stars'. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090617.html The phrase is a hot link to an old APOD that gives more infor: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971104.html John R. Peterson

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