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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astronomer's Digital Clock
by Jay Eads 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Rob, As soon as the wife gets back I'll be ordering. Looks fantastic! Thanks for the info. Jay On 2009-08-04 01:56, Rob Ratkowski Photography wrote: > Jay > > I'm using a clock called 'Vela Clock' (for MACS ONLY) > http://www.veladg.com/velaclock.html that will give you multiple > time zone times, UTC, moon phases, sun/moon rise/set times, > twilights, length of day and night and the ability to look forward or > backward at dates. It does cost $15.95 but it is well worth it, I've > had mine for 3 years and I love it. > > > > Aloha > Rob > >

1 0

Astronomer's Digital Clock
by Jay Eads 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Been cleaning out my bookmarks today (endless battle it seems) and I know a while back I got confused on a date and I think someone stated they get confused on UT time. Here is a quick application for your Windows based machines that can help with that. http://users.zoominternet.net/~matto/ This was in the May 2003 issue of S&T. Too bad for us Mac users though . . . guess I'll have to install it on our older Windows based machine to see how it works. It does state to practice safe computing by running it through your virus software. Jay

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] U Scorpii Anyone Watching? (and a fun OT)
by Jay Eads 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Patrick, Congrats on 500! Who took the images of you on the way down? Guess no one else is looking at U Scorpii. In case someone hasn't see it here is the S&T article on it: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/observingblog/43435242.html On 2009-08-03 17:32, Ilove2getSpam(a)gmail.com wrote: > Patrick, > > I think you could have been stunt-double for the motion picture version of > "The Right Stuff"!!!! Fantastic!!! > > I appreciate photo #2....Old School meets New School!!! > > What field were you jumping at? > > -Rich >

2 1

Opportunity Rover and new Asteroid and Betelgeuse
by Jay Eads 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

Saw these items and thought there were interesting. 1. Opportunity Rover has found a probable asteroid on Mars about 2 feet in length. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0908/02marsrock/ 2. On Betelgeuse: http://astronomynow.com/news/n0907/29betel/ 3. Cosmic Dance strips stars from dwarf galaxies interesting. http://astronomynow.com/news/n0907/30dwarf/

1 0

Trouble seeing Hubble
by Spencer Ball 03 Aug '09

03 Aug '09

BlankI tried to see the Hubble last night. At 21:30 it was still twilight. I couldn't see anything. Does anyone have a suggestion for my bad eyes? Spencer Ball

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Suspected volcano eruption visible on Venus
by Canopus56 02 Aug '09

02 Aug '09

I may have spoken too soon on visibility of the Venus spot. Tarsoudis's image was taken when the CM of Venus was at 143 degs. I am not seeing any CM 143 deg transits when Venus is visible from SLC. But, I am not sure if I have properly computed this one. Would someone else check and report in? Thanks, Kurt

1 0

Suspected volcano eruption visible on Venus
by Canopus56 02 Aug '09

02 Aug '09

New Scientist article http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17534-mysterious-bright-spot-found-on… S&T Sky at Glance Article (scroll down to Venus) http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8179067.stm White plume in atmosphere has been reported as being imaged by two amateurs, including uber-imager George Tarsoudis of Greeece. http://www.lunar-captures.com/venus_files/090719_venus_tar.jpg http://alpo-j.asahikawa-med.ac.jp/kk09/v090719z.htm Local horizon position and phyiscal empheris for SLC for the next two weeks are appended. Source: MICA. Altitude = 90 degs minus zenithal distance. Sun is at about -9 degs alt at 11:30UT (5:30AM). - Clear Skies, Kurt Venus Apparent Topocentric Positions Local Zenith and True North Salt Lake City, Utah Location: W111°53'23.3", N40°45'52.3", 1301m (Longitude referred to Greenwich meridian) Date Time Zenith Azimuth (UT1) Distance (E of N) h m s ° ° 2009 Aug 02 11:30:00.0 68.54271 79.07297 2009 Aug 03 11:30:00.0 68.71504 78.89129 2009 Aug 04 11:30:00.0 68.89472 78.71646 2009 Aug 05 11:30:00.0 69.08166 78.54863 2009 Aug 06 11:30:00.0 69.27580 78.38792 2009 Aug 07 11:30:00.0 69.47702 78.23444 2009 Aug 08 11:30:00.0 69.68526 78.08832 2009 Aug 09 11:30:00.0 69.90041 77.94966 2009 Aug 10 11:30:00.0 70.12238 77.81855 2009 Aug 11 11:30:00.0 70.35106 77.69509 2009 Aug 12 11:30:00.0 70.58634 77.57935 2009 Aug 13 11:30:00.0 70.82811 77.47141 2009 Aug 14 11:30:00.0 71.07626 77.37135 2009 Aug 15 11:30:00.0 71.33065 77.27921 Venus Topocentric Physical Ephemeris: Illumination Parameters Salt Lake City, Utah Location: W111°53'23.3", N40°45'52.3", 1301m (Longitude referred to Greenwich meridian) Date Time Light- Mag. Diameter Phase (UT1) time Equator Pole Angle h m s min. " " ° 2009 Aug 02 11:30:00.0 9.49 -3.8 14.63 14.63 61.2 2009 Aug 03 11:30:00.0 9.55 -3.8 14.54 14.54 60.7 2009 Aug 04 11:30:00.0 9.60 -3.8 14.45 14.45 60.3 2009 Aug 05 11:30:00.0 9.66 -3.8 14.37 14.37 59.9 2009 Aug 06 11:30:00.0 9.72 -3.8 14.28 14.28 59.4 2009 Aug 07 11:30:00.0 9.77 -3.8 14.20 14.20 59.0 2009 Aug 08 11:30:00.0 9.83 -3.8 14.12 14.12 58.5 2009 Aug 09 11:30:00.0 9.89 -3.8 14.04 14.04 58.1 2009 Aug 10 11:30:00.0 9.94 -3.8 13.96 13.96 57.7 2009 Aug 11 11:30:00.0 10.00 -3.8 13.88 13.88 57.2 2009 Aug 12 11:30:00.0 10.05 -3.8 13.81 13.81 56.8 2009 Aug 13 11:30:00.0 10.11 -3.8 13.73 13.73 56.4 2009 Aug 14 11:30:00.0 10.16 -3.8 13.66 13.66 56.0 2009 Aug 15 11:30:00.0 10.21 -3.8 13.59 13.59 55.5

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eyepieces (was Jupiter Impact Scar)
by Chuck Hards 02 Aug '09

02 Aug '09

Some large, professional telescopes have image planes with circles of 100% illumination that are the size of a sheet of typing paper- or larger- designed so that a photographic plate in the 8"x10" size could be used. I believe some modern scopes have even larger circles of 100% illumination for specialized detectors and imagers. What this means is that, say you were sitting in the prime-focus cage of the 200" telescope. You can just hold two identical eyepieces up to your eyes and face the primary mirror for two-eyed views, without any kind of binocular adapter. Or rest them on a piece of glass that occupies the place of the plate-holder, racked in slightly until the eyepieces are in focus. Amazing!

1 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eyepieces (was Jupiter Impact Scar)
by Chuck Hards 02 Aug '09

02 Aug '09

Well, last time I checked M57 was a deep-sky object, so you actually are agreeing with me, lol. But I should clarify a few things for the nit-pickers. By "planetary" eyepiece, I mean a short-focal-length eyepiece capable of yielding essentially perfect imagery of low-contrast planetary markings, and fine detail near the diffraction limit under ideal viewing conditions. Most observers will consider eyepieces of single-digit focal length elegible to compete in this category, and like Don, I would give some ground to allow eyepieces with focal lengths in the low teens to be included as well, since the modern amateur astronomer now has primary focal lengths available that will yield usefull high powers with such eyepieces- most didn't 30 or 40 years ago. Barlow lenses must be excluded. So, no one is saying that 31mm and 35mm eyepieces, especially Tele Vues, are not terrific eyepieces, it's just that they should not be included with the shorter-focal-length eyepieces normally associated with viewing Mars or Jupiter at very high magnifications. It's been said about airplanes that a design that does "everything", does nothing *well*. Optics are subject to the same constraints, from my experience. You want ultra-wide fields, you have to give a little ground in clarity and throughput. You want perfect resolution, you have to give up some of that wide field. On Sat, Aug 1, 2009 at 4:23 PM, Rob Ratkowski Photography < ratkwski(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: > Well Chuck > > > I have to disagree some I just posted a photo where I'm using a 31mm > Panoptic to look at M57 ( a 'planet'ary) and the view was quite nice and it > appeared to be about dime sized > http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2163 > > Just for grins,Aloha > Rob > > > >

3 2

Tonight at SPOC
by Patrick Wiggins 01 Aug '09

01 Aug '09

Those coming to this evening's star party at SPOC may be interested to know Heavens Above reports SPOC will experience a -8 (!) Iridium flare high in the eastern sky at 21h 38m 13s. patrick

1 0