January 2010 - 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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Spirit on Mars.
by Daniel Holmes 03 Feb '10

03 Feb '10

Anyone see today's xkcd? Almost put a tear in my eye. http://www.xkcd.org/695/ Dan -- Daniel Holmes, danielh(a)holmesonics.com "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" -- Lord John Whorfin

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Obama likely to ax moon mission
by Dale Hooper 29 Jan '10

29 Jan '10

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-no-moon-for-nasa-20100126,0,27… I hope this is incorrect - it seemed Constellation finally gave NASA some real goals to achieve. The Augustine Commission certainly showed that there were problems, but if you cancel this now I'm afraid the dream is dead. Clear skies, Dale.

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iPad in 2001: A Space Odyssey (U Scorpii in outburst)
by Patrick Wiggins 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

A bit of humor and a bit of science. Bill Cowles noted earlier today that Arthur Clarke came up with the iPad in 1968: http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/28/arthur-c-clarkes-2001-newspad-finally-arrive… Then NPR reported MADtv came up with it 5 years back: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/01/meta-post_mad_tv_parod… To put this message at least a bit on topic, I see that S&T reports U Scorpii is in outburst: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/82967237.html patrick

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End NASA Constellation Program?
by B. Hugo 27 Jan '10

27 Jan '10

Wow! Just had this emailed to me. I hope this article is wrong! When President Obama releases his budget on Monday, there may be a big hole where funding for NASA's Constellation program used to be... http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/27/obama-budget-drop-nasa-constellat… Bruce Hugo

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Nova Eri 2009 update
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

For those who might still be interested, tonight's measurements show the nova has now dropped below +12. That's about 3 mags. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/NOVAERI2009.JPG patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] For anyone interested
by Canopus56 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Thanks, Dave. I don't have a Facebook account but am following along. Main interest is tri-color balancing and color assignment for other than and less than an RGB image group, e.g. the Crab Neb problem. - Kurt

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Anyone have any Mars pics yet?
by Craig Smith 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Pretty small this year so I'm wondering if anyone has gotten any Mars pics yet. Weather hasn't exactly been cooperative. Craig

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Why Messier 1 is called the Crab Nebula
by Canopus56 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

Jay and Daniel, You may be interested in this 2004 3D simulated mathematical construction of the Crab created from radial spectroscopy data - http://www.fiz.uni-lj.si/~vidrih/CrabNebulaSpectroscopy/movie.mpg The Crab is spherical with filaments extending from the center to an outer spherical thin shell. - Kurt Cadez, A., Carramiñana, A., & Vidrih, S. 2004, Astrophysical Journal, 609, 797-809, Spectroscopy and 3D imaging of the Crab nebula. http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403153

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Why Messier 1 is called the Crab Nebula
by Jay Eads 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

I remembered being asked by several members at our meeting why M1 is called the Crab Nebula and I promised to post that here. Life got busy so I apologize and I apologize if this has already been covered. William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse was an astronomer and used a 36 inch reflector to sketch his image. It is because of this image that the object is called the Crab Nebula. Here is his description of his view of M1: ".. a cluster; we perceive in this [36-inch telescope], however, a considerable change of appearance; it is no longer an oval resolvable [mottled] Nebula; we see resolvable filaments singularly disposed, springing principally from its southern extremity, and not, as is usual in clusters, irregularly in all directions. Probably greater power would bring out other filaments, and it would then assume the ordinary form of a cluster. It is stubbed with stars, mixed however with a nebulosity probably consisting of stars too minute to be recognized. It is an easy object, and I have shown it to many, and all have been at once struck with its remarkable aspect. Everything in the sketch can be seen under moderately favourable circumstances." Not sure if the image will post so you can view it and the observation at this linkhttp://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/More/m001_rosse.html If you want some fun, look at some of his other sketches at this link (from the bottom of the page on the link above): http://www.maa.clell.de/Messier/E/More/m-rosse.html I especially like his version of the Owl Nebula . . . though his other sketches/drawings are really quite interesting.

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