November 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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Protostar problems
by Chuck Hards 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Back in August I ordered a secondary holder and spider from Bryan Greer at Protostar. Bryan and I have spoken on the phone occassionally over the years and know each other by reputation. The order was initially pegged at "3 week delivery", and in late September I called and he assured me that it would be shipping soon. Since then, no-one at Protostar answers the phone or responds to email and my spider and secondary holder have not shown-up. We are now at 3 months since the order was placed. Has anyone heard of problems at Protostar or perhaps personal problems on the part of Greer?

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M-31_V-1
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

After seeing the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMuaDJQSvdE) from BYU's West Mountain Observatory shown at this month's SLAS meeting of the Cepheid variable discovered by Edwin Hubble I thought I'd see if I could get a picture of it. Turned out to be not that hard with it showing up on a single 2' exposure. But I went ahead and shot five 2' shots and added them together to make it easier to see. Results posted here: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68&g2_page=6 Not as fancy as the Y's video but now I'm thinking that since it did show up so easily, maybe I ought to try a video myself. 'Vourse what do you want to bet I just happened to catch it at its peak brightness tonight and within a few days it'll be gone. Stay tuned. :) patrick p.s. As I closed up the observatory the thermometer read -15.3 C. Brrrrrr...

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NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery
by Patrick Wiggins 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

Not sure what this is about but it could be interesting. NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html patrick

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Science lecture tonight on diffraction limit
by Canopus56 01 Dec '10

01 Dec '10

Frontiers of Science: Breaking the Light Barrier Dr. Stefan W. Hell, director, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany Light is simultaneously a particle and a wave. The wave property limits the dimensions of what we can see to about 200 nanometers. Dr. Hell is developing innovative ways to "break the light barrier" to see objects below the diffraction limit. Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 Time: 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Contact: Jim Degooyer 801-581-6958 Location: Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building - (view map) Cost: Free and open to the public, but tickets are required - go to www.science.utah.edu for ticket reservations. Website: http://www.science.utah.edu/outreach/frontiers.html

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SPOC now on Google Maps
by Patrick Wiggins 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

I just noticed that SPOC is now on Google Maps. Google "stansbury park observatory complex" and it should come right up. And notice that they've got it on the correct continent, unlike where it's listed here: http://www.iutah.tv/entity/view/148643 patrick

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Unusual sunspot activity :)
by Patrick Wiggins 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy/2010/11/28 patrick :)

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] M-31_V-1
by Canopus56 27 Nov '10

27 Nov '10

Great picture, Patrick. The UofU's Willard Eccles Observatory is also starting to pump out a great set of images. - Kurt http://www.physics.utah.edu/weo/weoastrophoto.html

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SPOC Wx /Exo Planet on iPhone
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Nov '10

26 Nov '10

Here's a site with current weather conditions for the Tooele Valley airport (known in aviation as KTVY). It's located just down the road from SPOC so conditions at both places should be pretty much the same: http://raws.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/roman/meso_table_mesowest.cgi?stn=KTVY&uni… And here's a free new app for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch for those interested in exo-planets: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exoplanet/id327702034?mt=8 patrick

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ALCON 2011 Rainbow Point Private Observing
by Lowell Lyon 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

To address everyone's questions concerning Rainbow Point observing during ALCON 2011. 1) The Road past Bryce Point to the south end of the park will be open each night during the ALCON convention and will remain open all night each night we are there. There will be unrestricted access to Rainbow Point all night long Wednesday night June 29th through Saturday night July 2nd. 2) You will need to break down each night and we will all need to clear out by dawn. The National Park service denied our request (with the support of Ranger Kevin Poe) to have Farview Point set aside 24 hours a day for us to use. The Special Use Permit will only allow us to use Rainbow Point at night so that the public will not be hindered in any way during the day. We will be allowed to restrict access to a portion of the parking lot. This is a private star party for ALCON attendees only and the restricted area of Rainbow Point will not be available to the general public. Many of the details of how this will be set up and administered will be worked out at ALCON planning meeting starting in January. If you want more input into this, please plan to participate and attend the ALCON planning meetings. The next one is Wednesday, January 12th. Rodger Fry has graciously offered his home for these meetings. I'm sorry if this doesn't work out for some of you. There is adjacent Dixie National Forest land with plenty of places to set up your scope all night long if you desire. One campground in particular is Kings Creek near the Tropic Reservoir. 3) We'll just have to deal with the drive from Rainbow Point back to Ruby's Inn late at night. Drive carefully with your lights on high beam if you need to avoid hitting deer. Again, we need to clear out of Rainbow Point completely by probably no later than 6am. We are just grateful that the Park Service is allowing us to use Rainbow Point. Thank you, Lowell Lyon

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