November 2010 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] December lunar eclipse
by Canopus56 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

Kim, This certainly is a major event for Utah regardless of location, because Utah is favorably positioned. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2010.html#LE2010Dec21T Are you saying that the Moon is going to rise on an azimuth that will align through the Sun Tunnels? If you know, what is the azimuth pointing of the northeast to southwest set of tunnels? Thanks Kurt

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Notes from BYU WMO presentation Tuesday night
by Canopus56 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

For the benefit of those that missed last night's presentation at the November Salt Lake Astron. Soc. meeting, Dr. Bruce Joyner of BYU's Western Mountain Observatory gave an extended presentation on BYU's 1-meter NSF-funded small telescope installation. The BYU program is a little further along in development as compared to the UofU's telescope. The essence of their science program is pairing their 1 meter urban setting scope on West Mountain with a Fingerlakes-Fairchild chip CCD that has excellent noise control. This enables students to take science quality measurements based on an online request form through which BYU fields proposals from around the country. Their program seems to focus on time-series studies, e.g. - variable light curves. How the BYU scope was used to prepare a light-curve of an extra-galactic Cepheid variable in M31 was illustrated. With respect to publicity photos, which can be seen at http://wmo.byu.edu/gallery/ , the BYU program takes the images, but has paired with Rob Gendler, a world famous amateur image processor, to process the high quality narrow-band filter results seen in BYU's image gallery. Joyner noted that effective the narrow band imaging (in Ha, OII and S) can be done from light polluted locations, again as illustrated in the BYU image gallery. For example, the BYU M16 and NGC281 nebula images - taken from an urban setting - does not have the fine detail of the corresponding famous Hubble images, but the BYU images do give the Hubble 1990s images a good "run for its money." See - http://wmo.byu.edu/images/M16-BYULL.jpg http://wmo.byu.edu/images/NGC281-BYULL.jpg Joyner recommended Gendler's website that contains a paper that overviews his aesthetic imaging techniques. Gendler Website http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/ (see "Articles" section at left frame below the screen fold for Gendler's tutorial papers.) December's Sky and Telescope also has a good article on narrow band imaging from urban locations (pp. 72-77). Joyner also provided an example of how one of Gendler's high-quality images was pair with a space telescope narrow field image in a published paper regarding extra-galactic gas in M51. The Hubble only has a few arc minute field of view, but Gendler's wide-field amateur image that covered all of M51 with amazing detail tied the gas patterns seen in a small Hubble view to wider gas structures in Gendler's image. Because the Hubble has such a narrow TFOV, it is not practical for professionals to obtain enough imaging time on the Hubble in order to make a mosaic covering the wide-TFOV views seen in Gendler's amateur image. - Clear Skies - Kurt

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Planet from another Galaxy
by Nate Jackson 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101118/ts_afp/usspaceastronomyeuropegermanych…

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Opinions on Astro-Tech Refractor
by Rob Ratkowski Photography 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

Aloha Ann One of our group just got a CGEM by Celestron, weighty and solid but manageable. We used the mount w/ a variety of scopes (C11, C9.25, C8, 80mm FD, 127Apo) and all worked well and pointing was very very acceptable. With the components broken down I think you would enjoy the mount. To get a closer inspection, contact Chuck Hards, he has one and can give you his pinion of the mount. Or come to Maui and use ours ;^) Aloha Rob

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Brian Marsden (1937–2010) Passes
by Canopus56 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

====================================================================== BAA electronic bulletin ====================================================================== Brian Geoffrey Marsden 5 August 1937 – 18 November 2010 It is with great sadness I have to report the death of Brian Marsden. For many years Brian ran the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Centre at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Throughout this time he has been a stalwart supporter of the amateur community, working closely with Guy Hurst to ensure the quality and integrity of discovery reports from amateur astronomers. His loss will be keenly felt by the many amateurs who have benefited from his support and advice over the years. Brian was born in Cambridge, England. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in mathematics he moved to Yale University Observatory to carry out research into orbital mechanics, in due course obtaining a PhD on "The Motions of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter". He then joined the staff of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to work on improving the calculation of cometary orbits. In 1968 Brian succeeded Dr. Owen Gingerich as director of the International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the organisation responsible for disseminating information worldwide about the discoveries of comets, novae, supernovae and other objects of generally transient astronomical interest. In 1978 he also became director of the IAU’s Minor Planet Center. While working at CBAT computing comet orbits, he recognised the existence of a group of relatively short period comets discovered by the SOHO spacecraft which are now known as the “Marsden Group”. In 2000 he handed over directorship of CBAT to Daniel Green and 6 years later directorship of the MPC to Dr. Timothy Spahr. Dr. Marsden leaves a wife Nancy Lou, children Cynthia and Jonathan and grandchildren Nikhilas, Nathaniel and Neena. His sister Sylvia Custerson lives in Cambridge, England. We extend our sincere condolences to all members of his family. David Boyd President British Astronomical Association

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In case you missed it, what a 8 inch dob can do
by Jay Eads 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

Found this interesting. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16639654?nclick_check=1 That 8 inch scope just continues to give after 30 years!

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Notes from BYU WMO presentation Tuesday night
by Canopus56 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

thanks, Kim. I was also able to hunt up the animation of the M31 Cepheid magnitude variation, that was mentioned in the talk, made from a month's worth of BYU scope imaging: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMuaDJQSvdE - kurt

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M-45
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

Most here probably know I'm not much for making pretty pictures but I was between regular projects tonight so just before closing the observatory I shot a 16 panel mosaic of M-45. I was kind of surprised at all of the stars visible considering each exposure was only one second long. I joined the segments using Photoshop Elements. Not something I plan on making a habit of but it was a fun experiment. I may try again just to get the stars I missed across the top. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/m45-01.jpg patrick

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Veil nebular from NASA talk
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

I just completed my latest NASA training. This one was about super nova remnants. I found a couple of the images used in the talk very interesting. This one shows movement in the Veil over serval years. Looking at it I can almost imagine it flapping in the wind: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/veilmove.jpg Many here probably know the Veil is pretty big. Here's a Photoshopped image showing the size of the Veil compared to the full Moon. Think of that next time you're out looking at the Moon: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/veilmoon.jpg Not from the talk but from yesterday's paper: http://www.arcamax.com/redandrover/s-798987-245091 patrick p.s. Ok, nothing to do with astronomy but the pilots on the list might get a kick out of this: http://comics.com/bc/2010-11-16/

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LHC Oops :)
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Nov '10

17 Nov '10

One of the many discussions at last night's SLAS Advanced Training was the joke video going around the web showing a supposed black hole forming at the LHC. I said I'd try to find it and post it here. Found it: http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html Grins, patrick p.s. Lest there be any question, yes, this is a joke. :)

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