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

New Earth's "moon"?
by Patrick Wiggins 09 Nov '10

09 Nov '10

I noticed a thread on the Minor Planet Mailing List about a recently discovered object (2010 UE51). One poster, Bill Gray, described it as "...either space junk, or a rock that isn't where it ought to be (lunar ejecta or something that got aerobraked to lose energy relative to us, or some third possibility). If it's a rock, it'll join 2006 RH120, 2009 BD, and 1991 VG in this somewhat exclusive class of 'earthlike-orbiting' NEOs." I took advantage of the stretch of clear skies we had tonight and got several pictures of it. So it is there and bright enough to register on my equipment. Now we just have to wait to see what it turns out to be. patrick p.s. Daylight Silly Time is gone. Back to normal time. Yea!!!

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Comet Ikeya-Murakami update
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

The comet has now brightened to the point that it's now been seen naked eye during the day. Recent images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/5158968831 http://www.flickr.com/photos/43846774@N02/5159143941 SPOC's Clear Sky Clock indicates possible clearing tomorrow afternoon. Per http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html here's when/where to look if it does clear ("Alt" computed for my observatory but should be close for all of northern Utah): Date UT R.A. (J2000) Decl. Object h m s Alt. 2010 11 09 120000 12 49 30.3 -03 56 46 +08 2010 11 09 130000 12 49 36.7 -03 57 36 +19 2010 11 09 140000 12 49 43.0 -03 58 26 +29 2010 11 09 150000 12 49 49.3 -03 59 16 +37 2010 11 09 160000 12 49 55.6 -04 00 07 +43 2010 11 09 170000 12 50 01.9 -04 00 57 +46 2010 11 09 180000 12 50 08.2 -04 01 47 +44 2010 11 09 190000 12 50 14.5 -04 02 37 +38 2010 11 09 200000 12 50 20.9 -04 03 27 +30 2010 11 09 210000 12 50 27.2 -04 04 17 +20 2010 11 09 220000 12 50 33.5 -04 05 08 +09 patrick

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Your daily laugh
by Kim 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Came upon this while looking for other stuff today: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_040301.html. Keep smiling, Kim

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Sci Fi Question
by Kim 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

Chuck, since you're a fan of Arthur C. Clarke, maybe you can answer this one: Do you recall if Rama's rendezvous with the Sun was used for a directional, only gravity-assist maneuver, or if it was also used for a delta-v maneuver? Or, did Sir Arthur ever say in the novel? I had a sleepless night, and I had questions come to mind about gravity-assist maneuvers, so I had to look it up this morning. I then remembered Rendezvous With Rama and the above question came to mind. However, I couldn't find an answer online; hence this post. Thought you might like to know the process that brought me to this profound question. Then again, maybe not. Kim

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New comet "Holmes-like"?
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Nov '10

08 Nov '10

http://spaceweather.com is reporting that the new comet C/2010 V1 (Ikeya-Murakami) is going through an outburst something like Comet Holmes did a while back. And of course this news arrives with Utah under miserable skies... patrick

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Photo questions
by Stephen Peterson 07 Nov '10

07 Nov '10

Thanks to David and Tyler. Will check out flexure as possible cause of image shift while using the autoguider. I have in the past used eyeball guiding with a second scope and I am in the habit of bolting everything together as tight as possible but SCT mirror movement is a possibility as is flexure. In regards to my JPEG binning question; Large says 3888X2592 pixels and Medium says 2816X1880 pixels. What have they done to give a smaller pixel count? That ratio is 0.724. Does JPEG 'chuck' pixels, change bit depth and call it a change in pixel count or what? Again just curious and can't seem to Google an answer. Now with some off and on clouds in S UT I'll spend some time processing a couple of images. Shot M-8 using a Pentax 67 200 mm f4 lens coupled to the EOS 40D at ISO 800. Thanks again, Steve

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Photo question
by Stephen Peterson 05 Nov '10

05 Nov '10

Anyone: I told you all it wouldn't be long before I had more questions! When I select to reduce the size of a JPEG file (to be taken by the camera) is this equivalent to "binning". If so, does the larger effective "pixel (s)" reduce noise as larger pixels are wont to do? Still working the bugs out of the autoguider, it seems that I am getting worse trailing with the auto guider (under higher magnification) than without guiding for 1 to 2 minute exposures. WX good here in S Utah so will continue to debug. Thanks for any help! Steve

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Comet in morning sky
by Patrick Wiggins 05 Nov '10

05 Nov '10

Bright New Comet in the Morning Sky http://www.skyandtelescope.com/resources/proamcollab/astroalert/106735518.h… patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Comet in morning sky
by Canopus56 04 Nov '10

04 Nov '10

The coordinates in the ST web article are within a couple of degrees from Saturn at 6:15am tomorrow morning. This may make for an interesting wide angle photo op. 11/05 C/2010 V1 RA 12:43:06 Dec -2:26 11/05 Saturn RA 12:47:24 Dec -2:41:18 Porrima gam Vir RA 12:41:39 Dec -1:26:58 At 6:15am, Saturn will be at 10 degrees above the horizon, but it will be a race with the receding astro twilight and rising sun. Civil twilight starts at 7:34am. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Comet animation from this morning
by Patrick Wiggins 04 Nov '10

04 Nov '10

Here's an animation I put together from several images I took this morning as Deep Impact / EPOXI approached the comet: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3993 patrick

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