February 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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ISS assembly
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Feb '10

27 Feb '10

Watch as the ISS is assembled: http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm patrick

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Hawaii rob?
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Feb '10

27 Feb '10

Hey Rob, what's say you let us know how things are going for you? CNN is reporting the first and 2nd waves have arrived at Hilo. Fortunately smaller waves than have been reported elsewhere. I tried both your cell and home phone but neither are working. Good luck! patrick

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Strap on a pack and fly away?
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Great way to get to SPOC: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/02/25/2010-02-25_new_zealand_company_… :)

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Last Booster Rocket Firing on Thursday
by JayLEads 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

From KSL: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=9774736 This is the last firing of a booster rocket in Utah with only 4 more launches, more tests are not needed. The last rocket test is on: Thursday, Feb. 25th, 2010 11:50a.m. ATK Space Systems Facility in Promontory UT. I may take off work to attend this. Anyone else interested?

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Speaking of Clusters
by Jerry Foote 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

I came across this on the MaxImDL group. Really neat stuff. Go to the link on the first message and take a look at his curves and then read the second message on how he did it. Here are pieces of his original postings to MaxImDL: Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams... Posted by: "Robert Vanderbei" rvdb(a)princeton.edu vanderbei Sat Feb 6, 2010 7:32 am (PST) For the last few days I've spent some time constructing Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams from images of globular clusters (and some open clusters) that I've acquired over the years... http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/images/NJP/HRdiagMatlab.html I wrote a Matlab program (available from the link on the page above) to identify "all" of the stars in the image and compute their magnitude and color and then display an HR diagram. I wonder if I could have done some of this more simply and quickly in MaximDL. Any ideas? --Bob Robert J. Vanderbei Princeton University http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb "Time's fun when you're having flies" -- K.T. Frog <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaxImDL/message/39931;_ylc=X3oDMTJydGQ0NXNuBF 9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzMzOTkxMDMEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDgyODA2BG1zZ0lkAzM5OTMxBH NlYwNkbXNnBHNsawN2bXNnBHN0aW1lAzEyNjU1MzU1Mzk-> Re: Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams... Posted by: "Robert Vanderbei" <mailto:rvdb@princeton.edu?Subject=%20Re%3A%20Hertzsprung-Russell%20diagrams %2E%2E%2E> rvdb(a)princeton.edu <http://profiles.yahoo.com/vanderbei> vanderbei Sat Feb 6, 2010 8:22 am (PST) Hi Bill, The first thing I did was to recreate a pure unadulterated color, floating point fits file using my original stacked R, G, and B frames (in the past I didn't always save a color fits file and when I did I sometimes applied some sort of stretch or sharpening to it before saving). My Matlab program then reads in this color fits file. The Matlab program splits the color image into R, G, and B frames and makes an L frame as the average of the three color frames. It then looks at each pixel in the L frame and tries to determine if this is the central pixel of a star. To be a star pixel, the adu must be larger than at each of the 8 nearest neighbors and some of those neighbors are required to have larger adu values than their neighbors further removed. In other words, the pixel must look like a local max. Then I compute a few different estimates of the overall flux, for example, by averaging the peak pixel and its four nearest neighbors and subtracting an average background level computed as the average of the neighbors of the neighbors. I drop from my star list any candidate whose flux is too small (to prune out random noise). This gives me my star list. Then, I compute color as the logarithm of the ratio of the R value to the B value at the peak pixel. From the flux and the color, I make the g raph. Hope this is the sort of detail you were looking for. --Bob Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote(a)scopecraft.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] NGC 2477 Open or Globular Cluster
by Debbie 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

By the way, I found this cool picture of the cluster. http://starmatt.com/gallery/astro/ngc2477t.html On Wed Feb 24 11:40 , Debbie <astrodeb(a)beyondbb.com> sent: > > > >Hi, > >On February 13, Dave, Ron, Steve, and I were treated to a clear winter sky. I >immersed myself in some open clusters in Puppis and Canis Major. I viewed M41, M46, >M47, M93, NGC 2362, as well as some double stars in the area. When Canis Major was >high in the sky, I saw a cluster of stars low in Puppis. I sighted the Starbeam on >the cluster and looked through the eyepiece. In there was a gorgeous cluster that >is probably the best cluster in Puppis. > >NGC 2477 is listed as an open cluster but some websites list it as a globular >cluster. I'll find it in the 15" when I go observing in early March. I think this >is also Caldwell 71. It is a dense cluster so I'm wondering if it is a globular >instead of an open cluster. > >Clear Skies, > >Debbie > >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php >Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] ISS overpass 20100223 13_07UT video
by Canopus56 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

My video capture was a technical test. Looking at other efforts on youtube that involve asthetic wide angle imaging - rather than tracked telescopic closeups of the ISS like the excellent one Rodger did last year - there is one photographer (Ken Scott) that suggests an interesting technique that others might want to consider using. It is based on using DSLRs like a Canon Powershot to do time lapse photography. Although I do not own a true DSLR, it occured to me that the Utah landscape is particularly well suited for Ken Scott's technique and others here may want to pursue this asthetic imaging technique. Ken Scott Time Lapse over frozen Lake Michigan 2-1-2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNmVWmqkUYs Flyby over green house 3-16-2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWqbQBXJjso Flyby 7-4-2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKnkQVp4Hto Other Ken Scott videos Timelapse and wind turbine http://www.youtube.com/user/KenScottPhotography#p/u/25/-DXTQ3k-BBU How to build an igloo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn2mBA4frbg - Clear Skies Kurt

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NGC 2477 Open or Globular Cluster
by Debbie 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi, On February 13, Dave, Ron, Steve, and I were treated to a clear winter sky. I immersed myself in some open clusters in Puppis and Canis Major. I viewed M41, M46, M47, M93, NGC 2362, as well as some double stars in the area. When Canis Major was high in the sky, I saw a cluster of stars low in Puppis. I sighted the Starbeam on the cluster and looked through the eyepiece. In there was a gorgeous cluster that is probably the best cluster in Puppis. NGC 2477 is listed as an open cluster but some websites list it as a globular cluster. I'll find it in the 15" when I go observing in early March. I think this is also Caldwell 71. It is a dense cluster so I'm wondering if it is a globular instead of an open cluster. Clear Skies, Debbie

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] ISS overpass 20100223 13_07UT video
by Canopus56 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

> Do you have pictures and technical details of your setup online? It's poor quality video but it gets the job done down to mag 0 and maybe mag 1. Portable video meteor camera design 160° TFOV 2.0 TLM Cost 230 USD http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/atm/mcm3/mcm3.html I'm still writing up the radio meteor observing station setup. Clear Skies - Kurt

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