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

Star Party at SPOC tonight?
by Jay Eads 02 May '10

02 May '10

Just wondering if there is still going to be a Star Party at SPOC as I don't see a break coming to the clouds. Anyone know?

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What's your "Dirty Little Astronomy Secret"?
by Chuck Hards 01 May '10

01 May '10

I have a strange attraction to small aperture, long-focus refractors. I have a 50mm f/20 cemented doublet refractor that I dearly love, and am currently building a 60mm f/15 doublet tube assembly. I just bought a vintage 1975 60mm JCPenny "Penncrest" of 1000mm focal length (that's f/16.7, folks!), on equatorial mount with all accessories, on eBay. I have an identical equatorial mount made some years later, with clock drive, that I've used as my astro-camera tracking platform for some years, and will steal the drive from it and install it on the Penncrest scope after I fully restore it. I love to use my small refractors in the backyard in summertime, pushing them to their limits. I wait until after midnight, when most cars are off the road, and the limiting magnitude from the valley can improve by 1 or more. With patience, you would be amazed at what you can tease-out of a small aperture from a light-polluted site, and the nostalgic feeling recaptures the wonder I first experienced in my parent's backyard, some 42+ years ago, with my first 3-inch telescope. What's your Dirty Little Astronomy Secret?

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Atlas or CGEM?
by Canopus56 01 May '10

01 May '10

Chuck, You're welcome to borrow my Atlas Orion mount for nine days covering two weekends at your convenience. Rod Mollise's review may be helpful for comments. http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/2009/01/gemmania.html Both of the mounts are at the same price point and are made in the same factory by Synta - which is owned by Celestron (which also owns Orion). One would expect that Celestron would put better components in its name branded EQ6 mount as opposed to the purchased legacy brand. Also, the CGEM series came out after Synta had been getting the bugs out of the Atlas mount for several years. One would expect that as the latest release, the CGEM would incorporate the newest technology, e.g. the ability to polar align on southern local horizon bright stars. I do not own and have not used a CGEM EQ6. Rod Mollise's review of the CGEM and my experience with the Atlas were the same with respect to mounting bars. Plan to purchase an x-heavy duty mounting bar for anything over 25 lbs. Scopes under 25 lbs still benefit from an x-duty bar. I first purchased an off the shelf heavy duty bar for $50 and then went back ended up buying an x-heavy duty specialty bar for around $100. This is a "must buy" for any scopes weighing over 30lbs. The physical handcontrollers for Orion and Celestron are identical and for most Meades are nearly identical. It is the software that is different. For planet finding, the Skyscan software remains a joke at software version 3.24. Even with code corrected gratis by an physicist online acquaintance of mine, it still is not accurate. It gets you within a degree of the planet. For DSO finding, the Atlas mounts are not allsky slew with accurating targeting. When slewing more than 30 degrees, the basic routine is to resync on a nearby bright star and then go to the target. If you are working an individual constellation and can bracket the target area by resynching on bright alignment stars in a box or triangle around the target, the controller becomes highly accurate within the confines of the bracketed zone. On each local region resync, the software progressively creates a more accurate model of the local deviation in the mount's error and the idealized celestial sphere. (These comments are for Skyscan v3.24; the current version is 3.27.) The software version 3.27 update readme file indicates that corrections were made to the IC and NGC catalogues that increase targeting accuracy. I have not installed and testing Skyscan v3.27. Guiding for imaging on the Atlas requires the supplemental purchase - the Shoestring Gosub USB->ST4 adapter for $100. I do not know about the CGEM. If you want to look at a used one, I would feel comfortable buying any used Atlas off Astromart manufactured after let's say 2008. Make sure it has the current handcontroller and not a version 1 handcontroller. The intial handcontrollers used during 2005-2007 were not software updatable. - Kurt

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Utah Radio Meteor Observing Report - April 2010
by Canopus56 01 May '10

01 May '10

Graphs http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3332 http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3329 Counts for April are consistent with the minor Lyrid daytime shower peak predicated for April 22 17UT. Next shower: eta-Lyrids (ELY) Active: May 3-12; Maximum: May 9, 07h UT; ZHR = 3 http://www.imo.net/calendar/2010#lyr Clear Skies - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] L&O Lunch
by Ray Druian 01 May '10

01 May '10

If "tomorrow" means today, Saturday, count me in. Just lemme know time and location by 10 am if possible. I keep missing these things because they're either cancelled or I am. Thanx, B.Ray Kiss a malamute today!

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Star party, Friday May 7, Provo South Fork Canyon - help needed!
by Richard Tenney 30 Apr '10

30 Apr '10

I'm hosting a star party for a local high school in Provo's South Fork Canyon next week, Friday the 7th, at 0-dark-thirty (more specifically, sunset is about 8:30, fully dark by 9 p.m.), and would like a few other scopes and operators to show up and help with the crowd control. I think about 40 folks are expected, but it could be more. Please RSVP if you think you can help, whether or not you have a scope. I'm planning to bring my 16". I'll be sending another message out next week with additional details. This is a reasonably dark site for being only 15-20 min. outside of the city. Thanks in advance for helping! /Rich

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Atlas or CGEM?
by Chuck Hards 30 Apr '10

30 Apr '10

Rob, I can't actually find the word "GoTo" anywhere on the Celestron website pages concerning this mount. "Computer controlled" is as close as they get. Do you know, off the top of your head (and before I email Kevin) if the CGEM is a true "GoTo" mount? I'm pretty naive when it comes to commercial astro hardware, sorry! I've been a die-hard do-it-yourselfer for over 40 years now. On 4/29/10, Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: > Hi Chuck > > > My experience w/ the Celestrom CGE mount is a good one and I would > expect the newer CGEM would be on the same level. All inputs are thru > the hand paddle, easy to follow and once aligned (drift alignment > recommended), the drive will place objects near the center of the > FOV. GOTO is accurate, the drive is quiet and has been a joy to use. > If you have any questions, contact Kevin Kawai at Celestron > KKAWAI(a)celestron.com. ENJOY your new mount!! > > Aloha > Rob > _______________________________________________ > 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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