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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Solar note 7-24-2010 2:30 pm MDT (14:30UT)
by Canopus56 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

Pic of the white poster board heat reflector for PST on a 9 lb class Celestron mount, discussed in prior note. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3593 - Kurt Earlier, I wrote: II. Solar reflective shields for the PST and small (9lb class) mount I finally got around to fabricating some white posterboard sun shields for the PST and my low end Celestron mount - held in place with velcro tabs. (I've seen much better Sun shade setups at the SLAS solar parties.) Without the shielding in hot afternoon weather yesterday (7-23), the PST double stack in 100 deg weather would overheat and seriously loose Ha bandwidth resolution. After about 20 minutes, the Celestron black plastic mount would overheat and the computer went crazy - sending the scope into an abended slew. With the white posterboard shielding, the black plastic mount base stayed at 37.4C (99.0F); and the housing around the PST double stack at 38.2C (100.8F). Max SLCC Airport temp for the six hours between 1pm and 7pm was 35.0C (95.0F). Even with the reflective shielding, there was a detectable degradation in the double and single stack PST Ha resolution as the Ha filter heated up over 20 minutes in true summer weather.

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Bluetooh wireless controllers for handboxes
by Canopus56 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

I was considering adding a bluetooth wireless hand controller for my solar low-end Celestron mount (in order to run imaging with the scope outside and the laptop inside a darkened house). Orion has discontinued its BlueStar adapter. Scopestuff has a homebrew type adapter. http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_jem1.htm Anyone have any experience with the Scopestuff bluetooth adapter? Are there any other current marketplace options other than the Scopestuff unit? Clear Skies - Kurt

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Next time someone complains about collimating . . .
by Jay Eads 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

Imagine collimating this . . . http://www.hermanusastronomy.co.za/newsflash-articles/late-light-reveals-wh…

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Wyoroc
by Chuck Hards 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

Someone was asking about wyoroc focusers here recently, but the OP escapes me. They are still alive and well. I snagged another one on eBay over the weekend, Carolyn is having a base machined to fit my 6" F/8 Newtonian (8" OD tube). I'm replacing the 1.25" low-profile helical that's on there now with the wyoroc 2". It's only 1/2" taller than the the helical, so I can just move my mirror forward by using shims on my collimation bolts, and retain the same 1" secondary with only a tiny loss of field of 100% illumination. This is the "Woodshop" Newtonian, with enhanced-aluminum, high-precision optics and primary fan. I'm setting it up for use on my CGEM, interchangeably with it's original Dobsonian base. This makes wyorock focuser #3 for me. I love them, when a 2-speed focuser isn't needed (long f-ratios). Beautiful craftsmanship, on top of perfect functionality.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astronomy funnies
by erikhansen＠thebluezone.net 26 Jul '10

26 Jul '10

>Yes, I thought it was to early for the annular that was in New Mexico, I forget the year. The eclipse you are talking about some went to Hawaii and where their hotel was was clear and where they drove to was cloudy. Some SLAS members went to Las Cruses for the annular and a certain Desert News reporter did a story. We had the SLAS H-alpha with us and had good viewing up to max eclipse. It was a total eclipse. If memory serves me correctly, a buch of SLAS > members got together and went to Cabo San Lucas (or La Paz or somewhere in > Baja California Sur) and got a decent view of the event. > > After spending the next two 12-hour days traveling back to Salt Lake, we were further chagrined when the local news showed pictures of how it looked from El Paso, Texas. All we had to do was travel another 2 hours to the south-west and we would have seen it! > > --- On Sun, 7/25/10, erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net > <erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net> wrote: > > > From: erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net <erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net> > Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Astronomy funnies > To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> > Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010, 10:48 AM > > >> Was that an annular? Anyway clouded out eclipses are not funny at all. > > > > That last link is particularly relevant to my experience of chasing an >> eclipse back in May of 1994. We took our junior high daughter out of school and drove 12 hours a day, to minimize how much school she'd be missing, to Roswell, New Mexico to see a total eclipse. All we saw was rain. In fact, the rain was so heavy that the highway leading into town >> was flooded and needed a highway patrol escort. >> --- On Sun, 7/25/10, Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com> wrote: From: Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com> >> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Astronomy funnies >> To: "utah astronomy utah astronomy listserve" >> <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> >> Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010, 1:42 AM >> For those who may not have seen these in the paper recently: >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-12 >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-13 >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-14 >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-15 >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-16 >> http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-17 >> http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20100724&name=Pardon_M… patrick :) >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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Astronomy funnies
by Patrick Wiggins 25 Jul '10

25 Jul '10

For those who may not have seen these in the paper recently: http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-12 http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-13 http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-14 http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-15 http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-16 http://comics.com/Peanuts/2010-7-17 http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20100724&name=Pardon_M… patrick :)

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Solar note 7-24-2010 2:30 pm MDT (14:30UT)
by Canopus56 24 Jul '10

24 Jul '10

I. Today's Sun I took a quick look at the Sun with a double stacked PST 40. AR1089 continues and there were two nice groups of prominences in the NE 1/4 and at the eastern limb. No pics were taken, but imagers at _The International Amateur Solar Database_ at 8-11 UT posted some images of the features that I saw later in the day. Borman's 17UT calcium image best captures what I saw at 14:30UT: Ca - Michael Borman,- Ill, USA 17UT - AR1089 and Prominences - full disk http://solardatabase.free.fr/vignette/upload_cak/pl_images/0_100725025349.j… Ha - Philippe Vandendoorn - Belgium 9UT - Prominence http://solardatabase.free.fr/vignette/upload/pl_images/0_100724081507.jpg Ha - Erio Inglante Rossi - Italy 9UT - Prominence http://solardatabase.free.fr/vignette/upload/pl_images/0_100724070158.jpg Ha- Garcia-ribera, Eduard - Spain 12UT - AR1089 http://solardatabase.free.fr/vignette/uploald/pl_images/0_100724103014.jpg II. Solar reflective shields for the PST and small (9lb class) mount I finally got around to fabricating some white posterboard sun shields for the PST and my low end Celestron mount - held in place with velcro tabs. (I've seen much better Sun shade setups at the SLAS solar parties.) Without the shielding in hot afternoon weather yesterday (7-23), the PST double stack in 100 deg weather would overheat and seriously loose Ha bandwidth resolution. After about 20 minutes, the Celestron black plastic mount would overheat and the computer went crazy - sending the scope into an abended slew. With the white posterboard shielding, the black plastic mount base stayed at 37.4C (99.0F); and the housing around the PST double stack at 38.2C (100.8F). Max SLCC Airport temp for the six hours between 1pm and 7pm was 35.0C (95.0F). Even with the reflective shielding, there was a detectable degradation in the double and single stack PST Ha resolution as the Ha filter heated up over 20 minutes in true summer weather. III. Idea for Peltier cooling ATM project I have decided to add to my ATM just-for-the-heck-of-it project list, fabricating a light-weight Peltier thermoelectric cooling band to temperature control the double stack. I already have a 12 volt variable resistor dew heater controller for my dew strips. Basically, the idea would be to sew two thermoelectric cooler modules into an water-absorbing elastic fabric band and string them around the outside of the stack. I have seen some Peltier cooler modules from some Chinese company that are also sold on amazon.com - http://www.amazon.com/Peltier-Thermo-Electric-Cooling-Module-Amp/dp/B000TA5… and at Parts Express - http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=320-252 If anyone has any ideas on other component suppliers and components or this idea generally, please advise. To anyone's knowledge, has someone already done this and posted an article on let's say Cloudy Nights. Clear skies - Kurt _The International Amateur Solar Database_ http://solardatabase.free.fr/sol.php

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] AR1089 and SLAS Sun Party on 7-24-2010 Sat
by Canopus56 24 Jul '10

24 Jul '10

Gary V wrote: > I have not seen any spots on the sun for months and then only once. > For June and July I saw no flares either. Although at a far reduced monthly rate when compared to 2000-2003, spots remain regular events. See AAVSO Solar Bulletin 64(8):4, discussed below. The AAVSO Solar Bulletin ( http://www.aavso.org/solar-bulletin ) lists standardized amateur visual sunspot counts by month based on visual observations of about 50 amateurs. The monthly AAVSO American (standardized) Sunspot Number for each month going back to Feb. 2008 (in which a report is published) are: Month Ra 201005 08.4 201004 07.0 201003 15.4 201002 19.5 201001 13.3 200910 04.5 200909 04.6 200908 00.0 200907 03.6 200906 03.2 200905 01.6 200904 00.4 200903 00.3 200902 00.7 200901 01.3 200812 00.5 200811 03.6 200810 02.4 200809 00.5 200808 00.2 200807 00.4 200806 03.0 200805 02.5 200804 02.2 200803 09.8 200802 01.6 A graph showing the mean number of AAVSO counted sunspots for January 2000 through January 2008 can be found on page 4 of the August 2008 issue of the AAVSO Solar Bulletin 64(8):4 at url - http://www.aavso.org/sites/default/files/solar_bulletin/aug08.pdf in http://www.aavso.org/solar-bulletin-2008 Assuming you mean prominences and not transient flares, the Bulletin also contains monthly examples of amateur photographs and drawings of prominences. In my experience prominences have remained a daily, observable event with a 40mm PST. I can remember only one observing session covering at least one day in almost all months in the last three years when I did not see a prominence on the solar disk. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Measuring pupil size
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Jul '10

24 Jul '10

During last evening's SLAS meeting Prez. Dave covered basic telescope math including several mentions of various optical systems' exit pupils (basically diameter/power). During Advanced Training that followed I asked around about how to go about measuring the size of the eye's pupil. Dave and I both remembered the pupil measurement device Edmund used to sell but Dave noted it didn't do much good since it had to be used with the lights on. Anyone here have any ideas on how to measure pupil diameter under low-light conditions? Thanks, patrick p.s. As was noted in the meeting, Dave's talk was a historic first in that it was the first time he had ever given a presentation with a computer and *NO* slide projector. Could this possibly mean SLAS's aged and long suffering slide projector is now going to join the Mickey Mouse telescope in well deserved retirement?!?

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sunspots
by erikhansen＠thebluezone.net 24 Jul '10

24 Jul '10

>OR at least you will be very lucky to see one at the limb and the CME following would have no consequence to earth. Pretty lucky period, to see a flare, either that or do a lot of solar observing like all day every day. There are certainly more prominences than the ones you see on the limb. It seems people refer to porminences as flares, flares are a much rarer and transient event. We should give the public correct nomenclature. I have only viewed a handful of flares as they last only a few minutes to an hour. A review of features visible in h-alpha. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/gcse-astronomy/sun-and-moon/solar-features/ Erik Viewing geometry is important to spot flares. They should be nearly > facing earth. You'll never see one near the limb. > > On 7/22/10, erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net <erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net> wrote: >>>Yes, I believe generally there are generally prominences associated with >> sunspots. The sunspots I have observed near or on the limb have prominences. Flares and prominences are different animals, flares appear >> as very bright features in h-alpha and I have also observed those that seem to be associated with sunspots. >> I have looked for sun spots and since 7/31/08 have only seen spots on >>> 3/28/10. >>> I have started looking for solar flares on June 6 2010 and have not seen >>> any >>> Does anyone know if there is a relationship between flares and spots?. Sincerely, >>> Gary Vardon >>> The book DO It Right will help you understand vital ideas leading to your >>> greater success. GO to PublishAmerica.com >>> Consulting For Profit is also available. Learn how to make money as a consultant. >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > > _______________________________________________ > 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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