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

Gravel-Pit Site in Brown's Canyon
by Lowell Lyon 17 Aug '10

17 Aug '10

Hello: My wife and I had a nice time observing Perseids from the gravel pit site in Brown's Canyon. Friday night into Saturday morning I went back up with a telescope and had an enjoyable evening. The sky was exceptionally clear and steady with just a slight breeze once in a while, not enough to be a bother at all. This is still a very good observing site being as close to Salt Lake as it is. You now set up in front of gates restricting vehicular travel into the gravel quarry itself. I don't find this a problem either. It actually is better now that there is no traffic at all after dark (except for those bringing up scopes). There is an animal shelter of some sort a short distance away that was built since I was at the site late time, yet it does not seem to make any noise and what light it generates didn't really bother me either. There is a bit more development along the access road yet not enough in my opinion to keep people from using this site for a while longer. I still like the higher elevation of this area versus the observing sites west of Salt Lake particularly with the nice eastern sky. I have been up to the gravel quarry site in late Fall and it was still quite pleasant being above the haze and temperature inversions of Salt Lake. I hope to see more people still use this site if you want to stay within an hour of Salt Lake. Those wanting to go a bit further away next new moon, I hope that we'll see as many of you as possible at Capitol Reef National Park over Labor Day Weekend. Thanks. Lowell Lyon

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Channel 4 at Harmons tonight
by Patrick Wiggins 16 Aug '10

16 Aug '10

I just heard that channel 4 is planning on being at tonight's Harmons star party. Y'all come and help make the club look good. :) They're going to promo it ahead of time so we could end up with a whole flock of public. Clear skies! patrick

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Next New Moon Observing
by Jay Eads 16 Aug '10

16 Aug '10

I know were two weeks out but IF the weather cooperates I would like to put some dates out in case people want to go observing. 1. Friday, September 3rd, (moon will be a waxing crescent heading to New Moon on Sept. 8th): Wolf Creek or 2. Friday, September 10th, Wolf Creek (moon will be a very thin crescent, two days after new moon). I am shooting for the 10th of September and will probably try Lakeside or what I would really like is try Kim's Skyline Drive on the 3rd of September. So if your not wanting or capable of driving farther to observe for whatever reason, come on out, and observe. Friday night we had a 25", a 17.5", a 14" and a 10" up at Wolf Creek and though the seeing was average, the objects were still fabulous, and for this year, with all the moisture and clouds, it was an incredible night. Either way, dress very warm, it gets cold up there even now, and bring a bag and a ground cover and when your done, put up and just lay down and fall asleep with the grandeur of the summer Milky Way to the west, the fall constellations overhead and Taurus, the Pleiades and Orion to the east! What a sight at 4:30 a.m., and what a way to fall asleep to. Clear skies. I'll post a reminder in a week and a half or so. Jay

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New Images
by David Rankin 16 Aug '10

16 Aug '10

Two from last night, Rho and the North America with the Pelican. I re-shot the Rho as it didn't use my cooler last time. Much better results this time around. North America http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3628&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 Rho http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3625&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 Enjoy!

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Channel 4 at Harmons tonight
by Canopus56 15 Aug '10

15 Aug '10

Well done Patrick. Great coverage. That weather guy was really pushing the club. - Kurt

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Jupiter
by Kim 15 Aug '10

15 Aug '10

I just got home from some early morning observing on the Skyline Drive. I wanted to catch Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune when they were high in the sky – this after watching the conjunction in the western sky yesterday evening at dusk. I missed Pluto – forgot to take finder charts with me – but it’s not a planet any more, so I can still say that I observed all planets in one night, right? I’m no Jupiter expert but I saw something last night that left me wondering if a revival of the south equatorial belt has already begun. I began watching Jupiter around 2:30, just prior to the Red Spot transit, predicted to occur at 9:04 UT (3:04 MDT). I noticed a very prominent short dark feature on the trailing side (west, right?) of the GRS that began just off the southern limb of the GRS and extended west for some distance, maybe 20 or 30 degrees. By comparison, it was much narrower than the NEB. Does anyone have enough observing experience with Jupiter to be able to say if something special is really going on, or is this just normal? I couldn’t make it to SPOC last night, but this trip to Skyline Drive was pretty spectacular. Warm, air very still with not even the slightest breeze, good seeing, dark, and close to home. ;-) Besides Jupiter, NGC 253 was especially fine last night. Kim

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Observatory Tonight
by Ann House 15 Aug '10

15 Aug '10

All SLASers, Patricia and I have the Ealing and the Grim reserved for tonight, but we are unable to go out. Therefore, it is up for grabs if anyone wants to take advantage of the clear dark night. -A

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Perseids - and stuff
by Canopus56 15 Aug '10

15 Aug '10

Kim, Give me a couple of days to scan two chapters out of the 2008 IMO Handbook for Meteor Observers. It describes the "official" "scientifically recognized" technique - to the extent that there is one. I don't do the full rigorous approach and reductions and file IMO reports because I am too fuzzy headed at 2am. But the handbook is good background and reading it increased my enjoyment of this "watching-grass-grow" type activity. http://www.imo.net/imo/publications The rigorous technique uses four or five observers sitting in a circle with either tape recorders or strip paper tape from a cash register printer and a watch. It's a good scout project for those that know there constellations. You just write or orally record each meteor in the wee am hours, collect the notes from each observer and reduce it into an IMO form. A lone observer doing sky segment is also useful. The IMO also uses a special star atlas - the Atlas Bruno - which contains a projection adjusted for plotting long-tail meteors and radiants across many degrees. I have a copy if you need any pages in the future. There is also the American Meteor Society observing guide. http://www.amsmeteors.org/visual.html http://www.amsmeteors.org/publications.html - Clear Skies - Kurt

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Great night!
by Patrick Wiggins 15 Aug '10

15 Aug '10

Wow! Tonight had to be the best SPOC star party in a very long time. Excellent weather, the seeing was good, lots of scopes and grundles of public. We were so busy and the lines so long we didn't really start closing up until just past midnight (the Ealing closed early when the focuser developed a problem). Kelly Ricks and I ran the refractor and found Mercury right after sunset. That was followed by Saturn, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Neptune and finally Uranus. First time I've seen all the planets in one session in years. Fun. And for those who wanted to see Pluto, the Grim was pointed in it's direction. Dave Bernson was pretty sure Pluto was in the field of view but it was hard to say just which tiny dot it was. Much fun! And many thanks to the MANY (there really were a lot) of SLASers who were there and helped out. I'm sure the public appreciated the effort. I guess it went so well we're now going to have to pay in the form of a few weeks of clouds... :) patrick

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Perseids
by Kim 14 Aug '10

14 Aug '10

Mark Shelton met my son, Max and me at about 8:45 PM yesterday to begin the night’s Perseid meteor shower observing at Skyline Drive. Mark left us around 1:30 AM but Max and I stayed until about 5:15 this morning. It was very windy for the first couple of hours, so neither Mark nor I set up telescopes as we had originally planned to do. It was, however, clear and dark – perfect for meteor observing. For the first couple of hours after dark the shower seemed to be very slow and I didn’t attempt to make any kind of formal count until later. There seemed to be a short spike in meteor numbers around 12:30, then numbers appeared to drop off. I counted only about 20 during a period of about 45 minutes before Mark left, but I was also talking too much (sorry, Mark). Around 2:30 it seemed as though numbers were beginning to increase so at 3:00 I began to make a serious count. Between 3:00 and 4:00 I counted 64 shower members and 9 sporadics. Between 4:00 and 5:00 I counted 70 shower members and 9 sporadics. I forgot to take with me charts for estimating the limiting magnitude, but the air was both transparent and steady, so I’d guess that it was easily 6.5, but probably even better than that. The “sporadics” included at least a few members of the Delta Aquariids; anyway I’m pretty certain that they were. I was really surprised to see four meteors within less than a minute that appeared to radiate from the right spot in Aquarius. I was also pretty sure that I saw three or four Delta Aquariids during a short observing session Wednesday night, around 11:30, and since the peak of this shower typically occurs July 29/30 I’m not sure what to make of what I saw both Wednesday and last night. Did anyone else see any Aquariids this week? Another treat last night was to see the zodiacal band, especially toward dawn as the zodiacal light on the eastern horizon really became apparent. Max, who is 12, easily spotted the zodiacal band and zodiacal light as soon as I explained to him what they are. It was real easy to see why the zodiacal light is known as the false dawn in some parts of the world. All in all a great night, even if the Perseids weren’t as productive for me as they’ve been in past years. If I can get enough sleep today I may even try to observe again tonight. (There are advantages to being underemployed.) Kim

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