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

News
by Kim 10 Sep '10

10 Sep '10

I’m sure I’ve never expressed it and I don’t know if anyone else has, but I just want to let Patrick know that I’ve always enjoyed and really appreciate the regular News email that he sends to us. Since I don’t have time to cull through what must be countless news releases and interesting articles about space exploration and astronomy, I’m very grateful that there’s someone like Patrick to do it for me. So, Patrick, thank you. And, I have a question: When will you get a life? ;-) Kim

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Great Basin Astro Program
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

Hey All, I just wanted to throw some kudos out to Dale and Steve, who did a fine job presenting astronomy to the public and took the effort to make their scopes available for all to see the awesome night time sky at Great Basin. It was good to finally meet someone from this list in person. Keep up the good work guys! Jon

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2010 RF12 animation 2010 SEP 07 - 0648-0823
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

Per Kurt's suggestion I worked 2010 RF12 tonight as it's closing for a close flyby (see Kurt's original post for details of the flyby). 20 one minute exposures shot at 5 minute intervals this morning (7 September) between 0648-0823 UTC. Distance from Earth at that time was about 0.0048 AU. North is up, east to the left. FOV is about 18' x 26'. Image scale 2.163". http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/2010RF12.GIF It's not that bright so it's a bit tough to see. It moves from upper left to lower right. patrick 718

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sunday night/Monday morning
by Debbie 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

I found this image of IC 1613 when I googled it. http://astro.nightsky.at/Photo/Gal/IC1613_Newton.html Debbie On Tue Sep 7 13:51 , Michael Vanopstall <opstall(a)math.utah.edu> sent: >On Tue, 7 Sep 2010, Debbie wrote: > >> According to Stephen James O'Meara, the sky has to be really clear to >> bag IC 1613. I'm going to try it next month at the Kolob Fingers section >> of ZNP. I marked it on Sky Atlas 2000 since it is not on chart #10. The >> Cave Nebula was a hard one but is more for imagers than visual >> observers. The Bubble Nebula is best seen with an OIII filter. I found >> Pac Man Nebula this weekend and it too benefits from an OIII filter. >> > >I am very stupid about my Sky Atlas. I always leave it at home, despite >the fact that the charts in O'Meara's Caldwell book leave something to be >desired (they don't show enough context). So a good ten minutes of my time >was spent figuring out which star in Pisces was epsilon! Meanwhile, that >Atlas is at home. > >The Bubble and the Crescent in Cygnus I used an O-III on, but only to >check after I had thought I detected them without. Now, I definitely >didn't pick out the Bubble itself, but some of the extent of the >nebulosity was there. Even though I was at a dark site, I used a UHC to >see the Cave. Again, I didn't see the cave feature, but saw about a 1-2 >degree sliver of nebulosity. IC 1613 -- I have made two very concerted >efforts. Both times I thought I saw the same thing. I absolutely >pinpointed the field, and stood at the eyepiece each time for 15-20 >minutes tapping the tube, breathing rhythmically, and moving the center >of my FOV around. I checked the direction I thought I saw nebulosity >against a photo and they agreed, so I count it as attained. I still have >my doubts, and will probably revisit it each time I'm out. I think that I >may have just caught a couple of 12-13th magnitude stars nearby that >fooled me... > >---- >Rev. Michael A. van Opstall >Department of Mathematics, University of Utah >Office: JWB 313 >opstall(a)math.utah.edu > >_______________________________________________ >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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New Image - vdB158 and PK 110-12 1
by Tyler Allred 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

Hi all. I have not been posting to this group very often, but I thought I would send a quick note. I just finished a version of Van den Bergh 158, which is a dusty nebula in Andromeda. The image includes a small blue planetary nebula designated PK 110-12 1. I have also done some other images over the last few months. Take a look on my website if you get a minute. Link: http://www.allred-astro.com/gpage8.html Be sure to click the thumbnails a few times to see the full resolution images. Cheers, Tyler

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Getting closer, speeding up
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Sep '10

08 Sep '10

Quite a difference between last night when 2010 RF12 took over an hour to cross my imager's FOV and tonight when it took all of 5 minutes. Tonight's animation is a series of 45 5" exposures taken in quick succession between 0330 and 0337 UTC. North is up, east to the left. FOV is about 18' x 26'. Distance was about 345,000 km. I'd hoped to get it closer in but it looks like the weather's going to put the kibosh on that. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/2010RF12.GIF patrick

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comet like object in sky
by Dale Wilson 07 Sep '10

07 Sep '10

Did anyone see the "comet like" phenomenon in the western sky at about 7:10 pm this evening? What ever it was, it was slow moving and looked like a shooting star in slow motion. My wife caught it on video while I was away for the evening. I watched the video and, for the life of me, I can't figure out what it was. It was high elevation, no sound and a trail. It was moving west with a slight southerly angle. Any info would be appreciated. Dale

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A Flashlight to test the red/green even blue color debate
by Ann Blanchard 07 Sep '10

07 Sep '10

If you have $29 to spare for the interest of scientific testing, Big Five Sporting Goods has a 12 led flashlight with the manly name of "Smith and Wesson: Galaxy." It has one button with 6 white light leds. A second button first push gets 2 red leds, second, 2 blue leds and third 2 green leds. Unfortunately, you do have to go through all three colors to shut it off. We did our own test just for reading the star maps in the Sky & Telescope pocket atlas. The Atlas seems to be geared for red light, but we thought the yellow (in white light) shaded clusters, etc. showed up better in the blue light than the red. This does not address the night vision issue, maybe some of you will do a real test (Kim this is your chance). All the leds are quite bright, we may tone the whole thing down with a homemade prefilter. When we put a second red filter over the front, the blue light changed to a lovely purple, which was also good for reading the maps. Any adventurous souls willing to test it? When I looked sadly at the price tag, the saleswomen said, "yes, but it comes with batteries."

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sunday night/Monday morning
by Debbie 07 Sep '10

07 Sep '10

According to Stephen James O'Meara, the sky has to be really clear to bag IC 1613. I'm going to try it next month at the Kolob Fingers section of ZNP. I marked it on Sky Atlas 2000 since it is not on chart #10. The Cave Nebula was a hard one but is more for imagers than visual observers. The Bubble Nebula is best seen with an OIII filter. I found Pac Man Nebula this weekend and it too benefits from an OIII filter. I was at Capital Reef this weekend and set up my 15" Thursday and Friday nights. One area in Pisces that I thought was interesting is the NGC 520, 474, 470 group. I need to take a closer look at NGC 520 since it consists of two merging galaxies. M74 was perhaps the best that I have seen it at a dark site. Other faint galaxies that put on a show were NGC 7331, NGC 7814, NGC 7479, NGC 925, NGC 1023, NGC 891, and Bernard's Galaxy NGC 6822. I'm planning on going back to Capital Reef next year so I can hike and stargaze. It is a fun area to explore. Debbie On Sun Sep 5 14:46 , Michael Vanopstall <opstall(a)math.utah.edu> sent: >Hello -- > >I hope everyone's object bag is a little more full after the weekend. I >had a decent go Thurs/Fri at Lakeside. For Caldwell objects doable from >this latitude, I've only got NGC 2261 in Monoceros among those that should >not be difficult, and then some that I maybe have no hope for: the Cave in >Cepheus and the Bubble in Cassiopeia, and IC 1613 in Cetus -- these I have >definitely pointed the scope right at many times, and I believe I have >seen the Bubble and IC 1613, but am not ready to check them off yet. Also >cleared out the rest of the Herschels in Auriga. > >I've got 8 more Herschels in Orion, one more in Gemini (where the moon was >on Friday early morning), and two more on Camelopardalis. Since the moon >won't be a problem tonight before the sun will, I'd like to go out. I'm >posting to find out who's going to be out there that I might bother. I >want to manage a little sleep, so I'll probably go out sometime around 1-2 >am and start with the difficult objects mentioned about, which will >already be up, and then start through Orion and Monoceros as the darkness >allows. > >I guess that Lakeside and Knolls are options, although they put the city >in between me and my targets. I think Knolls is less popular, so if folks >are set up from evening at Lakeside, I'll probably not bother them. Wolf >Creek would probably be ideal, as the humidity there will be lower, and it >won't really be that much colder than is forecast for the west desert. But >I've never been there, don't really know how to get to the observing area >(can anyone give fairly exact GPS coordinates for this?), and I think >maybe someone will be left there that doesn't want to be disturbed. > >Anyhow -- let me know if you're going to be set up already at 1:00 am at >any of these places, and I'll not disturb. > >Thanks. > >---- >Rev. Michael A. van Opstall >Department of Mathematics, University of Utah >Office: JWB 313 >opstall(a)math.utah.edu > >_______________________________________________ >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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Sooo close
by Patrick Wiggins 07 Sep '10

07 Sep '10

Saturday night I found something on my images that was not in the Minor Planet Center's database. Really surprised me as it was mag 17ish which, as minor planets go, is very bright. Initially I thought it was an artifact in the camera. So I tried turning it off and on and tried moving the scope around. It would not go away. Took a bunch of shots. Still there. So I waited an hour and looked again. It was still there. "Wow", thought I. "My first new find in a couple of years". So I sent off my data and waited. And waited. Sunday night I looked again and it was still there in the sky and still not in the MPC database. So more data and more waiting. Then a few minutes ago I saw it's in the database (wait for it) with an observatory in Spain getting the discovery credit. Looks like they caught it a few hours before me. Groan... First the Spanish take the World Cup and now this! Eye carumba! patrick

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