October 2011 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Seeks help with Meade repair
by Patrick Wiggins 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

I received an email from a lady in southern Utah with a Meade 14 LX-200 that is having troubles (never heard that before). Quoting from her email: "It will not slew properly, so matter how many adjustments we make to the alignment or declination. also the motor is running constantly, not just when its slewing. we had a guy up last night who used to sell these things and he could not get it to work. It appears to polar align on goto easy align, but when slewing to 2nd coordinate, it moves in random directions." She says she sent it to the factory for repairs and when she got it back it still didn't work (never heard that before). Poor lady sounds pretty stressed about it but I'm not able to help. However, talking to Charlie Green I learned there's some place that specializes in getting Meade scopes to work but he can't remember details. He's going to see if he can find details when he gets home in a few days but in the mean time, anyone here know about such a place? Thanks, patrick

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Observing Tonight
by Jay Eads 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

The NWS in SLC has predicted clearing skies this afternoon and evening. A few of us are going out toPit n Pole tonight to try one more session before the moon gets in the way. We'll bout there between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. So if you would like to join feel free to come on out birdseed very warm as it will be cold. Think snow gear for warmth. Jay Sent from my iPad

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing Saturday Night
by Jorge Gutierrez 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

Weather doesn’t seem to be in for this but we’ll see, I wanna head out tonight

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Would like a ride to SPOC tonight
by D P Pierce 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

There an open house at SPOC tonight. If you can fit me and my fold up wheelchair into yolur vehichle call me at 81 739 2730. Deloy Pierce

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Observing Saturday Night
by Jay Eads 29 Oct '11

29 Oct '11

A small group of us are planning on observing Saturday night as the satellite images and forecast show clear skies that evening. IF Saturday flushes the forecast for Sunday is excellent and I might go to the Pit from say 5:30p.m. until 11:00p.m. (its a work night) to get in some final observing before I'm limited to the backyard for lunar and double star observing. I am leaning towards Lakeside based on conditions, but we won't make a firm decision until 12:00p.m. on Saturday. Pit n Pole is a possibility as is Vernon Reservoir as it is higher, has less humidity and actually has a warmer temperature (it is about 30 minutes farther west-south-west than Pit n Pole). If you would like to join us and have a preference please reply here. Should be a decent night of observing if the forecast holds that the cirrus clouds are gone by evening and as the moon is gone by 8:30p.m. and is a waxing crescent. Jay Eads

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lasers
by D P Pierce 28 Oct '11

28 Oct '11

We were shooting at each other. Deloy

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Vandenberg launch
by Gigi Giles 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Hi everyone, Will I be able to see the Vandenburg satellite launch from my location on the north shore of Lake Tahoe (around 2:48 PDT, 28 Oct)? Thanks, Gigi

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Lasers
by D P Pierce 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

The last year (2003 I think) my wife and I were at the North Rim Grand Canyon Star Party green lasers had become common but were still over $100. By arrangement at 11pm each evening when the public was all gone we had a green laser shootout with the South Rim which was 12 miles away. Lots of fun! The South Rim always had us out gunned because a lot more astronomers showed up for the South Rim Star Party. Deloy Pierce

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non-rotating black holes
by Gigi Giles 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Do non-rotating black holes exist, or are they (aka Schwarzchild black holes) only a model of the solution to Einstein's equation? How would a non-rotating black hole form? Thanks, Gigi

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2005YU55 flyby - local circumstances for SLC
by Canopus56 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

Another minor correction. At closet approach, the lunar distance is 0.85 LD. - Kurt

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