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

2005 YU55 Observing Campaign
by Patrick Wiggins 24 Oct '11

24 Oct '11

The night of 8 November minor planet 2005 YU55 will be close enough and therefore bright enough to not only be seen with modest amateur scopes but because it'll be moving as much as 8 arc minutes per minute observers should be able to see it move too: http://www.minorplanet.info/ObsGuides/YU55/ Let's hope the weather cooperates. patrick

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Item Found
by Jay Eads 24 Oct '11

24 Oct '11

The other night at Lakeside Josh and Jorge found something that belongs to an amateur astronomer, it is a clear plastic 1/4 inch eyepiece barrel cover. If you lost it, let me know and I'll try to arrange to get it back to you. -- Jay Eads

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Arcturus
by Chuck Hards 24 Oct '11

24 Oct '11

I watched Arcturus rise this morning. Can spring be far-off? ;o)

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Lakeside 10/22/2011
by Jay Eads 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

This is just a quick review of last night at Lakeside. At the site were the following people: Me, Jay Dave Rankin George (a friend of Dave and I and an imager). Josh Jorge Ian The air last night was the best air I've seen in a LONG time. I was able to put 471x on Jupiter and see outstanding detail visually. The GRS jumped out in a red color with details and the bands showed structure in the bands. It was one of the best views of Jupiter I have ever seen. I know David took a very large amount of data on Jupiter and I am looking forward to seeing what he does with it. George and Jorge also got some great image data in on various objects including M-42. I viewed M-42 with my 10mm, 14mm Pentax XW with an Ultrablock filter and with a 2 inch filter with the 27mm Panoptic and the Nebula popped into a 3-D like view with the filaments in the nebula just looking outstanding. I saw the typical green along with some hinges of red. Ian left early and after teasing him when he showed up, he hunted down Comet Garrard and spent time on Jupiter and other items. He discussed with me about seeing a disc structure on a Galilean moon. Oh to have 23 year old eyes! I spent most of my night in Pegasus hunting faint galaxies and galaxies clusters. For me my favorite by far was NGC 7619 & NGC 7626 elliptical galaxies or what is called Abell 426. NGC 1275 was also visible easily in the eyepiece. Here is a link to the many galaxies that are in this cluster, of which I spotted about 7 of them. http://dorsetastro.synthasite.com/unusual-deep-sky-targets.php Outside of this I showed Josh some objects and spent time in Auriga as it had risen up pretty high by late in the evening. I showed him M-35 first in Gemni and NGC 2158, another open cluster at the end of M35 that is about 1 billion years old. In Auriga I used the 27mm Panoptic to show M36, M37, and M38 and NGC 2158 the mini-Orion Nebula. Here is a photo of that object: I next showed Josh M42 which he had never seen (Josh borrowed my 10 inch dob and did an outstanding job star hopping and finding his own objects that night as well). M42 blew him away I believe and he finished the night about 2:30a.m. spending about 20 minutes just observing Jupiter while I started to clean up until I could use his help. I haven't listed most of the objects I saw and I'll do that in a blog entry one evening but what a tremendous evening! It was just incredible. I got home at 4:20a.m. and went right to bed. http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n1931ferayorni.jpg -- Jay Eads

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Oct 22, Public Star Party
by jcarman6＠q.com 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

Well, espaniol es morte. I killed it last night, On the way to SPOC it was discovered that people from Uruaguay speak spanish with an "accent." Sort of like southern american dialect or bronx english. Even if I had got the pronounciation correct, it would be slightly wrong for Uruguay. I was told I did pretty well , except for one sentence I truly mangled. Nevertheless, I looked really good to my niece, nephew and their guest Enrique. His wife was not feeling well, so she didn't come. Enrique has a prosthetic leg, but that didn't stop him from climbing up each and ever ladder no matter how high. Fortunately, many eyepieces were at a good height for him standing on the ground. He was so impressed. He tried to get a video (without a flash) because he is sure no one is going to believe him when he tells them about his star party in America back in Uruaguay. (The video was too dark). When we got back home, he gave me an incredible, extra long hug and kiss on the cheek. Thanks to all for making me look so good.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse in Reno
by Daniel Holmes 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

There is a song in here somewhere... "I watched an eclipse in Reno, just to see Rodger Fry"... Dan -- Sent from my phone, please excuse any mispelings or errors. ----- Reply message ----- From: erikhansen(a)thebluezone.net Date: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 3:21 pm Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse in Reno To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> > and it is an event light pollution won't affect, the serious planning will happen when a weather forecast is available in mid may, but there seem to be plenty of acceptable locations near Cedar City. Patrick, The eclipse only lasts a couple hours but the arm on the slot > machines are ready 24/7. The casino's know how to get you > > Rodger > > -----Original Message----- > From: utah-astronomy-bounces(a)mailman.xmission.com > [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Patrick > Wiggins > Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2011 3:08 PM > To: Utah Astronomy > Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse in Reno > > Anyone else find it ironic that casinos (some of the worst light polluters > on the planet) are working on an astronomical event? :) > > patrick > > Sent from my iPad > > On Oct 22, 2011, at 14:42, Steve Fisher <iotacass1(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > >> >> Gigi:Great to hear from you again. I hope you guys are doing well.I'm > still hoping we can get enough people together to ride the bus to Southern > Utah but if it doesn't happen you have given me an idea for second choice. > We will have to decide pretty soon if we are going to have enough people > to > go on the bus or not.I can't help but think I would like to set back and > let > someone else do the driving while just chatting and hangin' out with > friends > but a drive to Reno would be nice as well.More soon.Steve > >>> Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:58:04 -0700 >>> From: tahoegiles(a)sbcglobal.net >>> To: Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >>> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse in Reno >>> >>> Hi Everyone, >>> As you might already know, the annular eclipse will be spectacular in > Reno! The Nevada Astronomical Society and Fleischmann Planetarium are > arranging events. I want to let you know that the Silver Legacy, Circus > Circus, and Eldorado hotels are giving discount rates to eclipse > travelers. > I will have more details soon. >>> Gigi Giles > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > _______________________________________________ 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

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Eclipse in Reno
by Gigi Giles 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

Hi Everyone, As you might already know, the annular eclipse will be spectacular in Reno! The Nevada Astronomical Society and Fleischmann Planetarium are arranging events. I want to let you know that the Silver Legacy, Circus Circus, and Eldorado hotels are giving discount rates to eclipse travelers. I will have more details soon. Gigi Giles

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Thursday's Report/ Observing this Weekend
by Chuck Hards 22 Oct '11

22 Oct '11

Pics of new sites would be most welcome, Jay. Joan, remember that SPOC's compromised status has been known since the mid-70's. It's primary purpose has always been public outreach and easy access for SLAS members, not dark skies. That said, look at the science Patrick has done from there. Pretty damn impressive.

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Ride to SPOC
by D P Pierce 22 Oct '11

22 Oct '11

I'm still hoping for a ride to SPOC. Call me at 801 739 2730. Deloy Pierce

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Thursday's Report/ Observing this Weekend
by Jay Eads 22 Oct '11

22 Oct '11

Well, last night Mat and I went to a new location out in Rush Valley. It is located out on the Pony Express Road as you begin to drive up to Lookout Pass. There is a pull out right in front of the Juniper/Cedar trees up there and I can tell last winter someone had fun with a 4x4 because there are some serious ruts. There is a nice place to set up out there, and a grove of the trees act to block any ambient light from Vernon which is much, much less then the Weapons Depot. You can see the light dome from SLC suburbia/urban area but the Utah Co. light dome is really suppressed by the distance. The mountains to the west and north-west block any dome from Dugway and the foothills block the Weapons Depot lights. After getting set up the twilight came on and so did some high cirrus clouds. We would fight the clouds off and on all night. Transparency was really bad at times and I was going after galaxies and even the big ones looked horrible. I did get a wonderful view of Veil, of a couple of planetary nebula and just an outstanding view of M15. By 11:00p.m. we packed it up and drove home. I had a digital thermometer with me and when we left at 10:47p.m. to be exact the temperature at this location was 41.6 degrees and the humidity was non-existence. We stopped at the Pit n Pole road and the temperature showed 36.0 degrees F and the humidity was much, much higher. Again, the only negative here was the road in as it has become very rutted. My SUV did fine, but I think a low level car would struggle. Great site though and one I'll use again. Oh, we also had until around 9:00p.m. or 9:30p.m. a steady stream of cars coming up the Pony Express Road and their lights were bothersome. I think that was because people were leaving for Simpson Springs to go camping though with UEA weekend. This is also a place like Pit n Pole that other people have and will use so you can run into people here. Next up, a drive on Sunday I hope out to Vernon Reservoir. It might have to wait for a week though. Tonight is up in the air. Skippy Astronomy Forecast at http://www.skippysky.com.au/NorthAmerica/ is showing high level clouds coming back in tonight which is impacting transparency and seeing. Saturday and Sunday nights look to be the best so I am putting off going back out tonight and going out on Saturday and Sunday. Location is undetermined and will depend on where I can get the most people to respond who want to go out observing. I'm up for Lakeside or up for Pit n Pole or in that general area. If you would like to join up and go out and get some personal observing in please let me know by responding and listing which area you would prefer or are heading to. By the way, NOAA released its Dec., Jan and Feb. forecasts and it calls for snow, clouds and about average temperatures for this period. La Nina is back, perhaps weaker so that means more clouds again this winter I fear. I would take advantage of any clear skies you get if you want to get some personal observing in over the next week or so. Thanks! Jay --

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