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

Atlantic Immune to Tsunamis?
by erikhansen＠thebluezone.net 20 Mar '11

20 Mar '11

I recall a story about the Canary Islands El Hierro and La Palma. EL Heirro had a major landslide that created its crescent shape, this landslide was believed to have caused a huge tsunami that reached the east coast of the US with huge waves. La Palma has a similar fault line that bisects the island. One theory is that is if this fault goes, half of the island would fall into the sea causing a Tsunami that would be several hundred meters in height as it hits the eastern US. Seems geologists are somewhat split, some think the Island will spilt in half over a long period of time, some think it will happen in one catastrophic event. The evidence at El Hierro seems to suggest it will happen all at once.

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(no subject)
by Dale Wilson 20 Mar '11

20 Mar '11

http://wrestlingcampguide.com/images/amw.php

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This only a test
by Steve Fisher 20 Mar '11

20 Mar '11

I'm rarely at a loss for words but Patrick asked me to send a message to Utah Astronomy to see if my new e-mail address was entered correctly into the system. This is only a test.

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bad emails
by Dale Wilson 20 Mar '11

20 Mar '11

Sorry, I got hacked. I may be having to change email addresses. Apologies for the strange emails. Dale

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Computer virus question
by Patrick Wiggins 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

Hi list people, Early this morning some ne'er-do-well hacked into one of our list member's email address book and used the member's computer to broadcast a message that went to a bunch of people and to the UA list. It appears the message contained a link to a site in Germany (as evidenced by the ".de" in the URL). I've no idea where that site went to as I did not click on it. Fortunately since the message bore no subject and was addressed to so many addresses the list software flagged the post as suspicious so it never got posted to the list itself. I alerted the list member to the situation and he responded asking what he should do now. Since this has now happened to at least two folks on UA I thought I'd post about the situation here and ask those more computer-literate than I: 1) How does one keep one's address book from being hacked in the first place? and 2) What should one do after such a hack occurs? Also 3) On Macs one can safely see what's in an email without actually opening it by making a text-only copy (Apple key-Shift-S). How does one do the same thing with a Windows machine? Ideas? Thanks, patrick

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Mercury - observing
by Canopus56 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

Chart for Mercury apparent position (for Chicago but applicable for SLC) for March and April. - Kurt http://www.curtrenz.com/mercury01.html P.S. - Here's the local horizon coordinates for Mercury from SLC for the next week at 7pm and near sunset at 8pm. (Alt = 90-Zenith Dist). Jupiter will set just before Mercury at about 1 degree WS of Mercury and 5 to 6 degs below in az from Mercury. So a good finding option is to zero in on Jupiter with your binoculars and then swing up and slight to the north in az until you roll over Mercury. Using your planetarium software to chart Mercury at the west horizon at around 8pm between 3-20 and 4-7 with day connection lines gives a useful graphic. Mercury reaches maximum elongation on 2011 Mar 23 7:10pm at 18.6 East with a magnitude of -0.2. Date-time | Zenith Dist | AZ | AU to Earth Mar 19 07PM , 66.48573 , 259.41645 , 1.009267868 Mar 19 08PM , 77.75713 , 269.60940 , 1.008144805 Mar 20 07PM , 77.16666 , 270.04852 , 0.980880249 Mar 20 08PM , 88.45225 , 279.76752 , 0.979748945 Mar 21 07PM , 76.67172 , 270.51074 , 0.953502900 Mar 21 08PM , 87.95347 , 280.21001 , 0.952370579 Mar 22 07PM , 76.27896 , 270.99619 , 0.926182771 Mar 22 08PM , 87.55595 , 280.67560 , 0.925056480 Mar 23 07PM , 64.67585 , 261.40727 , 0.900201599 Mar 23 08PM , 75.99434 , 271.50477 , 0.899087168 Mar 24 07PM , 64.49360 , 261.97450 , 0.873473039 Mar 24 08PM , 75.82309 , 272.03614 , 0.872377832 Mar 25 07PM , 64.42984 , 262.56763 , 0.847278467 Mar 25 08PM , 75.76967 , 272.58973 , 0.846208726 Mar 27 07PM , 64.67207 , 263.82470 , 0.797060970 Mar 27 08PM , 76.02984 , 273.76009 , 0.796059200 Mar 28 07PM , 64.98286 , 264.48435 , 0.773296461 Mar 28 08PM , 76.34787 , 274.37462 ,

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Super Moon?
by Canopus56 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16mar_supermoon/ 17 percent in the KSL broadcast is an over statement. Looking at today's 3-19-2011 EPOD ( http://epod.usra.edu/ ), if you take the extreme maximum and extreme minimum distances of the Moon and the arc size of the Moon at those positions, then you can say that the arcsize change is 17 percent - _using the extreme minimum as the denominator. Two photos in today's EPOD (3-19-2011) are illustrative. They use the Moon near an extreme minimum of 356,790 at an apparent size of 34 arcsecs and near a maximum of 406,357 at 29.74 arcsecs. 14% approx equals ( (34.06-29.74) / 29.74 ). Since the change is size would _normally_ be measured from the _mean apparent size_ of the Moon, the variation is really about half that - or about 7 percent or a change in apparent size of about 2 arcsecs (34.06-29.74/2). The human eye, you cannot even see 2 arcsecs with less than 30 power of magnification. A 4 arcsec change is going to take 15 power of magnification to be detectable above a AFOV 1 arcmin change. In the unlikely event that the clouds have a sucker hole break at moonrise SLC at 8:04 MDT local time, Dr. Phillips's observing point that the full Moon may be particularly beautiful as it rises (yesterday) tonight and tomorrow (in combination with the Moon illusion) is a good reminder. I'll be looking. (Humm, I may even pre-set up a tripod mounted DSLR.) - Clear Skies (Did I forget to mention today is spring?) - Kurt P.S. - Happy Spring!

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From today's funnies
by Patrick Wiggins 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

http://www.arcamax.com/bc/s-851336-354920 pw :)

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Super Moon?
by erikhansen＠thebluezone.net 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

Hi Patrick, The news (Channel 2) cited NASA as a source saying last nights Full Moon was 17% bigger than "normal" and 30% brighter. What was the official NASA release on this? My iPhone howled when I opened my Moon Phase App last night. Erik

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Japan Earthquake Discussion
by Canopus56 19 Mar '11

19 Mar '11

Josephine - Thanks for the reference to science20 blog site. That is a great science entertainment read on a wide variety of topics. - Kurt ----- New thread topic While I hope that this thread will not turn into an acrimonious nuclear power debate, for me, the most significant issue coming up of the Japanese earthquake are not the failed reactors, but the breached and draining water pool on-site spent-fuel storage failure. More than one pool appears to have cracked and drained, resulting in the release of lethal levels of gamma radiation that temporarily drove the operator staff out of the control rooms of the complex. There are similar temporary water storage pools at all United States operating reactors. http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/nuc-fuel-pool.html Clear Skies (Where is Spring?) - Kurt P.S. - I have made a donation for Japanese relief through http://www.globalgiving.org/ , principally because they accept PayPal transfers. If anyone else here is so moved, that is option for a donation root.

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