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

well then,stuff for sale
by RON VANDERHULE 18 Apr '11

18 Apr '11

It's late so here is a partial list of item; 31 Nagler, $425 Had this for a month and then got a 22 Nag and the 31 has been idle since Great shape Ziess/Doktor 12.5mm $325, 90 degree fov, barrel fine focus, 10mm eye relief, leather case, rare collecters item Pentax xw 5.2 $180 great planetary Televue 2x Powermate, $210, hardly used Siebert Black Night bino-viewer w/ .08 oca, pair of matched 24.5 ultra eyepieces $500, Siebert sells this as a kit for $779 These binoviewers went head to head with Steve Dodds Denk IIs' one night and we couldn't tell the difference (right Steve?) BVC 15 1/2x2 inch ground and polished to f 4.5 ish $400 United Lens 18x2 fine ground to f/5 ready to polish. Has slight chip issue that a good beveling would take care most of $700 call me to discuss chip 12.5x1 plate flat 2 sides, just the tiniest chip on one side $100 10x1 plate flat 2 sides $75 Orion Sky View Pro with single axis electronic drive ( still factory wrapped) mount was only used one night, as new $325 Big homemade grinding machine, designed by world renown Steve Dodds and assembled by him and me, have done 10 inch thru 25 inch on this thing $400 Have a lot more smaller glass 4-8 inch much grit and pitch and other mirror making supplies. Just call and talk to me about anything that interests you.< 801 726 8554> In a couple days I will post on Astromart Thanx, Ron

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astro items for sale
by RON VANDERHULE 17 Apr '11

17 Apr '11

Guys' Taxman hit me hard this year and I am going to sell some stuff on astromart but I thought I could offer it up locally first. What is the policy on the U-A list concerning that???? High end eyepieces, large mirror blanks, pyrex, BVC, plate glass, mirror grinding machine ... Ron

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Where'd the clouds go?!
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Apr '11

17 Apr '11

When the Sun went down it was cloudy here in Stansbury so I pretty much wrote the night off. But when I went out a few minutes ago to change out my hummingbird feeders there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Nearly full Moon isn't that great but I'm currently imaging galaxy #51 of 95 planned and the images are looking very nice. NWS is forecasting more rain (just what we need) through the end of the week. 'Bout time to start on the ark? patrick

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Technical question
by Kim Hyatt 17 Apr '11

17 Apr '11

I can't find information that relates a scope's theoretical limiting magnitude to a corresponding theoretical limiting magnitude based on surface brightness. Maybe I'm missing something that is obvious but I can't put my finger on it. Can anyone help? Kim

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2011 GP59 animation
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Apr '11

17 Apr '11

Compilation of 90 15" exposures taken 30" apart on 2011 APR 13 between 0802 and 0853. C-14 @ f/5.5, ST-10XME binned 3x3 and chilled to -10. FOV is about 18" x 26". http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/2011GP59-01.MOV Video plays awfully slowly but my video skills are limited and I don't know how to make it play faster. If anyone would like to use the original images to make a better video just ask. patrick

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Swap Meet
by Steve Fisher 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Utah Astronomers! I'm really not trying to steal anyone's thunder here but there had been some talk of a swap meet here on Utah Astronomy. At the board meeting for the Salt Lake Astronomical Society last Tuesday we decided that a swap meet would be a great addition to our Astronomy Day festivities. Especially since I have a pickup truck full of stuff to sell. We as a board would like to invite everyone on the Utah Astronomy List to attend and participate in the swap meet that will be held on May 7th, 2011 at the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex. You need not be a member of SLAS to participate as a matter of fact it would be refreshing to meet some new folks. The event will be BYOT or bring your own table. You should plan on being set up by 6:00 PM. Latecomers are not encouraged but will be welcome. Bring your equipment you would like to sell or swap and bring a wallet full of cash. We hope you can stay around for an evening of observing. The event is not RSVP but if you are planning on attending it might help if you were to let me know so we can "beat the drum" so to speak and let folks know how many plan to attend. Any questions? Feel free to contact me off list. Steve

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A star party from a past April 14
by Canopus56 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Dava Sobel's 1999 classic _Galileo's Daughter_ (42-43) describes a star party held on another April 14 - in 1611 - on the highest hill above Rome. The occasion was a nighttime feast given by the Marquis of Monticelli Federico Cesi in honor of the Florentine mathematician Galileo. Galileo enjoyed international celebrity following the 1610 publication of his _The Starry Messenger_, and by the feast, Cesi hoped to encourage Galileo, who was visiting Rome, to join the Lyncean Academy of Sciences. The Lyncean Academy, which Cesi founded, was the western world's first major scientific society. Galileo brought his ``spyglass'' invention to the banquet in order to amuse other guests. During the night's observing, another guest, Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani turned to Galileo, and to paraphrase, suggested, ``Galileo, instead of calling this thing a `spyglass,' why don't you call it a `tele-scope'?" In Greek, "tele" means "long distance" and scope means "to look." Clear Skies - Kurt

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WISE data release
by Dale Hooper 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

The first 105 days of WISE data has been released to the general public. http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/ Clear skies, Dale.

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Fw: Fast-Rotating Asteroid Winks For Astronomer's Camera
by Joe Bauman 14 Apr '11

14 Apr '11

I think Patrick's video is MUCH better! What do others think? -- Joe --- On Thu, 4/14/11, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory <info(a)jpl.nasa.gov> wrote: From: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory <info(a)jpl.nasa.gov> Subject: Fast-Rotating Asteroid Winks For Astronomer's Camera To: "Joe Bauman" <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011, 12:48 PM Fast-Rotating Asteroid Winks For Astronomer's Camera Feature April 14, 2011 Fast-Rotating Asteroid Winks For Astronomer's Camera The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-118&cid=release_2011-118 Video imaging of newly discovered asteroid 2011 GP59 shows the object appearing to blink on and off about once every four minutes. Amateur astronomers, including Nick James of Chelmsford, Essex, England, have captured video of the interesting object. James generated this video of GP59 on the night of Monday, April 11. The video, captured with an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, is a compilation of 137 individual frames, each requiring 30 seconds of exposure. At the time, the asteroid was approximately 3,356,000 kilometers (2,081,000 mile) distant. Since then, the space rock has become something of a darling of the amateur astronomy community, with many videos available. (Here is one recent posting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7wsAZNr56E ) "Usually, when we see an asteroid strobe on and off like that, it means that the body is elongated and we are viewing it broadside along its long axis first, and then on its narrow end as it rotates ," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "GP59 is approximately 50 meters [240 feet] long, and we think its period of rotation is about seven-and-a-half minutes. This makes the object's brightness change every four minutes or so." 2011 GP59 was discovered the night of April 8/9 by astronomers with the Observatorio Astronomico de Mallorca in Andalusia, Spain. It will make its closest approach to Earth on April 15 at 19:09 UTC (12:09 p.m. PDT) at a distance just beyond the moon's orbit - about 533,000 kilometers (331,000 miles). "Although newly discovered, the near-term orbital location of asteroid 2011 GP59 can be accurately plotted," said Yeomans. "There is no possibility of the small space rock entering Earth's atmosphere during this pass or for the foreseeable future." NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch . DC Agle (818) 393-9011 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. agle(a)jpl.nasa.gov - end - Remove yourself from this mailing. Remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Renewed sunspot activity
by Canopus56 14 Apr '11

14 Apr '11

It looks like the sun is getting more active this week. Several groups are visible. See the today's solar summary image at http://spaceweather.com/ . Now if clouds would just get out . . . . - Clear Skies, Kurt

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