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

UARS Satellite expected to reenter atmosphere in 3-5 days
by Patrick Wiggins 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

Forwarded from another list I'm on. Chances are slim we'll get to see it here but as they said in The Thing "Keep watching the skies". patrick Begin forwarded message: > From: "Wayne Hally" > Date: 19 September 2011 04:52:32 MDT > To: <meteorobs(a)meteorobs.org> > Subject: (meteorobs) UARS Satellite expected to reenter atmosphere in 3-5 days > > Prepare for UFO and fireball reports! > > This will be an uncontrolled reentry, so could occur anywhere from 57 degrees N to 57 degrees South latitude. > > Latest estimate is Sept 23 +/- 1 day > > The risk assessment is interesting reading: > > http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/585584main_UARS_Status.pdf > > Total dry mass at start 5668 kg > > – Number of potentially hazardous objects expected to survive: 26 > – Total mass of objects expected to survive: 532 kg > – Estimated human casualty risk (updated to 2011): ~ 1 in 3200 > > • No NASA or USG human casualty reentry risk limits existed when UARS > was designed, built, and launched. > > • NASA, the USG, and some foreign space agencies now seek to limit human > casualty risks from reentering space objects to less than 1 in 10,000. > > • UARS is a moderate-sized space object. Uncontrolled reentries of objects > more massive than UARS are not frequent, but neither are they unusual. > – Combined Dragon mockup and Falcon 9 second stage reentry in June 2010 was more > massive. > > • Since the beginning of the space age, there has been no confirmed report > of an injury resulting from reentering space objects. > > • NASA, DoD, and the IADC will be monitoring the decay and reentry of UARS > carefully.

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Glileo would weep
by Patrick Wiggins 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/babyblues/s-947228 :)

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ISS Fly over North and South America
by Jay Eads 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

>From Universe Today is this link: http://www.universetoday.com/88998/amazing-timelapse-video-from-the-space-s… The lightning is cool, but man, look at all that light pollution. Plenty of clouds also. -- Jay Eads

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Misc planetary notes - Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus
by Canopus56 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

While Neptune, which is east of Cap, reached opposition last month but is still in an optimal observing, Uranus reaches opposition on Sept. 26th and is observable celestial south east of the Pisces Circlet. Jupiter reaches opposition next month. All three outer planets are early morning - after midnight - objects. Neptune has the distinction of currently being observed from Earth looking directly down on the north neptunian pole. The brightest moon of Neptune is Triton, with a period of about 6 days, is observable with 250mm telescopes and dark skies. I could see Triton last night with the Grim. As suggested in the RASC Handbook (p. 236), an interesting observing challenge would be to chart and plot Triton's orbit over a period of days to demonstrate Triton's elliptical path. On Sept. 23 at 00:33 MST, Europa transits Jupiter's face. A Great Red Spot transit will occur a few hours earlier on 9/22 at 10:33pm. - Clear Skies - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Request for help for reviewing lunar astronomy related checklist
by Canopus56 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

Dear Group, I will be at Marriott Library on Sunday, Sept. 18, from 8:00pm-8:30pm, if anyone would like to meet with me on this request. Parking is free at the Marriott on Sundays. My cell phone is on at 801 831 4035 . Pinging me on the cell is probably the best way to locate me. I'll be working in the back southeast corner of the Commons Knowledge area on the second floor or in the main computer area of the Commons. Clear Skies - Kurt --------------------- Request for help for reviewing lunar astronomy related checklist Dear Group, This is to ask for your help on a undergraduate lunar research and science writing exercise. The task involves doing a ``user review'' of a procedure that I have prepared in order to download high-resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images with one-half gigabyte image sizes through a NASA website. The assistance I am asking for relates to my science writing (WRT 3014) course. Basically, you would: 1) Read the procedure with a view towards the ``user edit review'' elements discussed below; and, 2) Send me an email at fisherka at csolutions dot net regarding any of the flaws in the procedure. My timeline is to close-out user reviews by Sunday, Sept. 18, so I can begin preparing a user review report. In the user edit review, a knowledgeable end-user reviews a checklist procedure in order to find: - Missing information; - Incorrect information; - Missing steps in a procedure; - Too many steps; - Ambiguous information; - Difficult terminology; - Usefulness of graphics, tables and other aids; - Usefulness of examples; and, - Lack of examples or poor examples. There are two ways to do a user review: 1) Simply read the document step by step; or, 2) Attempt to do the procedure using the checklist as a guide. The procedure that I have written can be found at: http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/LunarSFDDocs/20110912SOP1DownloadLROI… The procedure discusses how to download images from the NASA Planetary Data Systems (PDS) website and to record meta data about the image in a Microsoft Excel 3.0 spreadsheet, available at url: http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/LunarSFDDocs/00000000ImageCroppingSpr… Should any of you attempt to perform the checklist, there are several steps discussing preparing a thumbdrive with software in order to view the large one-half gigabyte files. Those steps can be ignored, and please omit performing the step of actually downloading the image. Background on my overall research project is available at url: http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/LunarSFDDocs/20110912ProposalPhase1.p… This short-term course related project supports a larger independent research project regarding the distribution of lunar impacts on the Moon's surface. Lunar meteor impacts are asymmetrically distributed because the Moon acts as a gravitational lens. New Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images, some of which resolve one-half meter objects, allow measuring crater impact distributions for the smallest of craters between 10 and 100 meters in diameter. Questions can be directed to fisherka at csolutions dot net or call me at 801-831-4035. I will be at Marriott Library on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 8:00pm, if anyone would like to meet with me on this request. Thanks in advance for any time that you can put into this request. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Free Shuttle Tiles (Kinda Of)
by Jay Eads 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

Well, you can tell I'm sick and bored. NASA is offering Space Shuttle Tiles for free you just have to pay the shipping which is $23.40. Here is the LA Times article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/so-your-town-didnt-land-a… Here is the official NASA site: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/dec/HQ_10-317_Shuttle_Tiles.html So if your part of a school or university and want one, here is a chance. It would be cool if SLAS could get one for SPOC. -- Jay Eads

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Eclipse appearance
by Patrick Wiggins 18 Sep '11

18 Sep '11

Here's a montage I put together showing how next May's eclipse will look as seen from various locations at the moment of maximum eclipse: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/appearance.jpg Please let me know if you find any typos. :) patrick

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How to Become a Backyard Astronomer
by Jay Eads 17 Sep '11

17 Sep '11

Nice article over at Popular Mechanics about how to get into the hobby: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/telescopes/how-to-become-a-ba… -- Jay Eads

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SPOC status
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Sep '11

17 Sep '11

Ealing open now Opening refractor Skies clear Come on out

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6" astro camera
by Chuck Hards 17 Sep '11

17 Sep '11

Here are photos of the test housing I made from scrap plywood. Once I have finalized spacing, I'll remake it in either aluminum or fiberglass. But this is sufficient for testing. I may add a cookie-can dewcap for some test images, hopefully I'll get out for those in coming weeks. If not this new moon, next. I stuck an old Pentax SLR camera body on it for scale and to demonstrate how the camera attaches, but when I'm at full speed, I'll have a digital camera attached. There is also a test photo I made with a 2mp digital camera, just to see what the FOV is going to be like. No attempt at collimation or fine focus was attempted, it's just a hand-held shot against the fence so I can extrapolate what the full field of view will be. I'll dig out the protractor this afternoon and report back, but my initial estimate is at least ten degrees on the sky! Anything could happen with this. Once I get it all squared-on, I may end up stopping it down a bit to tame field curvature. Because it started life as a camera lens though, I'm hoping that it's reasonably flat across most or all of a digital camera chip. The desire here is to achieve large-aperture resolution in wide-field sky shots, something a much smaller commercial wide-angle lens can't match. We'll see if this surplus camera lens is up to the challenge. Comments appreciated, criticisms accepted graciously. Unless I've been drinking. ;-) Link to album: http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/JethroTull1958/ATM/6-inch%20astro%2…

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