November 2012 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

ATM session report from 11/3
by Hutchings, Mat 12 Nov '12

12 Nov '12

Another fun ATM session was had on 11/3. Daryl installed a new, open design, cast aluminum mirror cell on his 10" scope. He has really dressed this scope up over the past few months and it is a really great operating telescope. Jeff lended his collimation skills to tweak Daryl's scope to within an inch of its life. Collimation is king. Well okay, aperture is the high king, but collimation is definitely still a king. All scope owners should learn to collimate their scopes and do it every time they take the scope out. Josh and Charlie worked together and built a spherometer for Charlie. He will use it as he works his mirrors on his machine. When doing machine work, a spherometer is a necessity. I'm sure I have left something out, oh yeah, me doing my best to break my 21" mirror and tool as they stuck together while grinding on the machine. [http://astronomyinutah.forumer.com/images/smilies/icon_eek.gif] All turned out okay and I learned a valuable lesson; don't get distracted talking while fine grinding and let the tool/mirror dry out. Below are the dates of the next sessions. Hope to see lots of ATM's then! 12/1 12/29 1/26 2/23 3/30 Mat This message and any attachments are solely for the use of intended recipients. The information contained herein may include trade secrets, protected health or personal information, privileged or otherwise confidential information. Unauthorized review, forwarding, printing, copying, distributing, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you received this email in error, and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender and delete the message and any attachment from your system. Thank you for your cooperation

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Tom Fields
by Dave Gary 12 Nov '12

12 Nov '12

Larry, I’ve got Tom’s diffraction grating and software. It works quite well. I used it last year during the ALCON affair in Bryce. It works as advertised. Some video cams and CCDs require a small spacer between the diffraction grating and the camera barrel you are screwing it into to observe the entire width of the spectrum. However, you can rotate the spectrum within Tom’s software and put it into the viewing area diagonally to make up for any part of the spectrum that leaks out of the visual frame. Up to a point. Unless you have calculated the length of spectrum you would obtain with your particular setup (I think Tom’s site has an algorithm for this if I remember, correctly) it would be wise to purchase the spacer. It’s not very expensive. Just in case. Tom did a great job with the software. Fire it up before you go out and work through the tutorials. It seemed very intuitive to me and my skill with telescope accessories is almost zilch. I really need help with the CCD learning curve. Everything I do looks like crap. I may go back to the spectrum-chasing business just to feel I have had a productive night with some toys. Dave

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Tucson, 2nd day
by Larry Holmes 12 Nov '12

12 Nov '12

Well, long day. Finished visiting all the vendors, approximately 100 covering every facet of astronomy, books, binos, bux, a lot of the latter. I believe the largest diameter unit was a 24" PlaneWave. Starlight Express had a wide variety of their Feathertouch focusers. ScopeShed had 7' dome, AstroHaven w/7' +/- clamshell and another company with inflatable observatories-I believe they claimed 45 people capability, but you would have become very aware of your neighbor. Several vendors from off the continent with interesting products ranging from heavy weight bearing mounts to large refractors, cassegrains, and binos. I tried a pair of Cannon image stabilized binos and was amazed. My tremor was almost undectable. Guess I need to start working on Mrs Santa. NASA, Kitt Peak, and Lowell had displays, mostly targeting the younger people and seemed to be generating a lot of interest. Meade was there breaking the myth that they would not exhibit at a show that Explore Scientific was also at. All in all, a very tempting candy store! Dean of Starzonia was amazing. Took my Nexstar on Sat & worked on it last night & had it back to me this AM. Cannot sing his praises high enough. Neither Charlie or myself made any purchases, tho I think I will be ordering one of Tom Fields diffraction gratings & software--he did not bring anything to sell at the show. Anyone on this site using his items? Would appreciate any feedback. Storey Musgrave was to speak, but he did not get here. There were 3 sessions on meteorites, the final one featuring Geoff Notkin as replacement for Musgrave. He is really funny, but kinda full of himself. Charley & I really envied you folks up North as all we had down here was warm breezes and blue skies. Seemed hard to estimate the attendence. I will try to get a headcount before leaving. A star party is scheduled for tonight & I said we would come, but as the site is 90 miles outside Tucson, and both of us pretty beat, we just took the night off. 73

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Comics
by D P Pierce 11 Nov '12

11 Nov '12

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur Another strip that sometimes has an astronomy theme is Edison Lee. Since I can't pull up the daily strip I will just describe Friday's strip. Edison Lee is a young genius. In this strip he is looking at the night sky through his telescope. His grandfather is standing a few feet away. As Edison says " Grandpa, I know there's intelligent life out there." Grandpa notices a small meterorite land nearby. As Grandpa picks it up Edison says "Do you think they'll try to send us a message? and if they do what do you think they'll say? Grandpa who is standing behind Edison reads from the meterorite " Please stop staring at us." Edison says "C'mon, you can be a little more imaginative than that." Deloy

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Looking for Sigma Octans?
by Wiggins Patrick 11 Nov '12

11 Nov '12

Bill Cowles forwarded a link to this pizza commercial which features a telescope. Apparently they did not have a technical advisor handy when they shot it. Then again, maybe it's a neutrino telescope and they're using it in the northing hemisphere to spot Sigma Octans (or is that Sigma Octantis?)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWmhk6PbUDM patrick :)

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tucson
by Larry Holmes 11 Nov '12

11 Nov '12

Beep Beep! Howdy from the Land of the Roadrunner. Charlie and I got in Friday nite and hit the convention right at 9A on Sat. Highlight of the day was sitting at the same table with Don Pettit and listening to him talk about his time in space. But, I got really shot down when I called Dan to say we had breakfast with this man, and he nonchalantly told me "Well, he taught me physics when I was at Utah State." The vendor area is amazing. All the biggies, telescopes, cameras, lenses, filters, observatories (drool), just about anything you could want. One fellow, I think Charlie Bates, was outside in the solar viewing area with a very large Paramount carrying 3 Lunt telestopes, vertically staggered, one Ca, one Ha, and one Baader. Interesting to look at the differences. Still, prefer the Ha. Talked a bit with Kevin Poe. Also, met Tont Sarra,, who we had an enjoyable dinner with. Today, the list of speakers includes Storey Musgrave. So, should be a great day. 73`

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iOptron mount
by Dave Gary 10 Nov '12

10 Nov '12

Have any of you guys/gals seen or used any of the mounts from iOptron? This one seems to be something I could use with my little 80mm refractor and have decent equatorial tracking at a ?reasonable? price. Here's the site. I don't know anything about iOptron products and any input would be appreciated. http://ioptron.com/index.cfm?select=productdetails&phid=6650b0b6-9767-494d-… Dave Sent from my iPad

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Space Shuttle Endeavour humor
by Wiggins Patrick 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

I came across this in one of my aviation publications: Space Shuttle Endeavour after a night in Inglewood http://i.imgur.com/Bezwn.jpg Grins, patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Space Shuttle Endeavour humor
by Joe Bauman 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

It's photoshopped, of course, but still a commentary on a sickening aspect of our society. ------------------------------ On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 12:46 AM MST Wiggins Patrick wrote: >I came across this in one of my aviation publications: > >Space Shuttle Endeavour after a night in Inglewood > >http://i.imgur.com/Bezwn.jpg > >Grins, > >patrick >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > >Send messages to the list to >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > >The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. > >To unsubscribe go to: >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".

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Frost prevention
by Wiggins Patrick 08 Nov '12

08 Nov '12

Hello list, Now that it's trying to get cold I'm thinking again about keeping frost off my corrector plate this coming winter. That, of course, has me thinking of Joe's "Frosty the Telescope" picture. :) But seriously, IIRC there was some talk here last year about someone local making custom dew shields for SCTs. Who was that? I'm thinking it might be time to get one for my C-14. Thanks! patrick

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