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

Observing Friday, April 20th
by Jay Eads 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

A small group of us are going out to Forest Road 006 south of Vernon to observe on Friday night. Your welcome to come along if you want. I've posted Google Maps on my blog at http://jaysastronomyobservingblog.blogspot.com/ and if you go to the bottom there are directions and pictures there of how to get to the site. Basically turn left off Hwy 36 after Vernon (south) to the Vernon Reservoir. Go on the dirt road for 5 miles and over 5 cattle guards. Come to the T intersection and a sign that shows Vernon Reservoir is to the left and two creeks are to the right. Go right at the T and down that road for 1/2 mile. Then look for 006 on a road sign (the thin ones) and turn left there. Go about 9/10 of a mile and look for us on the left. You'll see some Juniper as you pull in and were just past that in the open field. The trees are too low to worry about but there was some owls there! I'm observing on Saturday but location is not solid yet. -- Jay Eads

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Ride to SPOC
by D P Pierce 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

I would like a ride to SPOC Friday and/or Saturday night. Deloy

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Star party eyepiece
by Jay Eads 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

I understand both points of view. I've always used my Pentax XW's since I've had them. Last Halloween I had the 10 inch dob in the front yard and was showing the moon and later Jupiter when it came up. Conditions allowed for a wonderful view using my Pentax XW 7mm and boy was I busy that night! One couple came up with their young son, I'd say a 2nd grader, and they looked and then the boy hoped up on the step stool and after several seconds bent over, we all thought he was really seeing some stuff. I went to look and the lens and the top of his eyepiece was in his mouth! They whole thing and if you know how big a 7mm Pentax XW is, you know that boy had a HUGE mouth. I quickly had him remove his mouth, and reassured the parents it was okay and then took the eyepiece into the house after putting the 17mm Stratus in the eyepiece and my son running the scope. I cleaned up the 7mm and no damage was done and it survived quite fine and gives outstanding views to this day. Needless to say, I am more careful with kids looking in the eyepiece now. -- Jay Eads

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ATM report
by Hutchings, Mat (H USA) 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

Okay, this post has nothing to do with the solar eclipse, so it may be a refreshing change... Had a great ATM session on 4/7. Several people showed up with work being done on the following: an 8" mirror, an observing chair and the mechanical part of an 8" dobsonian. The 8" blank belongs to my son and he started work on it after taking 12 years away from it. Back those many years ago, we wanted to make an 8", f10, optimized as a solar system scope, but life happened and it was put aside. Now he is a college student and carting around a telescope that is ~7 feet long seems like a bad idea. So he started reworking the curve to f5. It was a bit sad to see the nice, fine ground surface get a treatment with 60 grit. But it had to happen. All ATMers present watched with interest and maybe a tear or two as this nice surface got the crap beat out of it with tile tool and 60 grit. Jay worked on his observing chair, and I must say that this chair is starting to be a thing of beauty. I definitely have chair envy. Another work session or two, should complete the chair. Also, I was impressed by the skills of Josh with my table saw. He made some cuts that I would not have tried. We all went home with all of our fingers still attached and that is a good thing. Troy, Levi, Hayden and Christian all worked on their 8" telescope. It is starting to take shape well and should probably be finished in a few sessions. Last, but certainly not least, a very generous ATMer made an offer of a 5 5/8" blank to anyone who would like to start working it, just for the asking. As it turns out, a candidate came by late in the ATM session, and accepted the offer. I am also kicking in the use of barrel and barrel top for him to get started. That barrel was obtained from Josh and I made the top. It is great to see others helping people who are new to the hobby. Happy grinding, Mat

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Seeking article on ATM sessions for Nova
by Jay Eads 19 Apr '12

19 Apr '12

Patrick, If it is okay with Mat, I'll work with him and provide a write up with pictures. Can you email me the deadline for each month? For April I only have pictures of my chair but more work was done. In May I'll get a couple of images to choose from. Jay -- Jay Eads

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Star party eyepiece
by Chuck Hards 18 Apr '12

18 Apr '12

Surplus Shed has a quantity of Edmund 28mm RKE eyepieces available at considerably less than Edmund's price: http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l13596.html This is a surprisingly good eyepiece in this focal length and it's low price makes it a "star party" candidate, when you don't want to risk a high-dollar eyepiece. "Glasses-on" eye relief. It receives many favorable reviews and gets a lot of testimonials over at Cloudy Nights.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Fyi
by Joe Bauman 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

I thought I had forwarded the note I sent to SBIG group. Guess not. It was about the Hawaii observation. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 3:06 AM MDT Joe Bauman wrote: > > >Note I sent to SBIG a few minutes ago. Nice try, Patrick. It was exciting while it lasted. -- Joe >Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android > >_______________________________________________ >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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eBay alert- sort-of, lol.
by Chuck Hards 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

Come on, Ziggy. Cash out some of your expansive, over-invested 401(K). Make the guy an offer. I'll chip-in a grand for a 1/40th or 1/50th share. http://www.ebay.com/itm/40-Diameter-OHara-E6-Spherical-Parabolic-two-sided-… I'll even help you build an observatory/mausoleum to house this optic if you secure the observatory funding (it's your specialty, bro!). We'll refigure it if we have to, and I promise to observe "St. Ziggy's Day" rites once per year after you've departed this mortal coil (on* full moon*nights. But we'll have cookies and red punch, don't worry.). Of course, I get to claim your observing nites once you're gone... ;-)

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Test Your Planetary Knowledge and Learn More
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

Hi all, This came from the Planetary Society today. It's an actual astronomy mid-term exam. I'm trying to decide if I want to risk taking it and finding out how little I know. :) http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003456/

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Refractor class Saturday (and OT humor)
by Patrick Wiggins 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

Hi all, I'm doing an Refractor Level 1 (introductory) class at SPOC this coming Saturday evening from 6 to 7. I thought I'd post about it here since you do not need to be a member of SLAS to take the class. No charge. Please let em know off-list if you'd like to attend. patrick p.s. Totally off topic but by way of injecting some humor to the list, here's 2 videos I saw at a pilot safety seminar I attended last evening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKatE5bRtmg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YHZaJgpO5E

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