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

Space Geek button / Kanarraville on Google
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Apr '12

12 Apr '12

Well, it's not a decoder ring but you could be the first kid on your block to get your very own Space Geek button: http://planetary.org/special/spacegeek/ In other news I tried googling "Kanarraville" just to see what would come up in Google's "suggested list". After entering only "Kanar" Google was already suggesting 4 eclipse related choices. "Kanarrav" upped that to 5 eclipse related choices. It'll be interesting to see if that number climbs as we get closer to eclipse day. patrick

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Great Basin for Annular Eclipse
by Thomas Sevcik 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Craig, thanks for catching that. I tried to remember the town that started with a "T" and Torrey seemed to pop into my thoughts at the time. According to the Navy's data, the duration of the eclipse is 2h 12m 39.3s, with the duration of annularity of 4m 15.5s for Tropic. Ely is recognized as the closest location for Great Basin. The duration there is listed as 2h 16m 44.3s with the duration of annularity of 3m 14.8s. With the Sun north of Wheeler Peak at that time, according to Kelly Carroll, I believe we're in for a treat. However, if anyone is going to be in the Capitol Reef area, the previously listed duration times still apply. Have a good one and clear skies! Tom Sevcik

3 2

Public Viewing of the Eclipse
by Seth Jarvis 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Hello, Public interest in this eclipse is running high and Clark Planetarium is trying to maximize the viewing opportunities for folks who will be in Salt Lake County. Not everyone can or wants to travel south, but that doesn't mean there won't be lots of people wanting to view the eclipse, and we're anxious that they have access to safe and scientifically accurate viewing opportunities. Planetarium staff will be at The Gateway, Library Square, and Dimple Dell Recreation Center in Sandy with solar filter-equipped telescopes. Between these venues and staff taking off for southern Utah, our resources are stretched thin and we're wondering if there are any amateur astronomers who'd be willing to bring a telescope and help talk to the public about the eclipse. We especially need another scope and explainer for the Sandy location. (Dimple Dell Rec Center is at 106th South & 10th East.) I'd also like to know what other viewing opportunities are being made available to the public along the Wasatch Front so we can promote them through our Facebook, Tweets, blogs, etc. I know there's going to be eclipse viewing at the NHMU - are there others? Please email me if you think you might be interested in bringing a solar filter equipped telescope and being a public eclipse explainer. Thanks, Seth Jarvis Clark Planetarium sjarvis(a)slco.org

6 11

Sieg's eclipse site scouting trip
by Patrick Wiggins 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Siegfried is having trouble posting to the list so I'm forwarding this to the list for him. patrick Begin forwarded message: > Bruno & I took a drive to Kannaraville, Newcastle, Modena & Parowan today. We met with Dave Ence, Kanarraville city clerk, and he told us where the prepared site is and their preparations and expectations. They have been contacted by NASA and were told to expect upwards of 5,000 people. > > For that number they are woefully unprepared. My size estimate of the site is about 10 acres (more or less). We drove the perimeter and it came out to .5 miles. One fourth of that is 1/8th mile or 660 feet. Square that and it comes out mathematically to exactly 10 acres. But remember our size is a rough estimate, sort of like me estimating concrete. (There's a joke in there) > > 5,000 people would mean 1,500 to 2,000 cars. If you allow 1,000 square feet per car that's space for roughly 435 cars. People with RV's and campers may require extra room. > > The people we met in Newcastle didn't have a clue about this event. It is an unincorporated area of Iron County. There were no officials to talk to. The electric station will be closed since it's a Sunday. There will be no facilities open in Newcastle. Yes, it has a better horizon but how much better do you need? > > Modena is a virtual ghost town. "No Trespassing" signs on houses and the one business we saw. Not exactly friendly. Also, you are closer to the west mountains. You do not want to go as far as Modena. We were told that at night it can be a scary place. > > I think the best bet, if you need facilities is Kanarraville. They will be setting up 31 porta-potties, have water and possibly food vendors. They will also have security and medical help from Iron County. > > The problem right now is that Kanarraville will be overwhelmed. They expect a minimum of 5,000 and perhaps as many as 10,000. It doesn't really matter. Anywhere near those number will be a zoo (pronounced "disaster"). In Parowan we also met with the Iron County Clerk and were given a tourist department contact in Cedar City that is working with Dave in Kanarraville. We will be contacting Dave again this week with our impression of the preparations and make some recommendations. > > Renting an RV with facilities and going near Newcastle is a real possibility. Does SLAS want to meet as a group or groups? Each to his or her own? What is the group's thinking at this point? > > Sig

15 66

Eclipse "Sweet Spot" eclipse logo / posters
by Patrick Wiggins 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

The Iron County Tourist Bureau has had a logo and poster designed for May's eclipse. Find a small rendition of it here on the webpage they've put together for the eclipse: http://www.scenicsouthernutah.com/annular_solar_eclipse.shtml Note that SLAS Prez. Dave Bernson will be a guest speaker. They offered to send me some posters if anyone wants them. Let me know if you'd like one. They are also designing t-shirts for the event. No word yet on when they might be available. patrick

5 4

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Great Basin for Annular Eclipse
by Thomas Sevcik 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Erik, no problem, I can understand the confusion with Great Basin being within a couple of miles of the Utah/Nevada border and the sudden switch between Pacific and Mountain time zones. I got my annularity times from the U.S. Naval Observatory's data services site; http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/. Under the Eclipses and Transits header, click on the Solar Eclipse Computer. Under "Form A" you'll see the listing for the May eclipse already in the first box. Use the pull-down menu in the box below to click on "Utah." In the last box, the site doesn't recognize national parks, so I used "Torrey" as the city or town which it recognized. Click on "Get data" and a page will come up with the data that I used in my original message. For Great Basin, you'd use "Nevada" as the state, and "Baker" as the city or town. Comparing the two locations, it looks like Great Basin has the edge on the duration of annularity. However, from the Archeological site, we may miss the ending of the eclipse due to the mountains to the west. I will be checking on this factor during my participation at the Annual Spring Star Party there this weekend. Will let everyone on the list know the results early next week. If the snowpack is as low as Jay's message indicates, I'll be hanging around to hike up the trail to the glacier, and hopefully to the peak. Have a good one, and clear skies! Tom Sevcik

3 2

Most Excellent Night
by Steve Fisher 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

After leaving the observatory in Stansbury and driving home, I pulled out my lil' Celestron 6" Starhopper. All I can say is if you didn't get out tonight for a while you are missing out on a great night to observe. Took in my favorite view of M42 as it was far, far South West (so can summer be far off)? I hate Orion in the winter. Very little twinkling and nice steady skies for a change. More of a report to follow, perhaps tomorrow because I'm going back out. If you can, my advice is to Get Out!!!! Steve

2 2

Rooms near Bryce
by Patrick Wiggins 10 Apr '12

10 Apr '12

I had a look at http://www.booking.com/ for rooms near Bryce Canyon near the time of the eclipse. It looks like there are still several on Sunday night but Saturday night is pretty booked though it does show that most places have one or two rooms left. Cedar looks some better but even there most of the places say they only have 1 or 2 rooms left. patrick

1 0

Flat-field screen
by Chuck Hards 10 Apr '12

10 Apr '12

Anybody dropped the bucks on one of these yet? http://www.spike-a.com/flatfielders/

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Great Basin for Annular Eclipse
by Kelly_Carroll＠nps.gov 10 Apr '12

10 Apr '12

The sun will be setting a good distance north of Wheeler Peak by May 20. >From our planned program location the western horizon is 10 degrees. Two miles out of town that horizon becomes 6 degrees and I assume if you were on the eastern edge of the valley you'd probably have an unobstructive horizon. We will have a place for setting up equipment. Kelly Carroll Park Ranger Great Basin National Park 775-234-7331 x217 http://www.nps.gov/grba/ Experience your America >Yes, my mistake. It is almost the situation you will have one foot in Pacific Time Zone and one in Mountain. I guess we get into are we talking local mean time? I thought 20-30 min time differential from eastern to western edge of time zones. Great Basin will be an acceptable locale, but I doubt it will be best for view longest duration of eclipse the western horizon is poor there. Where did you get annularity of under 2 mins at Bryce? I find start 7:31:31 MDT and end 7:35:51 MDT from Bryce, Great Basin start 6:30:18 PDT end 6:33:36 PDT, sunset is listed 7:48 (12 min after 4th Contact) but I bet the sun is behind Wheeler Peak well before then.

2 1