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

Transit "bennie" / Eclipse impact
by Patrick 25 May '12

25 May '12

Speaking with Steve a few minutes ago I learned that the Museum of Natural History has "sweetened the pot", so to speak, for those willing to help out with the Transit of Venus Watch they will be hosting. It seems they've decided to offer free admission to the museum not just for those SLAS members and non-SLAS members helping out with the event but for family members of those folks' too. Speaking of the Transit Watch, I have an Orion 90mm short tube refractor OTA with full aperture glass solar filter that I'd like to loan to someone to use at the museum during the Transit Watch. Trouble is it's the OTA only. No mount or tripod. Anyone have a mount and tripod they would be willing to loan to the cause? And if those items are forthcoming, would anyone care to operate the scope at the watch? I'll already be running two scopes so a third might be a bit much. In other news... On my way to Bryce today I followed basically the same route I took to get to Kanarraville for the annular and it struck me how different things were at the establishments I visited. On eclipse day, despite it being a non-holiday Sunday the gas stations were packed, as was the Burger King I stopped at in Beaver. Today, on the other hand, despite it being a travel day for the Memorial Day holiday weekend there was no waiting for fuel and I walked right up to the counter at Burger King. All of which has me guessing that the financial impact of the eclipse on Southern Utah must have been substantial. Clear skies! patrick

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Problem Utah Astronomy list
by Patrick Wiggins 25 May '12

25 May '12

Howdy folks, I just discovered that something happened to the list within the last hour or so which caused every subscriber on the list to be switched to "moderated" status. Moderated status means that messages sent to the list must be "approved" by one of the list moderators before being sent out. Groan. Up to now everyone is moderated until they have made a legitimate post and then the moderation is turned off. This makes it more difficult for the hackers. But with everyone on moderation my only choices were to wait for folks to post and remove the moderation one by one or to remove everyone's moderation. I went with the latter so that legitimate post can continue with no interruption. However, that means that the several folks who were on moderated status before the glitch are no longer being moderated. So everyone please keep an eye on the list and let me know immediately at paw(a)wirelessbeehive.com or 435.882.1209 if anything inappropriate shows up on the list. patrick

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Ride to SPOC Saturday
by D P Pierce 25 May '12

25 May '12

Hi, I need a ride to SPOC Saturday night. Deloy

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New Bright SN 2012cg in NGC 4424 in Virgo
by Jay Eads 24 May '12

24 May '12

There is a new bright Supernova in Virgo at NGC 4424, 2012cg. It is a Type Ia that was discovered on 5/17/2012 at mag. 17.9. As of 5/23 it is down to 12.65 to 12.9, easy to be seen in moderate scopes. NGC 4424 has a mag. of 12.3 and a surface brightness of 13.4. If your in the area, take a look as it is brightening rapidly. If you want to learn more about supernova I recommend Dr. Richard Pogge's lecture 18 from his Astronomy 162 course (he is at Ohio State University) and that can be found at this link: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit3/supernova.html -- Jay Eads

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Images of the eclipse from Cedar City.
by Hutchings, Mat (H USA) 24 May '12

24 May '12

Hi all; Here is a link to some of the images I took of the eclispe from Cedar City: https://picasaweb.google.com/1028899789 ... d2R---hpgE<https://picasaweb.google.com/102889978938539029003/May212012?authkey=Gv1sRg…> I think it is cool that you can see lunar craters on the limb of the moon in sillouete. In the last image you can also see what I suppose would be considered Bailey's Beads, but since this was not a total eclipse, the effect was minimal. Someone correct me if wrong about that. I had a really great time observing with Jeff Porter at an elementary school near his mother's house. Our two families were the only serious observers there. Some others did come by and we shared the views from our telescopes and shared our eclipse glasses. Really enjoyable to me was seeing and hearing the reactions of my children throughout the event. As someone else also posted, I was struck by the "weak" sunlight and the cool temperature. What a day! 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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safe observing
by erikhansen＠thebluezone.net 24 May '12

24 May '12

With a few posts talking about exaggerated claims of the dangers of solar observing during an eclipse. Did anyone try to glimpse the eclipse without eye protection? After all, it was said to can look for 40 seconds without permanent eye damage. Erik

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any kilns in utah suitable for slumping glass
by Hutchings, Mat (H USA) 24 May '12

24 May '12

General question here for any of you. Do you know of any digitally controlled kilns in Utah that are large enough to handle a 21" mirror blank? I am planning on slumping my blank and that would also require a re-annealling. This would require a kiln that is very accurately temperature controlled. Thanks, 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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Solar Projection
by D P Pierce 24 May '12

24 May '12

When we joined SLAS in the early 90's the sun parties were held at Liberty Park. One of the SLAS members had an interesting solar projector. Mounted on a board was a 4" f/300! doublet. Behind it was a 3 1/4" elliptical mirror which was on a swivel mount. The image was projected onto a screen set up 100' away. A 100' string was tied to a nail on the front of the board. The image was about a foot in diameter. I was really impressed. He had bought it as a kit a few years before at RTMC. I always looked for it when I was at RTMC but never found one. One of the years we were at the North Rim Grand Canyon Star Party there was a 65% partial eclipse. We had 5 solar scopes set up with about 300 hundred people lined up. Karen was running our Astroscan with a Thousand Oaks Optical filter on it. I walked around the crowd explaining what was happening while projecting an image onto the wall of the visitors center using a mirror in one hand and a piece of cardboard with a hole in it in the other hand. I love solar projection! Deloy Pierce

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Admission Price NHMU
by Steve Fisher 23 May '12

23 May '12

NO, No way, Zip, Zilch, Nada Utah Astronomers! To be clear. You and your friends, family and those you invite will not have to pay the admission price to the museum to observe through SLAS scopes. The majority of our scopes, the SLAS booth and the majority of our presentation will be in free areas of the museum. SLAS will be giving away 6 telescopes, books, and other door prize type items and you and the general public will not need pay admission to enter those drawings and win those items. We have at least one radio station that will be there inviting the public to come up and take a safe look. More details later. Steve

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Admission Price NHMU
by Joe Bauman 23 May '12

23 May '12

I am glad to hear this, Steve. Someone should get the museum to correct their publicity. Thanks, Joe ------------------------------ On Wed, May 23, 2012 8:56 AM MDT Steve Fisher wrote: > > > > > > >NO, No way, Zip, Zilch, Nada > >Utah Astronomers! To be clear. You and your friends, >family and those you invite will not have to pay the admission price to the >museum to observe through SLAS scopes. The majority of our scopes, the SLAS >booth and the majority of our presentation will be in free areas of the museum. > >SLAS will be giving away 6 telescopes, books, and other >door prize type items and you and the general public will not need pay >admission to enter those drawings and win those items. We have at least one radio station that will >be there inviting the public to come up and take a safe look. More details >later. > >Steve > > >_______________________________________________ >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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