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

Your opinion, please (Mars landing event)
by Patrick Wiggins 09 Jul '12

09 Jul '12

Regarding next month's MSL landing, who here on Utah-Astronomy would be interested in attending a landing event on the U of U campus (keeping in mind that the landing will be late night on Sunday, 5 August)? Thanks! patrick

6 6

ISS to transit Moon
by Patrick Wiggins 09 Jul '12

09 Jul '12

CalSky is predicting ISS will transit the Moon Tuesday morning about 0924. Here is a (very long) URL to a map showing the centerline of the transit: http://www.calsky.com/?Transitline=&showhome=&obs=79303019710733&tdt=245611… patrick

3 5

ATM session report
by Hutchings, Mat (H USA) 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Yesterday's ATM session was probably the most busy and productive session yet. Jeff and I tested the 12" mirror from his Orion scope. FigXP was used as the data reduction program for the knife edge readings we took. The mirror tested as being "diffraction limited". The views that I have seen through this telescope are very good and I believe that the great views are due to great collimation. Jeff is THE most conscientious collimator I have ever seen. This is a lesson to me to pay a little better attention to collimation. The views through a Newtonian will suffer if collimation is carelessly done. Josh worked on his bath interferometer and it is nearly completed. What a powerful tool that will be when finished. Charlie cut tiles for a dental stone/tile tool and once he completed that, he poured the stone for the tool. It came out very nice and will serve him well as he works his 13.1" mirror. One note, if you use pink dental stone on a hot day, it sets up quick! I couldn't clean the mixing bucket we used before it hardened. Luckily the tool was properly poured before it set up. Jay worked on his equatorial platform. When this platform is finished, it will be a great help to Jay when he sketches. Keep walking the barrel! 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

1 0

Grand Finale All of the STS Launches at Once
by Jay Eads 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

I thought this was cool. All of the shuttle launches at once. http://vimeo.com/27505192 Jay Sent from my iPad

2 1

Reissue of great book
by Joe Bauman 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Dear Friends, The last time I put an e-book on the Internet, UtahAstronomy people said it was OK to trumpet it here, because this is a fairly big deal for me. Well, now I have put another on, also about Revolutionary War soldiers who lived long enough to be photographed. This is my electronic reissue of a book published in 1864 called The Last Men of the Revolution, featuring the world's first photo-interviews. The publishers tried to interview all living Revolutionary War veterans and take their pictures, and the photographs were tipped into the book -- actual photos, not etchings or halftones. There were six who were photographed (though two died before they could be interviewed). Recently I managed to purchase original 1864 photos of five of them, and I transcribed the short book and put in the five views. An Internet site let me download the photo of the sixth veteran, as well as color lithographs of each veteran's house. If this is of interest, it's really inexpensive!!! Here's the site: http://tinyurl.com/7l4kmz5 Thanks for taking a look. -- Joe

2 2

Solar observing
by Steve Fisher 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Todays solar event at Winchester Parkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuB_vDbNWNE

2 1

Sunspots: 7 July 2012 ~ 10:00 MDT
by Dave Gary 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

Took a couple of sunspot photos. I didn’t get the detail Joe got on his, but it’s passable. One photo with an 18mm lens, one photo with a 40mm lens. http://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/sets/72157630465134226/ Dave

5 10

moon photo redone
by Joe Bauman 07 Jul '12

07 Jul '12

Hi all, I reassembled my recent moon photo using MaxIm DL instead of Photoshop Elements. Here's the new version: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5312 The previous one is right before this in my part of the SLAS gallery. Please tell me which you prefer. Thanks, Joe

1 0

Higgs
by Dave Gary 07 Jul '12

07 Jul '12

Ian, One thing to realize when reading Einstein’s paper (that I mentioned in the previous post) is that L = E. Some translations change the symbolism from the original German, some do not. Dave

1 0

Curiosity
by Rodger C. Fry 06 Jul '12

06 Jul '12

It is now one month until soft gentle landing or catastrophe. I don't know about anyone else but I am anticipating this with great enthusiasm. So far, everything has gone very well and slightly more precise than may have been predicted. Because of this, NASA has narrowed down the target area of the landing site. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think this is going to be a winner! Rodger C. Fry

5 16