October 2013 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Encke vs ISON (Was: Comet 2/P Encke)
by John M. Craig 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

WRT Encke not having much of a tail, it's been through so many perihelion passages that I didn't assume it ever had much of a tail (its orbit is such that it passes perihelion about every three years, iirc) One of those ho-hum; been-there-done-that comets. Then a quick search reveals one image that does have a tail, but it's not taken from earth's surface, but by the STEREO solar satellite mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/encke.html All the other pictures a quick search turned up show just a nucleus and an offset coma. So take your pick: viewing angle or just not very active--may be a combination of both this perihelion passage, but it does look like it's appeared tail-less on prior passages also. JMC

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2-Meter Mike
by John M. Craig 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Chuck, The impressive focal length of Mike's scope reminds me of what I read somewhere about "professional" astronomers of William Herschel's day basically assuming he was lying when he talked (casually) about using powers of 1000 and 1500x. I'm not sure which of Hershchel's big scopes that was--probably his, so called "40 foot"--which Mike's nearly equals; and clobbers in aperture! Is he giving out numbers for people to take a turn? ;-) John

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Comet 2/P Encke
by Chuck Hards 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Kurt posted this over on Jay's forum. Close to ISON and appreciably brighter. Sounds like a better target for imaging at present. http://astronomyinutah.forumer.com/the-comet-other-than-c-2012-s1-ison-t130…

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2-Meter Mike
by Jay Eads 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

I would recommend gathering a series of questions from locals and people nationally perhaps over at Cloudy Nights, then film a Q&A with Mike and put it on YouTube publically for all to watch who have an interest. Easy to do and let me know if Mike would be interested and if anyone is interested in helping putting it together. It would be cool say to set up next Saturday afternoon a Q&A and then at the end as night falls, have observing at the scope for those who don't mind climbing a ladder.

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ISON this morning
by Wiggins Patrick 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

I was finally able to image ISON this morning. But between my roof and the neighbor's tree I could only get partial aperture. Glaring Moon and haze did not help, really washing it out. But what I did get shows it is sporting a nice tail. Certainly better than most comets. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/ison2013oct19.JPG FOV is 18 x 26 arc minutes. patrick

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10/19/13 SLAS Sun Party
by Bruce Hugo 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

I took a couple photos of the Sun Party Saturday. They are located here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22238456@N04/ Had a good turn out! Bruce

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2-Meter Mike
by Bruce Hugo 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

How cool! Thanks for posting the link! Bruce

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My Kind of Periodic Table
by Dave Gary 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

I asked Chuck about a week ago if he had an old periodic table lying around that he could lend to me. He found this one in a box in the basement and said I could have it. Told me he was using the “updated” version and no longer needed this one. So simple to use, too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/10367797084/lightbox/

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My Kind of Periodic Table
by jcarman6＠q.com 19 Oct '13

19 Oct '13

lol I suspect some Utah schools still use it, especially in Hilldale.

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ISS pass across the sun
by Joe Bauman 19 Oct '13

19 Oct '13

Hi all, this is a set of pics showing my view of the ISS passing across the face of the sun. I took it yesterday at North Canyon Park, when Kurt, Siegfried, George and Brent were also observing the passage. The first view is Kurt's estimate of where he saw the crossing, his diagram overlying a view of the sun provided by CalSky for that time and location. The next is my overview image, cropped and rotated so that the sunspots are oriented the same as in the view Kurt provided. The third is a blow-up of the ISS portion of my photo. Adding to the proof, no sunspot shows up at that place in the SOHO image of the sun at that time, and that spot doesn't show up in any of my other views taken at the time. Best wishes, Joe First image: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5737 Second: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5740 Third: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5743

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