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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms
by Bruce Hugo 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

Tuscon has very tight light ordinances due to Kitt Peak. I was at Kitt Peak in 2004 and was impressed by Tuscon's lighting. Though, even with the light ordinances I'm sure Tuscon's growth and the subsequent light is affecting Kitt Peak. My girlfriend (now wife) and I spent the night with Adam Block on the 20" visitors scope doing some astrophotography. An amazing night is all I can say! Here is one of the 3 photos that were taken that night: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040409.html Bruce Hugo Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. - Edwin Powell Hubble ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 10:55:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms Message-ID: <1377626143.14666.YahooMailNeo(a)web125102.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 I thought Tucson was the Arizona city with good light ordinances. -- Joe

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Phoenix
by jcarman6＠q.com 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States (behind New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and, perhaps, Philadelphia. I was there in March. From Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix (like Sandy to Salt Lake), I could see all of Orion (no shield or club - almost, but not quite there) and all of Gemini. Jupiter was blazing. I was dutifully impressed. Their night sky is equal to, if not better than Salt Lake's. The trib article would have mentioned everyone's back yard if Salt Lake had such lighting restrictions. It is my understanding the state of Arizona has adopted lighting restrictions and the cities are moving into compliance.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2017 Eclipse Preview
by Joe Bauman 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

Now with a chartered bus, we could check the weather reports and motor in comfort to a good spot, meanwhile having a good tine talking, eating and using the bus' restroom. Just sayin'. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 10:46 AM MDT Chuck Hards wrote: >Exactly. Even going with seasonal trends, it's a gamble. > >Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get. > >On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 8:15 AM, M Wilson <astro_outwest(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > >> As they say in any mutual fund prospectus: "Past performance isn't a >> guarantee of future returns" >> >> >_______________________________________________ >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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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms
by Ed 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

Patrick, There is an aviation arrow for the SLC to San Francisco route on top of the hill just north of exit 62 on I-80. This is the same spot I mentioned some time back as a good place to get an unobstructed view of the western horizon. Ed

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms
by Ed 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

Brent & Patrick, Thanks Brent for the link to the GIS Arrow Project site, but I cannot get it to show anything but the Woods Cross arrow. It seems to want me to begin with a town or city name, but many of the sites are nowhere near any town and I can't even put in a town's name. Have you guys had any luck accessing arrow sites in the west desert? Can you give me a clue on how to use the interactive map on the site? Ed

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Eclipse Movie
by D P Pierce 27 Aug '13

27 Aug '13

I love the idea of an eclipse disaster movie. I see eclipse chasing planes and helicopters colliding and exploding in midair with burning debris falling on hapless ground observers. The name needs to be something worthy of the Sci Fi channel. I cant do anything clever with the words eclipse and holocaust but Eclipsageddon works or if we work in some wrestling Eclipsamania. Deloy

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms
by Ed 26 Aug '13

26 Aug '13

Patrick, In case you care, the coordinates you got from Google for Airway Beacon 57 SFO-SLC are for the Panoramio photo markers on the map, not for the arrow. The coordinates for the arrow are more like 40° 49' 35.37" N 112° 54' 20.81" W. The coordinates for the 61A arrow are 40° 42' 16.31" N 112° 15' 12.99" W. Panoramio photos are often placed by photographers on a Google map when the scale is rather large so a small miss-position at that scale maps to a really long distance when the map is blown up. Some are even placed where the photographer thinks he remembers taking the picture. Example: The 1200-foot Kennecott stack Panoramio photo placed a bit north of Seabase, northwest of Grantsville. Ed

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Government funded observing platforms
by Ed 26 Aug '13

26 Aug '13

Patrick, Yes indeed, you have the right area. Using the scales on your screen shot, the concrete arrow is half way between F & G north & south, and about 6.1 east and west. You need to zoom in some more, and here is a modified description of what I posted June 5th at 10:36 pm MDT with a subject line of "Best place to see Mercury from SLC area?": Enable the Roads and Panoramio Layers in Google Earth. Zoom in until you can clearly see the I-80 emblem on the exit 62 bridge over the freeway. With a zoom that shows a scale ruler in the lower left of about 1200 feet or an altitude level of about 7400 feet in the lower right: Follow the line of the bridge to the northwest about 2.5 times the width of the interchange (as measured between the on & off ramps) to a pair of Panoramio photo markers just beyond a dirt road running SW to NE. If you see only one marker, zoom in a bit more. The photo in the left marker is looking east and the photo in the right is looking west. The photos are labeled Airway Beacon 57 SFO-SLC. The arrow shaped slab of concrete is barely discernible (it looks like a dumbbell) right beside the north side of the kink in the dirt road SSE of the right hand Panoramio marker. Interestingly, the concrete arrow is pointed more at Ogden than SLC. Close enough I guess for government work especially after the concrete sets up. It takes a pretty good 4x4 to climb up the hill just west of the bridge, so it probably is a poor site for observing. In addition to lights from freeway traffic and the glow in the east, the disposal sites to the southwest offer light pollution along with waste management. But the views to the north, overlooking SLAS's Lakeside site, are pretty dark. That should get it for you. If not, we'll just have to light up Google Earth sometime when we're both at the same place. I wonder how many of the other 56 still exist? Ed

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Bingham Canyon mine and the Moon's Aristarchus crater
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Aug '13

26 Aug '13

Interesting Planetary Society comparison of Salt Lake's Bingham Canyon mine and the Moon's Aristarchus crater: The Walls of the Pit http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/bill-dunford/20130826-the-walls-… patrick

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Government funded observing platforms
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Aug '13

26 Aug '13

Joe just alerted me to these. Looks like some would be ideal for setting up telescopes on. :) http://wchsutah.org/aviation/navigation-arrows.php Here is one near St. George: http://goo.gl/maps/iEV43 Anyone here know of ones closer to Salt Lake? patrick

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