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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Where is the link to the illustration
by Bruce Hugo 25 Sep '13

25 Sep '13

@Daniel - Heck, will they still be using EYES! Referring to the Zager and Evans "In the Year 2525". Heheheheeee! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic @Erik, Daniel - Hopefully they have the sense of hearing! Bruce Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. - Edwin Powell Hubble

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8" Zerochromat refractor--I want one now!
by John M. Craig 25 Sep '13

25 Sep '13

My wife and I just got back from a trip to London with a side trip up to the Worcester area to meet an on-line friend and look through his 8" Zerochromat. Wow! What a great scope! So now what do I want? Just a "Zero".... It's a folded refractor design so although its focal ratio is f/12, the tube is just about 5 feet long. It's fairly heavy (~40 pounds), but manageable by one person. Here's the maker's web site: http://www.firefly85.com/ if you're curious (you have to look for the telescope; there's a bunch of stuff about a spotting scope that uses the same optical design). For those of you who may not have followed the controversy surrounding this design (but might be interested), it utilizes a simple objective lens with very long f-ratio and has smaller lenses later in the optical train that deal with the chromatic aberration. It's a refinement of a design from John Wall (the inventor of the Crayford focuser)--described here: http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2024 (you can find any number of people who express how unimpressed they are with John Wall's design in the CN forums; but there's one guy in France who's making one of these so-called hypochromats and I'm interested in how it turns out--he hasn't mounted it yet so the pictures to this point are of stuff out his window). Well, supposedly Peter Wise, the "Zero's" maker has improved on John Wall's design to the point that he claims apochromat-type performance. Well, having looked through it, I was awfully impressed. The viewing, unfortunately, was limited to terrestrial targets (can you imagine, clouds and night-time rain in England?) and we didn't have another telescope to side-by-side compare it with (a reflector would have been the gold standard). One interesting way to see how good the color correction really is involves adjusting the first of the folding mirrors so that it's slightly out of collimation. As you turn the collimation knob so that it's not quite right, the chromatic aberration becomes bright and obvious; when you turn the knob back to correct the collimation, the color just disappears while you watch. Very interesting to see. I'm sure some SLAC old-timers remember a fellow and his impressive 8" refractor (he may still be active for all I know--haven't made it to any star parties in years)--back in the mid-80's when I did make a star party once in a while, his beautiful 8" refractor that was real treat to look through. I seem to recall reading about some rather amazing views of an eclipse of one of Jupiter's moons by another in the club newsletter. I fear that the fact that I can't remember the owner's name is an indication of my age (sigh). At any rate, I'd love to have an 8" refractor. And one that was small enough to transport in our Dodge Caravan? Cool! And since I couldn't reasonably afford even the objective lens for a conventional one, I really wanted to see what one of these "Zeros" was like--so now I'm wondering how to scrape up the cash! Anyone wanna go halfsies? Thirdsies? Unfortunately, I've shot my wad for this year and I don't think my iOpteron 45 would really carry something that heavy and that long very well--so a new mount would be required too: budget busted. But, if you're headed to England, the fellow who owns the one I looked through was just delighted to have a visit--he picked us up at the bus station and fed my wife and me dinner, drove us to the B & B we'd booked for the night.... So, if you are traveling that way, let me know and I'll give you his contact info (I hesitate to post stuff like that on an email list--especially w/o checking with him first). Fun stuff--but no clear skies.... John

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M31 merger
by John M. Craig 25 Sep '13

25 Sep '13

What's left out of the discussion is that the sun will be in its red giant phase before everything settles down into an elliptical galaxy, right? It seems to me that the last simulations I read about ended up with the earth spinning in (because of drag with the sun's outer atomosphere). Although just hi-temp sterilization would pretty much have the same effect as far as our descendents are concerned. They'd just need a good way to get a lot of water onto Mars, maybe, huh? John

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8" Zerochromat refractor--I want one now!
by John M. Craig 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

Whoops, I just saw that I had the weight wrong by a factor of about 2. The maker says it weight 10 Kg. So maybe I wouldn't need a new mount....

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Where is the link to the illustration
by Bruce Hugo 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

Cool! Thanks Joe! Maybe I should leave a really good photo of the milkyway for my relatives (160,000,000 generations from now) so they can see what it looked like "back in my day". :-) Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. - Edwin Powell Hubble

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Where is the link to the illustration
by Joe Bauman 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

Hi Dave, I copied SLASers with the news release I sent out; the release had the illustration but Utah-Astronomy doesn't post images. I wish I had thought of including a link on the SLAS Blast, as you suggested! Anyway, here it is -- http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/milky-way-collide.html ------------------------------ On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 3:51 AM MDT Dave Gary wrote: >Joe, > >In your latest “Astronomical News!” you suggest a link to a NASA site to view an illustration of colliding galaxies. Where is the link? > >Dave >_______________________________________________ >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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Mar's Mission unlikely NASA says
by Jay Eads 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/22/radiation-exposure-mak… Guess we aren't going to Mars anytime soon.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Where is the link to the illustration
by Joe Bauman 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

HA! ------------------------------ On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 12:17 PM MDT Bruce Hugo wrote: >Cool! Thanks Joe! > >Maybe I should leave a really good photo of the milkyway for my relatives (160,000,000 generations from now) so they can see what it looked like "back in my day". :-) > >Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. > - Edwin Powell Hubble >_______________________________________________ >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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Methane on Mars?
by Erik Hansen 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

In case anyone missed the news. http://www.space.com/22862-mars-methane-missing-curiosity-rover.html

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Where is the link to the illustration
by Dave Gary 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

Joe, In your latest “Astronomical News!” you suggest a link to a NASA site to view an illustration of colliding galaxies. Where is the link? Dave

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