February 2014 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Is a puzzlement
by Wiggins Patrick 18 Mar '14

18 Mar '14

Some here will remember Brent's EPOD from a couple of years back showing the difference between the north and south arms of the GSL caused by the railroad causeway. http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/09/great-salt-lake-causeway.html (north to the left) I was reminded of that earlier today (yesterday if you are reading this Tuesday) when I saw something similar. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/GSL-1.JPG (railroad causeway on left, causeway described below on the right, in both north is to the left) But the thing is, I was over the south arm, quite near I-80 with Stansbury Island in the distance. It would appear the causeway-like structure in the south end is causing the same thing to happen. So going north to south we now go from blue water to green water, then fades back to blue and one more change to green. My first thought was that his "other" causeway was put there by those that mine minerals from the GSL. http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/08/evaporation-ponds-near-great-salt-lake.ht… But as Brent described in his EPOD the water on the south side of the causeway is lower in minerals. To quote the King of Siam, "Is a puzzlement" (here played by a Vladimir Putin look-alike http://vimeo.com/45346724) Another view of the south end color change looking south toward Stansbury Island and the Tooele Valley. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/GSL-2.JPG patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] [NASA HQ News] NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet
by Joe Bauman 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

Exactly! ------------------------------ On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 10:45 AM MST Chuck Hards wrote: >Remember that all of these planet discoveries are in a very small target >area: > >http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/fov-kepler-drawi… > >Also they are only planets with orbital planes that cause transits of their >parent stars. >We can extrapolate that the total number of any particular type of planet >discovered must be huge in the galaxy, >even if only one or two candidates have been confirmed so-far. >_______________________________________________ >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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Ogden/St.George
by Mark Shelton 02 Mar '14

02 Mar '14

Hi, I have heard that the Ogden astro club is sponsoring a star party in late February. Anyone know anything about this? I checked the web pages of the Ogden club but did not see any information about this. Mark Sent from my iPhone

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ATM session reminder
by Hutchings, Mat 27 Feb '14

27 Feb '14

Quick reminder, that the next ATM session will be on 3/15/14 from 09:00 - 14:00. If you need directions to my house, please let me know. Hope to see you then! 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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Re: [Utah-astronomy] [NASA HQ News] NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet
by Bruce Hugo 27 Feb '14

27 Feb '14

I saw this on Space.com earlier today. Really cool! Wonder if they expected this level of discovery from Kepler? Bruce

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Liver & Onions Subcommittee
by Joe Bauman 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Thanks Siegfried -- my physical is soon and I'll get some kind of prescription then. ------------------------------ On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 3:00 PM MST Siegfried Jachmann wrote: >Get a prescription for Allopurinol. > > >On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 10:36 AM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com>wrote: > >> >> >> >> I'm up for it. But the sad fact is I have developed gout and can no longer >> eat liver. -- Joe >> >> ------------------------------ >> On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 11:16 AM MST Larry Holmes wrote: >> >> >On 2/25/2014 7:33 AM, Chuck Hards wrote: >> > It's been awhile, how does a L&O meeting sound for Saturday, March >> 15th? I >> > didn't see any SLAS events on the calendar for that day. >> > >> > Noon, at the Left Fork? >> > >> > Looks OK at this time, Chuck. Salivating already! 73 >> > >> >_______________________________________________ >> >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". >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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". >> > > > >-- >Siegfried >_______________________________________________ >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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GAIA imaged at L2
by Wiggins Patrick 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

Here is an animated GIF of 6 images I took at 5 minute intervals between 1227 and 1252 UT today (2014 FEB 26). FOV is about 18x28 arc minutes. The relatively bright (mag 14.1) star just to the lower left of center is GSC 1413:453 located at 09h 46m 32s +17° 33' 43". North is up, east to the left. Distance was about 1.436 million km. MPC shows no minor planets that bright in that area so I'm pretty sure the moving object is GAIA but I'm awaiting confirmation. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/gaia2014feb26.gif Note that this is a temporary location. If he moving object does turn out to be GAIA I will move the images to my album on the SLAS Gallery. patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Liver & Onions Subcommittee
by Joe Bauman 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

I'm up for it. But the sad fact is I have developed gout and can no longer eat liver. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 11:16 AM MST Larry Holmes wrote: >On 2/25/2014 7:33 AM, Chuck Hards wrote: >> It's been awhile, how does a L&O meeting sound for Saturday, March 15th? I >> didn't see any SLAS events on the calendar for that day. >> >> Noon, at the Left Fork? >> > Looks OK at this time, Chuck. Salivating already! 73 > >_______________________________________________ >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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Fw: [NASA HQ News] NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet Bonanza, 715 New Worlds
by Joe Bauman 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

FYI, Cool news. -- Joe On Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:23 PM, NASA News Releases <hqnews(a)newsletters.nasa.gov> wrote: February 26, 2014RELEASE 14-059 NASA's Kepler Mission Announces a Planet Bonanza, 715 New Worlds NASA's Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is almost four times the size of Earth. This discovery marks a significant increase in the number of known small-sized planets more akin to Earth than previously identified exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. "The Kepler team continues to amaze and excite us with their planet hunting results," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "That these new planets and solar systems look somewhat like our own, portends a great future when we have the James Webb Space Telescope in space to characterize the new worlds.” Since the discovery of the first planets outside our solar system roughly two decades ago, verification has been a laborious planet-by-planet process. Now, scientists have a statistical technique that can be applied to many planets at once when they are found in systems that harbor more than one planet around the same star. To verify this bounty of planets, a research team co-led by Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., analyzed stars with more than one potential planet, all of which were detected in the first two years of Kepler's observations -- May 2009 to March 2011. The research team used a technique called verification by multiplicity, which relies in part on the logic of probability. Kepler observes 150,000 stars, and has found a few thousand of those to have planet candidates. If the candidates were randomly distributed among Kepler's stars, only a handful would have more than one planet candidate. However, Kepler observed hundreds of stars that have multiple planet candidates. Through a careful study of this sample, these 715 new planets were verified. This method can be likened to the behavior we know of lions and lionesses. In our imaginary savannah, the lions are the Kepler stars and the lionesses are the planet candidates. The lionesses would sometimes be observed grouped together whereas lions tend to roam on their own. If you see two lions it could be a lion and a lioness or it could be two lions. But if more than two large felines are gathered, then it is very likely to be a lion and his pride. Thus, through multiplicity the lioness can be reliably identified in much the same way multiple planet candidates can be found around the same star. "Four years ago, Kepler began a string of announcements of first hundreds, then thousands, of planet candidates --but they were only candidate worlds," said Lissauer. "We've now developed a process to verify multiple planet candidates in bulk to deliver planets wholesale, and have used it to unveil a veritable bonanza of new worlds." These multiple-planet systems are fertile grounds for studying individual planets and the configuration of planetary neighborhoods. This provides clues to planet formation. Four of these new planets are less than 2.5 times the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for life-giving liquid water. One of these new habitable zone planets, called Kepler-296f, orbits a star half the size and 5 percent as bright as our sun. Kepler-296f is twice the size of Earth, but scientists do not know whether the planet is a gaseous world, with a thick hydrogen-helium envelope, or it is a water world surrounded by a deep ocean. "From this study we learn planets in these multi-systems are small and their orbits are flat and circular -- resembling pancakes -- not your classical view of an atom," said Jason Rowe, research scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and co-leader of the research. "The more we explore the more we find familiar traces of ourselves amongst the stars that remind us of home." This latest discovery brings the confirmed count of planets outside our solar system to nearly 1,700. As we continue to reach toward the stars, each discovery brings us one step closer to a more accurate understanding of our place in the galaxy. Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to find potentially habitable Earth-size planets. Discoveries include more than 3,600 planet candidates, of which 961 have been verified as bona-fide worlds. The findings papers will be published March 10 in The Astrophysical Journal and are available for download at: http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/digital-press-kit-kepler-planet-bonanza Ames is responsible for the Kepler mission concept, ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate. For more information about the Kepler space telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler -end- J.D. Harrington Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241 j.d.harrington(a)nasa.gov Michele Johnson Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 650-604-6982 michele.johnson(a)nasa.gov ________________________________ NASA news releases and other information are available automatically by sending an e-mail message with the subject line subscribe to hqnews-request(a)newsletters.nasa.gov. To unsubscribe from the list, send an e-mail message with the subject line unsubscribe to hqnews-request(a)newsletters.nasa.gov. › Back To Top _______________________________________________ Hqnews mailing list Hqnews(a)newsletters.nasa.gov http://newsletters.nasa.gov/mailman/listinfo/hqnews

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SN 2014J (M-82)
by Wiggins Patrick 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

I had a request for an animation of my SN 2014J images so as long as I now have the animation I figured I'd post it in case anyone else was interested in the images. And in my tale of woe. :) http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5791 patrick

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