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

clear night with no moon
by daniel turner 01 Jun '14

01 Jun '14

The weather was good for viewing last night, so I drove out to the west desert for some binocular viewing. Only stayed a couple of hours. It was warm and dry with a slight breeze. Patches of cirrus cloud were here and there in an otherwise beautiful sky. M51 was directly overhead so leaning against the SUV with 20x80's I could easily see spiral structure. M101 was easy to spot. as well. M10 and M12 globulars jumped out even in 10x50's in the middle of OPH which was still rising above the glow of SLC. M68 in Corvus was getting low in the southwest. M3, M4, and M5 rounded out the night for globulars. DT

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Today's EPOD
by Wiggins Patrick 31 May '14

31 May '14

Look who made today's EPOD: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2014/05/libration-of-the-moon.html Kudo to Rob. Now go celebrate libration with a libation. patrick

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As if we needed another reason for dark sky
by Richard Tenney 30 May '14

30 May '14

This should find some wide appeal (pun intended): The Light Might Make You Heavy - Slashdot The Light Might Make You Heavy - Slashdot Rambo Tribble writes: "Writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers have found that sleeping with high ambient light levels may contribute to obesit... View on science-beta.slashdot... Preview by Yahoo

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] clear night with no moon
by Bruce Hugo 27 May '14

27 May '14

Sounds like a great evening Daniel! Wondering when we will get such a night for a star party! Someone must have purchased one doosey of an upgrade to cause all these clouds! LOL! Bruce Hugo Date: Tue, 27 May 2014 07:30:43 -0700 (PDT) From: daniel turner <outwest112(a)yahoo.com> To: "utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com" <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] clear night with no moon Message-ID: <1401201043.72840.YahooMailNeo(a)web125002.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 The weather was good for viewing last night, so I drove out to the west desert for some binocular viewing.? Only stayed a couple of hours.? It was warm and dry with a slight breeze.? Patches of cirrus cloud were here and there in an otherwise beautiful sky. M51 was directly overhead so leaning against the SUV with 20x80's I could easily see spiral structure.? M101 was easy to spot. as well.? M10 and M12 globulars jumped out even in 10x50's in the middle of OPH which was still rising above the glow of SLC.? M68 in Corvus was getting low in the southwest.? M3, M4, and M5 rounded out the night for globulars.? DT

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test
by Joe Bauman 27 May '14

27 May '14

I've sent a couple of notes to UA that never showed up in my in-box. I don't know whether the system isn't sending them through or if my email is having a problem. Could someone just send a quick response if this gets through? Thanks, Joe

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Meteors from Stansbury
by Joe Bauman 24 May '14

24 May '14

Patrick, you proved your statement in the Tribune to be true. Now people across the country hate you. (For those who didn't read it, Patrick said that when he talks about an expected meteor shower it doesn't happen.) ------------------------------ On Sat, May 24, 2014 2:15 AM MDT Wiggins Patrick wrote: >I joined a surprisingly large number of folks at SPOC at midnight under pretty cloudy skies with maybe 1/4 of the northern sky clear. It took all of half an hour for most of that to close in. > >Saw no meteors during that brief window. > >Got home and it was still cloudy but the satellite images showed a large sucker hole approaching and by 1:15 much of the northern sky had cleared off. > >1:33 brought what appeared to be a double iridium flare and at 1:50 there was a very bright flash low in the west but it was below my tree line so did not see it directly. > >By 2:00 and the end of the predicted window of opportunity clouds were moving back in so I packed it in. > >Never did see any meteors. > >So now I'm watching a live video feed out of NASA/Marshall where they have clear skies. >http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/may-camelopar… > >Reading through the comments I'm starting to think it was a bust for most everyone. > >But at least I tried. > >patrick >_______________________________________________ >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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Meteors from Stansbury
by Wiggins Patrick 24 May '14

24 May '14

I joined a surprisingly large number of folks at SPOC at midnight under pretty cloudy skies with maybe 1/4 of the northern sky clear. It took all of half an hour for most of that to close in. Saw no meteors during that brief window. Got home and it was still cloudy but the satellite images showed a large sucker hole approaching and by 1:15 much of the northern sky had cleared off. 1:33 brought what appeared to be a double iridium flare and at 1:50 there was a very bright flash low in the west but it was below my tree line so did not see it directly. By 2:00 and the end of the predicted window of opportunity clouds were moving back in so I packed it in. Never did see any meteors. So now I'm watching a live video feed out of NASA/Marshall where they have clear skies. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/watchtheskies/may-camelopar… Reading through the comments I'm starting to think it was a bust for most everyone. But at least I tried. patrick

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Discussion re. ALCON '17 at Casper
by Joe Bauman 23 May '14

23 May '14

Warning: Non SLAS folks will find this boring. SLASers might too, for that matter. I received a good cogent email from Lowell Lyon responding to what I said at Wednesday's SLAS general meeting regarding his proposal that the club sign up as a sponsor of the conference. For those who don't know, it would be held a couple of days before the Aug. 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, in Casper, Wyo., which apparently is trying to establish itself as Eclipse Central. I am opposed to SLAS becoming formally involved. My response, sent to him two hours ago, follows. You'll see at the end that I invited Lowell to let me also post his note to me, but he hasn't responded yet. We're about to go out and I won't be waiting any longer. He is certainly welcome to post it, or anything else he wishes to. Here is my note: Hi Lowell, Thank you for the note. I have several objections to the idea, none of which involve any question about your ability to do a superb job. We all know that's the only sort of job you do. My problems involve these issues: 1, Overreaching. I don't want to see SLAS drift away from its emphasis as an astronomy club focused on and serving the interests of the Salt Lake area. I think its efforts will become diluted if it does. We are already stretched extremely thin trying to service both SPOC and the Salt Lake County facilities that we need to because of our participation in the county's ZAP program. Add to that numerous private star parties in Utah where we help, and we're about at the limits of our reach. 2, Our non-profit status. You mention that SLAS would divide the profit from ALCON with other entities. But I think under our non-profit umbrella, we should not be dividing any profits. I don't want to see SLAS lose its advantages as a non-profit. 3, The commitment that ALCON would require from club members if we were to become sponsors. Yes, it's true that nobody has to go to Casper, but if nobody does, our commitment and our agreement to the contract aren't worth much, are they? The assumption is that a largish number would go in order that the club can reap profit based on its level of participation, as you mentioned at the meeting. And why shouldn't many people from our club go to ALCON in Wyoming? That brings up the final two points I want to make. 4, Distance to travel and return in order to see the total eclipse. As I mentioned at the previous meeting, members can drive 240 miles to Rexburg to see the eclipse (480 miles round-trip), versus 406 miles to Casper (812 round-trip). 5, Duration. If someone from Salt Lake City feels like it, he or she could easily drive to Rexburg on the day of the eclipse -- Aug. 21, 2017 -- and back the same day. Or that person could reserve a motel room in Rexburg for the previous night, driving back after the eclipse, which takes two days at most. But to attend ALCON and the eclipse in Casper requires going to ALCON's meeting itself, Aug. 16-19 (three days), the next day after the convention (Sunday, Aug. 20) and finally the day of the eclipse, Monday, Aug. 21. Because of these reasons, I second George Washington's advice, "Avoid entangling alliances." I'll be posting just my response soon on the Utah Astronomy web site. Or if you wish, I'll post your original comments with it. Just let me know. Best wishes, Joe

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Type II Supernova in M106
by Dave Gary 23 May '14

23 May '14

Patrick, Have you seen the new type II supernova in M106? An RSpec list I belong to mentioned it. They have a spectrum. http://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2014/05/supernova-psn-j121857714718113-m106-… Dave Sent from my iPad

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Meteor Shower and Star Parties this Weekend
by Ann House 22 May '14

22 May '14

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57971743-78/meteor-shower-friday-saturday… Keep your fingers crossed for the shower! Thanks Sheena -A

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