September 2015 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Show and tell requests
by Marlene Egger 16 Sep '15

16 Sep '15

Tonight is show and tell at the SLAS meeting. This is a request to have you bring your journals, logbooks, and astro league program logs and tell us beginners how it's done and why and what are the standards about documenting a sighting, at various levels of experience. Marlene Sent from my iPhone

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Who is the donor?
by Wiggins Patrick 15 Sep '15

15 Sep '15

A few years ago someone donated a framed Mars Pathfinder Project postal stamp and certificate to SLAS and it's been displayed in SPOC's Refractor House ever since. Anyone here happen to know who made the donation? Here's a picture for those with access to SLAS Talk: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10207707664715449&set=gm.5041778697… patrick

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Wow! imagery
by Wiggins Patrick 14 Sep '15

14 Sep '15

For those who may not have seen them yet, Jeff Clayton has been posting some of his incredible astroimages from Friday night on SLAS Talk: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SLAS.Talk/ Jeff, BTW, will be the featured speaker at next month's SLAS general membership meeting: http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=2205 BTW, once on the page (and when done drooling over those images) scroll down a bit for a shot from Joe of part of the Andromeda galaxy and further down to Siegfried's video of last week's rocket motor firing at ATK. patrick p.s. A reminder that you do not need to be a member of SLAS or any other organization to sign on to SLAS Talk much like you didn't have to be a member of anything to sign on here at Utah-Astronomy.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Vernon site
by Marlene Egger 12 Sep '15

12 Sep '15

Can someone re-post the directions to the Vernon site? Marlene Egger On Friday, September 11, 2015 12:01 PM, "utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com" <utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com> wrote: Send Utah-Astronomy mailing list submissions to utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to utah-astronomy-request(a)mailman.xmission.com You can reach the person managing the list at utah-astronomy-owner(a)mailman.xmission.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Utah-Astronomy digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Leaving to go to Vernon for the Night, Saturday Too! (JayLEads) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 11:08:01 -0600 From: JayLEads <jayleads(a)gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Leaving to go to Vernon for the Night, Saturday Too! Message-ID: <CANCdW8dz8nxDK=rABed6KPWK8okTCiWuofnCpkwQ9mtdH0pbeQ(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 I am leaving to go to Vernon Site 1 for tonight and again for Saturday night. I do have to be back home at 10:00a.m. tomorrow for a commitment and then back out to Vernon by 2:00pm or 3:00pm If there is someone else who wants to observe and can baby sit the site on Saturday until I return (like I am doing today) that would be helpful. If not, I will give up the site and find one when I get back out there. Hope to see some of you out! -- Thanks! Jay ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php ------------------------------ End of Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 151, Issue 13 ***********************************************

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Directions To Vernon
by JayLEads 12 Sep '15

12 Sep '15

Hello, I am just finishing at home and will be leaving around 3:00pm to go back out. Here is how you get to Vernon. Get on SR 36 and head south to Vernon. At Vernon continue to drive on SR 36 past the Silver Sage (going south) and SR 36 curves. Right after the curve you will see this sign on the left : Turn right there, and you will be on a 5 mile long dirt road that runs south. It is in need of being graded again so watch for rough spots. At the end of the drive, the road T's . At the T turn right and go down a few tenths of a mile to the first left. On the right hand side will be a sign that says 006. This is FR006. We are usually on one of the dispersed camping grounds. Charlie and Mike wree going to stake the claim today so if they have stayed then as you go over the cattle guard, you turn immedietly right and drive back to the trailer and pickup and scopes. I should be out there by 4:00pm. to set up and then I will need a nap until dusk. -- Thanks! Jay

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Leaving to go to Vernon for the Night, Saturday Too!
by JayLEads 11 Sep '15

11 Sep '15

I am leaving to go to Vernon Site 1 for tonight and again for Saturday night. I do have to be back home at 10:00a.m. tomorrow for a commitment and then back out to Vernon by 2:00pm or 3:00pm If there is someone else who wants to observe and can baby sit the site on Saturday until I return (like I am doing today) that would be helpful. If not, I will give up the site and find one when I get back out there. Hope to see some of you out! -- Thanks! Jay

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] : Canyonlands September 18th
by Seth Jarvis 11 Sep '15

11 Sep '15

The Canyonlands rangers are asking if any people are coming to the star party on 9/18 who'll want to use the two campsites they've reserved for participants. Otherwise they're going to release the spots to the general public. Is anyone on this list planning to come down and the camp sites? Thanks, Seth Jarvis.

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Fwd: Timp Cave National Monument Dark Sky star party this Friday (Sept.11), American Fork Canyon
by Richard Tenney 09 Sep '15

09 Sep '15

I'll be attending this with my 16" dob, along with a couple of other volunteers/scopes in Utah County. If anyone else wants to come help out that night, it would be appreciated!TIA,/Rich Tenney See message below... ------------------------------- I'm writing with more details about Timpanogos Cave National Monument's second Night Skies program this Friday, September 11th. I am looking forward to meeting you, Richard Tenney, and hopefully seeing the rest of you again! July's program was an excellent success with over 70 people in attendance over the course of the evening, despite spotty cloud cover. I learned an immense amount from Joel, Richard, and John, and I loved seeing the public enjoying and getting excited about night skies. Thank you again (and in advance) for using your passion and your expertise to start a tradition of dark sky programming in American Fork Canyon. I wanted to give you a few details about the components of the program and the associated goals we hope to accomplish. Much of the structure is similar to the last event, with some additions to meet needs we discovered along the way. - Two stations set up to provide information about light pollution and its effects on (1) human health and (2) ecological health. (Eliza Hawkins and I will again be the NPS interpreters working these stations.) - A station for you, the astronomers, to set up your telescopes and teach groups of visitors a bit about what they're seeing in the night sky and perhaps a bit about the equipment for doing so. (This worked great last time as the first hour was pretty limited viewing and equipment was the main focus. The large number of visitors in the second hour were well managed and included when John and others were able to present information to the of visitors who weren't physically behind the telescopes.) - Take-away information about the NPS's goals to protect night sky landscapes, as well as information about other organizations/groups that strive to do the same. - Take-away information about ways to reduce light pollution on the household and community levels. - A children's activity station with demonstrations about light pollution, including a light shielding demo and pollution magnitude readers. - Parking attendants/greeters who will intercept vehicles when they arrive in the parking area, direct them to turn off their lights, show them where to park, and orient them to the event. The location for this event should be easier to manage than the site for July's program. We will be at Pine Hollow Trailhead on SR 92 (about 7 or 8 minutes up-canyon from the Timpanogos Cave National Monument Visitor Center). We are hoping to set up on the end of the parking lot farthest from the road. This should allow for plenty of time/space for cars to park without flooding the program and participants with lights. (Thank you for your input and patience with this obstacle last time!) Regarding the night of the event, our advertising states that the event begins at 8:30 PM. With that in mind, Eliza and I plan to arrive around 7:15 PM to begin setting up. We're hoping volunteer astronomers, as well as volunteers from the NPS, can arrive between 7:30 & 8:00 PM. Let me know how that timing sounds to you. I'd be more than happy to rearrange things if you feel you need more or less time. Lastly, please pass this on to any other volunteers you know who may be interested in participating. Feel free to reply with any information you have about other volunteers as well as your expected arrival time and input about set-up (should you have any thoughts). Of course, email me with any questions or with information about getting involved in dark skies advocacy here in Utah. Thank you very much for your time, Cassidy -- Cassidy JonesPark Ranger Timpanogos Cave National MonumentAmerican Fork, UT 84003 cassidy_jones(a)nps.gov

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Another EPOD
by Joe Bauman 08 Sep '15

08 Sep '15

My friend Ray Boren has today's Earth Science Picture of the Day. One of the interesting factors is that you can see sunspots in his view of the smoked-out sun. http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2015/09/smoky-red-sun-orange-moon.html Thanks, Joe

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Making a 36" from many smaller mirrors
by Jay inUT 08 Sep '15

08 Sep '15

Ok, I got approached by my boss at work about the possibility of making a 36" mirror for observing from say several 8 inch mirrors (think an arrangement like James Webb). In thinking about this to me it seems that there are issues here about positioning the mirrors and ensuring that once ground, they form a parabola etc. So what are the thoughts on this? Can an amateur make a large mirror from smaller mirrors and what would it take? Just curious and I know what my reply was but I said I would inquire. -- Thanks! Jay

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