October 2020 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Mars sol vs. Earth day
by John M. Craig 27 Oct '20

27 Oct '20

Feeling a little out of sync with the rotation of features on Mars? Then you can sympathize with this guy: https://xkcd.com/1825/

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John Craig has been added as a list admin
by Richard Tenney 26 Oct '20

26 Oct '20

Hi all, With Chuck's departure from the list, I've added John Craig as a new list moderator. Please continue to post awesome, contentious-free astronomy-related content! Best,/R

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Imaging Session: 10/25/2020 with Unistellar telescope
by Dave Gary 25 Oct '20

25 Oct '20

Here’s some images I took from the Driveway Observatory in St. George with a Unistellar telescope. > https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/albums/72157716607626551 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/albums/72157716607626551>

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Some H-alpha action on the sun
by John M. Craig 21 Oct '20

21 Oct '20

Hi Folks, I didn't see it until too late to put anything out about it, but there was a cool prominence as well as an interesting sunspot/active region today. The sun is heading toward more activity. Ciao, John

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Correction on address of Lakeridge Jr High
by John M. Craig 15 Oct '20

15 Oct '20

Hi Folks, The school is at corner of 400 W *900* S. Don't happen to know the folks at the address I sent before, but who knows, they might enjoy some telescope observing, but probably better not just show up there ;-) Could still use maybe one or two more people/scopes for next Friday the 23rd (with fallback to Saturday if cloudy on Friday and Saturday looks better). Forecast looks okay for Friday at this point, although could be quite chilly. If I know you are coming and have mobile # for you, I'll send you a go/no-go text in the late afternoon/early evening. Hoping to have some scopes set up by 7:30 (behind school, probably spread out along track to make it easier to keep appropriate distancing). Thanks! John

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Lakeridge Jr High Star Party on Oct 23rd
by John M. Craig 12 Oct '20

12 Oct '20

Hi Friends, [If you already saw the announcement on the UVAA list, sorry for the repeat.] The order of topics in the science curriculum has changed in the Alpine district so they're hoping a few of us can set up for a star party at Lakeridge (corner of 400 W & 700 S in Orem) on Friday October 23rd (1st Qtr moon) with Saturday 24th as a bad-weather-on-Friday fall back. The timing is a lot better for the bright planets than May would have been. Because of the COVID situation, they won't be inviting the kids to bring other family members so it should be a smaller group. So if you're up for it, let me know. I've suggested that they schedule things so that all the kids aren't arriving all at once. We're asked to wear masks and keep reasonable distance as much as possible--so we may need to be more spread out than we were last year. We'll plan on setting up along the track east of the school. The sprinklers will be off and supposedly the external lights--since they've never yet figured out how to turn off the outside lights, I don't know that this will happen, but since the most likely targets are the moon and bright planets, I trust that won't be a big deal. Let me know if you'd be interested in helping and I'll be sure to send out notice if by chance we're calling it off because of cloudy skies or whatever. Thanks much! John Craig

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Starry night
by Joe Bauman 02 Oct '20

02 Oct '20

Dear Friends, I’ve been dejected, outraged, offended and somewhat afraidfor months, with the horrible national and international situations. But getting away to the desert for astronomytruly helped. You may find my new approach interesting, as related in my latestblog, number 109. https://the-nightly-news.com/blog/blog-109-starry-night Our Utah Astronomy Club, which has no dues and plenty offriendly discussion, has now reached 612 members. If not already a member, findus on Facebook and join. As they say, “You’ll be glad you did.” Many thanks, Joe Bauman

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Northern end of Utah County--low eastern horizon
by John M. Craig 02 Oct '20

02 Oct '20

Hi Folks, Planning to invite a few friends to join me for Mars viewing on Saturday night. Anyone think of any place closer to Orem or Lehi than Camp Flloyd Cemetary that would likely have reasonably still air and a relatively low eastern horizon? The trailhead parking area where we've done star parties for Timp Cave has good south exposure, IIRC--good for Saturn and Jupiter. I'm not sure about how long it would be before Mars would clear the mountains and be high enough that you'd not be dealing with awful turbulence. Suggestions welcomed. Happy to have more scopes available for anyone who might be interested too--I'll be wearing a mask, if you come, please do (keeps your nose warm anyway). John

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