- Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

SPOC signs?
by Patrick Wiggins 07 May '05

07 May '05

Maybe we could adapt these signs for SPOC? http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5557 http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5558 http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5560 Grins, Patrick

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing report 5/3/2005 Ealing II training
by Canopus56 06 May '05

06 May '05

--- diveboss(a)xmission.com wrote: > Other than the beer and hotdogs, what is the > difference between an "East > Coast" observing session and say, one, somewhere in > the Midwest? Diveboss, when I was living in the northeast, where it really rains, usually more than once a week, my astronomical nocturnal habits were built around the weather. You wait for the leading edge of a storm front to pass. Behind the front usually there is a pocket of clear stable air. That's when you would get your scope or binos out for couple of evenings, at least till the next storm front blows in. That would be "East Coast" type viewing. In the Intermountain West, particularly in the summer and autumn, we get used to having those long summers with no rain for weeks on end. If you miss a night, it's no big deal, because you know the weather will be good weeks, not just days. I don't even think about the weather as a factor, except in the spring rainy season. As to the beer thing, we'll have to do a poll. -:) > > On bringing Jupiter and focus, Mark saw that Io > > was in mid transit egress (the 2:58 UTC event in > > the Handbook) and that there was a satellite > > shadow on the surface of Jupiter (the 1:28 UTC > > event in the Handbook). > > Which satellite would that be? ;) On the evening of May 3, I wasn't sure. After looking at it since then, it was the shadow of Io itself. Scanning the Handbook closer, it looks like there are three more single Io shadow transits later this month, similar to what we saw on May 3: May 11 03:22-05:33 UTC May 18 04:22-7:27 UTC May 27 Sunset-3:50 UTC If the weather cooperates, it's a cool thing to catch. As Io transits Jupiter, its shadow gives Jupiter and the Jovian moon a 3-D effect. - Canopus56 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

1 0

Observing report 5/3/2005 Ealing II training
by Canopus56 06 May '05

06 May '05

Observing report for Ealing II training 5/4/2005 2:30-4:30 UTC 5/3/2005 8:30 PM-10:45 PM MDT Mark Bloomenthal (instructor) Allen Rowe (student) Kurt Fisher (student) This training was fit into an "East Coast"-style observing session - a brief hole of clear air between two storm fronts. This session began in civil twilight at 8:32pm MDT. The first visible celestial object, Jupiter (-2.0m), was used as the initial target at approximately 2:40 UTC. The RASC Observer's Handbook lists the following events for Jovian satellites from 0:00-4:00 UTC for Io (period 3.55 days, orbital distance 670,900km): 00:47 UTC Io transit ingress 01:28 UTC Io shadow ingress 02:58 UTC Io transit egress 03:39 UTC Io shadow egress On bringing Jupiter and focus, Mark saw that Io was in mid transit egress (the 2:58 UTC event in the Handbook) and that there was a satellite shadow on the surface of Jupiter (the 1:28 UTC event in the Handbook). The upper half of the following figure illustrates the view in the eyepiece at approx. 2:40 UTC. Io is in mid-transit egress at the 315° position angle and Io's shadow falls on the planet's surface: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/observed/20050504JupiterOb… (Sketch generated with Paul Stoddard's online Jovian system simulator at << http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/medici.html >>.) Magnification applied was 127x (Meade Ultra-wide 40mm supplied by Allen) and 257x (a low-end 20mm supplied by Kurt). Cloud band detail and the Great Red Spot were visible during brief periods of atmospheric calmness. Various combinations of aperture mask and a yellow No. 12 filter were tried to improve contrast and detail. Aperature masking improved detail, however Jupiter was at 25°-35° in altitude. Seeing was atmospheric limited with Jupiter switching back and forth from a blur to fine detail over a minute of viewing. Jupiter recently moved past opposition (April 16). The following sketch illustrates the relative Sun, Earth and Io angle as seen from Jupiter at the 00:47 UTC Io transit ingress listed in the Handbook: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/observed/20050504JupiterOb… (Illustration generated with JPL solar system simulator << http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ >>.) Io transited between the Earth and Sun (moving right to left in the above Jupiter view illustration), ending at 3:39 UTC at the position seen in the lower half of the first figure - http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/observed/20050504JupiterOb… The sky progressed from civil to astronomical twilight. Since the aperture mask was still in place, Saturn (-0.3m) was chosen as the next target. At 257 x-ray, some fine band detail could be seen in the planet's desk. At 3:30 UTC, we returned to Jupiter in order to view the last listed event in the Observer's Handbook, Io's shadow egress. Due to either timing or poor seen, the shadow egress was not seen. The group's time spent with Jupiter was a good preview to the 14 Jovian double shadow transit events listed in the Observer's Handbook for May and June, 2005. The SLAS club astrophotography challenge for May is photographing one of these double shadow transit events. But (if I have read the tables in the Observer's Handbook correctly), only three of these events will occur between local sunset and sunrise: DateUTC UTC DateLocal LocalTime LocalSunrise_or_set May 16 Mon 10:48 May 16 04:48 AM 5:38 AM MDT rise Jun 10 Fri 05:29 Jun 9 11:30 PM 8:59 PM MDT set Jun 17 Fri 07:57 Jun 17 01:57 AM 9:00 PM MDT set By 3:45 UTC, astronomical twilight had begun. The Virgoan Realm of the Galaxies was still in the eastern light pollution zone that intrudes into the SPOC site, so we passed on entering the Realm. Since this was a meridian swap training session, a series of basic targets emphasizing RA movement around a local sidereal time of approx. 11:00:00 for 3:00-4:00 UTC were selected: 1) a wide-double (17") at the edge of the zenithal good-seeing zone - HD79210 (STF1321), 1° degree west in RA from theta UMa. This was a nice pair of equal garnet-colored class M stars (J091423+52412, 7.8-7.9m, M0V-M0V). 2) the classic close double, alp CVn (J125602+381906, 2.9-5.6m, A0-F0V), or Cor Caroli ("The Heart of Charles") as named by Edmund Halley in honor of Charles II of England. 3) the classic globular cluster M3 (J134230+282300). 4) the Leo Triplet - M65 (NGC 3623), M66 (NGC 3627) and edge-on spiral NGC 3628 (J112020+125900). These are the bright components of the M66 galaxy subgroup of the Leo I galaxy group, lying about 35 million light-years distant. On May 5, Tyler Allred posted an excellent picture of this triplet on this mail list at << http://www.utahastronomy.com/album16/Utah_Astronomy_M65 >> Our observing of the Leo I galaxy group was interrupted by a single, narrow, thick, rapidly-moving band of low-altitude clouds. This band of clouds announced the end of our "East Coast"-style observing session. The western horizon was full of clouds on the leading edge of the next storm front. No increase in the background rate of meteors was seen. The eta Aqu meteor shower peaked the following night. As this was a training session, the usual measurements of ZLM and target NELM were not made. Many thanks to Mark for his repeated rescheduling (3x) of this Ealing II training session in the face of an uncooperative weather pattern. - Canopus56 (Kurt) __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail

2 1

New Images Posted
by Tyler Allred 06 May '05

06 May '05

Hi all. I just added a couple of images to my gallery. Here are the links to the small thumbnails. Click on the thumbnails for the full version. http://www.utahastronomy.com/album16/Utah_Astronomy_M65 http://www.utahastronomy.com/album16/Utah_Astronomy_M81 These images were taken a few weeks ago, but I just got around to processing them properly. Enjoy! Cheers, Tyler

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] New Images Posted
by Richard Tenney 06 May '05

06 May '05

Tyler, Fabulous as usual! The "trio" has a very faint 4th compainion up above (did you notice it?). Fun to see that kind of thing when imaging, especially when you consider how faint that small galaxy must be, and using only 90mm of aperture. How was your trip to the Bahamas? -Rich --- Tyler Allred <tylerallred(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > Hi all. I just added a couple of images to my > gallery. Here are the links > to the small thumbnails. Click on the thumbnails > for the full version. > > > > http://www.utahastronomy.com/album16/Utah_Astronomy_M65 > > > > http://www.utahastronomy.com/album16/Utah_Astronomy_M81 > > > > These images were taken a few weeks ago, but I just > got around to processing > them properly. > > > > Enjoy! > > > > Cheers, > > Tyler __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail

1 0

More for Saturn
by Patrick Wiggins 04 May '05

04 May '05

I'll have more details in News tomorrow morning but I just got word that 12 more satellites have been found orbiting Saturn. Of course, eventually, the scientific community is going to have to set a bottom line on how small something can be and still be considered a satellite. Otherwise every particle in the rings will have to be counted. Patrick

5 7

Re: [Fwd: About Sky Wizard 3 Info.]
by Canopus56 04 May '05

04 May '05

============= Public list version without attachments. If any list member wants the Ciel version, let me know via private email. - Canopus56 (Kurt) ============= Thanks Michael. Attached is a translation of the Skywiz3 ST Excel spreadsheet into a Cartes du Ciel external "size" file. For charting, I will be using the [837] listed stars as "waypoints," similar to GPS waypoints for terresterial navigation, to navigate to unlisted stars. I haven't gotten around to converting the R.N. Clark type 600 non-stellar object list - Canopus56 (Kurt) --- Michael Pupeza <mpupeza(a)sympatico.ca> wrote: > My email problems - if duplicate, please excuse! > Mike.....> > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: About Sky Wizard 3 Info. > Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:09:29 -0400 > From: Michael Pupeza <mpupeza(a)3dnorth.com> > To: canopus56 <canopus56(a)yahoo.com> > > > > Canopus 56 > I've uploaded info for the Sky Wizard 3 versions > 3.51 and 3.66 into the > files section of the Yahoo DSC Group > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro-DSC/> > I did get them from Steve Gottlieb and Rick Williams > from Tangent. > I notice that I do have to 'Add 1' to the NS numbers > to match my own unit. > I was able to find some Caldwell objects in the NS > file that I couldn't > find the NGC numbers for. > I also loaded some of the manuals too, in case you > want copies of those. > Good Luck > Mike.....> > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

Free observatory
by Patrick Wiggins 03 May '05

03 May '05

If interested please contact the owner (not me). Patrick I am a local amateur astronomer and two years ago built a 7' dome observatory. I am currently looking to get rid of this observatory as it no longer fits my needs. The observatory in question is manually moved has a 4' lower wall and is constructed of strandboard, insulation foam and plywood. This observatory has been subjected to greater than 70mph winds and had approx 3' of snow on top with no ill effects. I wont tell you that it doesnt need some work but is still a good starting place. If you know of anyone in the local Astro community that would be interested in a Free Observatory that they just need to pick up please have them contact me via e-mail to schedule a time to come look at it. If there is no contact in two weeks from today it will be placed into long term underground storage in the layton landfill. I have contacted Stacey in the past and the college is not interested. Thank You Kirk Pfau, kirk.pfau(a)ihc.com

1 0

The Stirring on the Mount
by Patrick Wiggins 03 May '05

03 May '05

The following does not necessarily represent the opinions of anyone on this list but could make for an interesting thread. Patrick The Stirring on the Mount St. Helens used in drive to prove biblical creation with science: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7013405/

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Nice sunspot
by Melana urianza 02 May '05

02 May '05

HOw many of you are single because ther's a big dance this Thrus and there's a group called strm that has single get togthers and it would be fun to have astronomy a part of the weekend retreats. contact Jody 801 356 1109 about them and to have someone come out and teach about astronomy. Mel Patrick Wiggins <paw(a)trilobyte.net> wrote:Nice sunspot right in the middle of the solar disk. Big enough that I was able to see it with just a #14 welder's filter. Patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1