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NGC 584 and 586
by Richard Tenney 02 Oct '03

02 Oct '03

I did some googling around on the web tonight to verify my observation and sketch, and determined that NGC 586 was definitely the faint elliptical galaxy I spotted next to the much brighter NGC 584. You can see a good image here: http://www.ngcic.org/dss/n/0/n586.jpg -Rich --- Jim Gibson <xajax99(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > After I saw what Don wrote I went back to my > SkyAtlas and noted that NGC 586 is not shown there. > I also noticed in the NGC 2000 catalog that 586 is a > 13.2 mag galaxy. I believe that the SkyAtlas 2000 > does not show objects under a certain magnitude and > probably didnt list 586. The NGC 2000 describes 586 > as vF, vS, R which is very faint, very small and > round. My guess is that you saw 596 which is bigger > and brighter. > > > > Jim > > > > "Don J. Colton" <djcolton(a)piol.com> wrote:Rich > Companion to NGC 584 is NGC 586. Also in field of > view at 115x are NGC 596, > PGC 5754 and IC 127. > Clear Skies > Don Colton __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Report on Friday nights Star Party at Wolf Creek
by David L Bennett 01 Oct '03

01 Oct '03

A 'quick' note on last night at Wolf Creek as I have been up all night a need a few zzzz's...sorry if my rambling is more discombobulated than usual....wow! my spell checker says I spelled discombobulated correctly even in my current state (Utah), what are the odds? As Jim mentioned, the clouds from the NE went to bed fairly early and left us with good dark sky for the remainder of the night. The satellite animation that I saw yesterday afternoon showed both the incoming bands of clouds from Wyoming and the smoke from the Cascade Uncontrolled Burn. In the animation, the smoke was blowing between Utah Lake & Strawberry Reservoir so I thought our chances looked good and they were. You could see the layer of smoke skirting the SW & S horizons but it never crept up to interfere with viewing. There seemed to be a fire to the East of the site but again the smoke on the eastern horizon stayed low and removed. I just checked the National Weather Service satellite site again and today's animation shows not a tenth of the smoke I saw yesterday and the forecast is for clear for the area from Salt Lake to Duchesne. The temp remained 40-45 for most of the night with occasional bouts of wind chill factor. Not nearly as cold as I had imagined it would be and was prepared for. I left my back-up heavy coat off all night. We saw a 25 hour-old moon last night through a pair of 10x70 binoculars after looking at Venus. Mars started out with Solis Lacus nicely placed (about 115 CM) for easy identification before it rotated out of view. Mare Sirenum then took over as well as Mare Cimmerium later on...look for the connection between these two Maria...it isn't shown on most Mars maps. We also tried out a Sirius Optics Mars 2003 filter with very encouraging results...more on that later. Kim found both Uranus & Neptune. I hunted (and do I mean hunted) down Comet Encke which is directly below (East) of Beta & Gamma Triangulum and which is also directly below 22nd magnitude...lol...or so it seemed. I just found out it was a little over 13th mag, quite diffuse and can attest that it was very tricky to find. This comet is predicted to reach 6th or 7th mag by the end of November or early December so keep an eye out for it. http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1036_1.asp Limiting magnitude (using stars in Ursa Minor) was 7.1 and the seeing varied throughout the night. At one point near 5am I was using Jim's 12.5" f/7 at 318x & 462x to look at Saturn...the 318 held details fairly steady and at 462 I glimpsed Encke's Gap for the briefest of moments. Jupiter stayed mostly in the soup but I did get a nice high power (318) view just before sunrise. Mercury was just below Jupiter (3 or 4 degrees) and was quite easily seen for almost an hour. Through Kim Hyatt's 10" f/5 dob at 90 power I could make out its gibbous shape despite the frantic scintillation. I took quite a few photos (astro & the fall colors) and will post the better ones on my homepage after I wake up...in several weeks. G'nite, Dave Bennett P.S. Many thanks to Jim Gibson, Tom Watson, Mike Bailey, Kim Hyatt, Steve (?), Damon and Christina for letting me commandeer their great telescopes throughout the night. Amateur astronomy sure attracts some wonderful people. P.P.S. Watch out for road delays caused by sheep. Advice: bring your own sheep dog! Theirs were useless.

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Saturday @ Wolf Creek?
by David L Bennett 30 Sep '03

30 Sep '03

Hi Folks, Did anyone make it up to Wolf Creek on Saturday night? How were the observing and smoke conditions? Dave

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Jim, In the "The Caldwell Objects" book, don't forget to read about the twenty spectacular non-Caldwell objects at the end of the book. There are a couple of objects there that even I need to check out. Debbie

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by Kim Hyatt 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Yeah, thanks Debbie. I like the looks of this list, although I'm not ambitious enough to prepare an observing list that extensive. Jim, 891 is relatively easy - looked at it (observed?) awhile Friday night with both my 10" Newt and 8" SCT. Even in the 8" dust lane was easy with some mottling. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 2:40 PM To: Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery. Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party. Debbie Thanks! I bookmarked it and will peruse through it well. Just remember I haven't seen all of the M objects yet. I stayed home from work today to catch up on my sleep from last Friday and Saturday night. With a little time to play I got out the Caldwell Objects book and entered several of the NGCs listed there and some M objects that I haven't seen yet in the Sky Commander's User List that is attached to my scope. So now I have to go out this weekend to try it out. I think I will take my daughter to the Rush Valley site because she is a nut too. I like the layout of the list. I like all the objects together by constellation with the magnitudes and sizes. I just put NGC 891 in my User List (6th from the top of the DeepMap 600 List). I am betting that 9.9 mag spread out over 13' is going to be hard to see. It is in my Caldwell book as C23 with a picture. Looks like a nice dust lane thru the center. Thanks again Jim _____ Do you Yahoo!? The <http://shopping.yahoo.com/?__yltc=s%3A150000443%2Cd%3A22708228%2Cslk%3Atext %2Csec%3Amail> New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Jim, Have you checked out the DeepMap 600 list. I printed out all 25 pages and I just go to the constellation that I want to focus on. It is a great reference. Here is the url http://pages.sbcglobal.net/raycash/dmcon.htm. It is always rewarding to view something new. This will keep you busy for a while. Debbie

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by Kim Hyatt 29 Sep '03

29 Sep '03

Sorry to join late - I didn't see your comments and Rich's reply until this morning. I figure if I "observe" two or three new objects a session, that's plenty. I always have my favorites and others I may have forgotten about. I "observe" without putting things in writing - recording observations feels too much like work. Howver, even if I did write down everything and keep a written log, I would still limit an observing list to no more than five. (I remember reading this advice from an experienced observer in S&T years ago.) For me the important thing is to enjoy. If you miss one or two things on your observing list, they'll always be there again next time around. -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gibson [mailto:xajax99@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 3:31 PM To: Visit http://www.utahastronomy.com for the photo gallery. Subject: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party. According to my log book, I attended my first private star party on May 30th 2003 at the Gravel Pit. Up to that point (which included all my experience from November through May) I had gone out by myself or with my son. I found out that planning ahead was useful and more productive than not plannig. I went to the Gravel Pit star party with a plan and imagined doing like I had always done. Generally I always like to take the Sky & Telescopes centerfold and I like to be able to identify a few new constellations each time and re-acquaint myself with ones I had learned before. Then I like to use a Telrad to locate objects that I have found before and add a few new ones each time out. I also like to write things down in my log book as a learning aid. When I got to the Gravel Pit I set up and began to follow my plan and by 9:53 I found M3. My log ends there because before I got very far into my plan Don Colton found the some really cool object that I had never seen and wasn't in my plan for the night so I had to run over to his scope and check it out. After observing the object for a minute I noted the Telrad position and then ran back to my scope to find the same object. Then Kim Hyatt found an ooh - aah and I had to go check it out, noting the position as well, then Rich Tenney found NGC 4565 in his beautiful 16" scope, then Mike, Tom and Dave all found neat stuff and round and round I went all night long. My plan and my log went down with the sun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But I'm not sure if I learned anything. To plan or not to plan that is the question. How do you plan for a star party when complete lack of discipline possesses your mind such as described above? I think I need to attend lots of them. Jim _____ Do you Yahoo!? The <http://shopping.yahoo.com/?__yltc=s%3A150000443%2Cd%3A22708228%2Cslk%3Atext %2Csec%3Amail> New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Report on Friday nights Star Party at Wolf Creek
by David L Bennett 27 Sep '03

27 Sep '03

The current map to Wolf Creek on the SLAS website still only shows the directions to get to the Wolf Creek Summit campground and not to the actual observing site, so, until further notice, please see my maps at: http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/PhotoAlbum4.html

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] How to plan for a private star party.
by Richard Tenney 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

Jim, You just have to also plan for the unexpected yet inevitable distractions, and therefore put more realistic limits on your own list; don't make it as ambitious and then you won't have any regrets at the end of the night that you didn't get to all the objects on your list. I'm working through the Herschel-400, a rather huge list, and consider myself successful if I manage to get more than about a dozen objects or so logged in an evening, but I also don't feel too bad if I log fewer because I'm too busy being distracted by what my neighbor is oohing and aahing about and wanting to go have a look, or giving a newcomer a first glimpse at one of the flashier M-objects we've all seen a hundred times. At the last public star party I attended, when a young woman climbed the ladder and caught her first glimpse of M-13 in a big dob, and she let out that low moaning kind of "ohhhhh wowwww", those of us standing below all shared in her joy of discovery all over again. While it may be hard for some to comprehend why that shared experience is so satisfying, I think all of you know what I mean. Anyway, as they say, the joy's in the journey, not [just] the destination, so don't sweat the list. Keep planning, but also remember to include a plan for contingencies... -Rich --- Jim Gibson <xajax99(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > According to my log book, I attended my first > private star party on May 30th 2003 at the Gravel > Pit. Up to that point (which included all my > experience from November through May) I had gone out > by myself or with my son. I found out that planning > ahead was useful and more productive than not > plannig. I went to the Gravel Pit star party with a > plan and imagined doing like I had always done. > Generally I always like to take the Sky & Telescopes > centerfold and I like to be able to identify a few > new constellations each time and re-acquaint myself > with ones I had learned before. Then I like to use a > Telrad to locate objects that I have found before > and add a few new ones each time out. I also like to > write things down in my log book as a learning aid. > > > > When I got to the Gravel Pit I set up and began to > follow my plan and by 9:53 I found M3. My log ends > there because before I got very far into my plan Don > Colton found the some really cool object that I had > never seen and wasnt in my plan for the night so I > had to run over to his scope and check it out. After > observing the object for a minute I noted the Telrad > position and then ran back to my scope to find the > same object. Then Kim Hyatt found an ooh aah and I > had to go check it out, noting the position as well, > then Rich Tenney found NGC 4565 in his beautiful 16 > scope, then Mike, Tom and Dave all found neat stuff > and round and round I went all night long. My plan > and my log went down with the sun and I thoroughly > enjoyed myself. But I'm not sure if I learned > anything. > > > > To plan or not to plan that is the question. How > do you plan for a star party when complete lack of > discipline possesses your mind such as described > above? > > > > I think I need to attend lots of them. > > > > Jim > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search> _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >

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And the winner is....
by Chuck Hards 26 Sep '03

26 Sep '03

Turn to page 76 in the Nov. S&T. A fellow finally did what many of us have dreamed of for years...He mounted his binoculars on an honest-to-god La-Z-Boy recliner, complete with cup holder! The "couch potato" binocular mount! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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