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Wolf Creek...One Last Hoorah!
by David L Bennett 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

Howdy folks, For those of you who may not be able to make it to Jerry & Cindy Foote's (is that Feet?) in Kanab this new moon weekend for the CCD seminar, please let me offer a 'cool' local alternative. On both Friday & Saturday nights - the 26th & 27th - there will be several of us heading to the higher climes of Wolf Creek to get up above any remaining smoke & haze in the valleys. I've spoken to people who are going up for just Friday, those going up for Saturday only, and a few diehards that will be up there for both nights, so pick and choose as need be. A moment ago I spoke with a nice woman from the National Weather Service here in Salt Lake. She says that the smoke is mostly staying in the valleys along the Wasatch Front and will continue to dissipate throughout the heat of the days. There is a chance, as the smoke dissipates, that some will make its way west but she said our altitude at the site should be above the haze line. I've included a link below to my homepage that has two maps that I have compiled to and of the site. The 1st shows the site in relation to Salt Lake (my apologies for my SugarhouseCentric view) and the 2nd shows the site in relation to the Wolf Creek Summit/Campground. The 2.5 mile dirt road from the Summit/Campground is not bad at all. I've driven it often in a Saturn sedan without any worries...just avoid the puddles if there are any. Note the photo in the map album of the 'Dead End' and 'Fuelwood Cutting Prohibited' signs. This is where you would turn LEFT (NNE) at the 1.7mi mark. The last time I was up there (June), one of the signs was hanging kind of skawampus from a series of bullet blasts so don't be surprised if it is missing altogether. Please feel free to direct any questions about the observing site or the weekend to me dlbennett(a)mac.com or call me at 583-3295. http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/ Just click on 'Wolf Creek Maps'...my site is being revamped but the maps and photos from a few of the W.C. Fields star parties are the still available. Hope to see some of you there! Regards, Dave Bennett P.S. Below you'll find a written description to the site that was supplied graciously by Jo Grahn in an earlier email....(Thanks so much Jo!) Estimated travel time; 1 hour and 15-30 minutes ** depending on where you live in the Valley. **Unless of course you stop for pizza or a malt in Kamas! P.P.S. Be sure to come prepared for a late September night at 9890 feet!!!! Bring lots of layers, thermals, moon-boots if you got 'em, and hot coffee/cocoa/possum/postum ************************************************************************ **************** Take I-80 East (past Park City exit) to Exit 148. (Rt. 40 East). Stay to the right on the exit, as it splits. Head East on Rt. 40 to Exit 4. At the bottom of the exit ramp, go left towards Kamas. (I think this is Rt. 248, but I won't swear to it.) Follow this road as it winds through the hills to Kamas. In Kamas there is a stop sign at the intersection of this road and Rt. 32. Go right (South) on Rt. 32. Take Rt. 32 several miles to the intersection with Rt. 35 in Francis. Go left (East) on 35. You will go through Francis and Woodland and up past the Mill Hollow reservoir turnoff. Towards the top of the pass, you will see a sign for the Wolf Creek campground on your right. Go to and through the campground on a dirt rd, and continue on about two miles heading south, until you reach the edge of the world (ormaybe it just looks that way). The road comes to an abrupt "T". Go left, past the dead end sign, .8 miles. There is a beautiful wide grassy area to the right that Dave Bernson and Dave Bennett found several years ago. The sky is dark enough that the milky way casts a definite shadow.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Dave Dunn, are you out there?
by DunnDave＠aol.com 25 Sep '03

25 Sep '03

We had to turn off my albertsons id because someone was using it as the return address for spam. I have kept this aol address enrolled in the group. Dave

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Frontiers of Science Lecture Series
by David L Bennett 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Hey folks, forwarded info of an upcoming lecture: FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE LECTURE Strange Views of Space and Time: From Einstein to String Theory Lecturer: Gary T. Horowitz, professor of physics, UC-Santa Barbara Date: Weds, October 8, 2003 Time: 7:30 p.m. Place: Aline Wilmot Skaggs Biology auditorium, University of Utah FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Modern physics has presented a picture of space and time which is very different from our usual "common sense" understanding. Precise experiments have confirmed that space and time really do have very strange properties. Most of these properties were predicted by Einstein. In this talk, professor Horowitz will describe some of them, including: 1) The time you experience depends on your state of motion. This means that not only your mechanical watch, but also your biological clock which governs aging, proceed at different rates depending on how you move in space. The time you experience also depends on nearby gravitational fields. Time slows down in a gravitational field. 2) Different people can disagree about which things happen at the same time. The notion of two events being simultaneous is not fundamentally well defined. 3) Space is curved by matter. Light rays, traveling along the straightest possible paths, are bent when they pass near heavy objects. Black holes are excellent examples of this. Modern work on string theory has suggested even more strange properties of space and time. Although they have not yet been confirmed by experiment, many physicists take them seriously. These include the possibility that space has more than three dimensions. Horowitz will explain what this means and why it does not obviously conflict with observations of our world. Some recent speculation about these extra dimensions includes the possibility of parallel universes. Professor Horowitz will give a live radio interview on KCPW 88.3 FM on Monday, October 6, 9:40 AM. The College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences are working together this year to offer an expanded schedule of presentations. A total of five lectures will be given in the 2003-2004 academic year. Frontiers of Science talks are free and open to the public. Videotapes are also available to the public. For more information, please contact the College of Science at 581-6958 or visit www.science.utah.edu.

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Dave Dunn, are you out there?
by Chuck Hards 24 Sep '03

24 Sep '03

Dave, messages to your Albertsons email address are bouncing back. Do you have a new email address? Thanks C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Low priced 100mm binocular
by Chuck Hards 23 Sep '03

23 Sep '03

This month Apogee is advertising a 20x100mm binocular for $199.95. This one doesn't look like the 25x100mm unit (still $249.95) or the 80mm units they sell. It does have the "bar" type mount that connects the hinge with the objective assemblies. This unit would yield a 5mm exit pupil. This is listed as a "Christmas Special", the regular price will be $349.99 when the sale ends. www.apogeeinc.com (877) 923-1602 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Off topic
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 23 Sep '03

23 Sep '03

Rich, Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Bill Gates steal the GUI idea from Apple Computer? I have to be careful at home so my mom doesn't hear me swear about Bill Gates and his operating system. LOL. Sometimes it can be a pain in the but. My 2 Cents, Debbie

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Bill Kelley in the press again!
by Chuck Hards 23 Sep '03

23 Sep '03

A tip of the hat to our own Bill Kelley, who was again cited in S&T in the current Telescope Techniques column. Author Pfannenschmidt describes how he used Bill's original method to flex a cheap spherical mirror into a much higher-quality paraboloid. It's basically just a rewrite of Bill's original article some ten years ago, but a good read in it's own right. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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[Utah-astronomy]
by Naz & David 22 Sep '03

22 Sep '03

Hi Joe, I use a ToUcam with a Mogg adaptor (another local I believe, xcept living in Sydney now) and a TV Powermate x2 giving f30. I capture with a 366Mhz Compaq laptop I got off ebay for $150 which actually was a real bargain, running k3ccdtools which is freeware. On my Dell desktop I use Registax version 1 to process, can't be bothered with version 2, both of which are freeware. I use PhotoShop Elements 2 (Costco, $50 I think) to crop, size, rotate, animate etc. I got "The Hidden Power of PE2" book with cd PE2 addins (approx $70 I think) which gives me just about all the capability I need or know how to use for the fraction of the price of PhotoShop Pro. All up, I've spent about $400 to get into taking these shots (excluding the powermate and scope!) which is not bad. I added all sorts of stuff to the laptop but not to handle imaging. Cheers David

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Solar activity
by Chuck Hards 22 Sep '03

22 Sep '03

There are 2 largish sunspot groups rotating into view now, and a smaller spot closer to center. The 2 large groups are in the southern hemisphere. I just took a look at 12X, there should be dozens more spots visible at higher powers. This is great activity for being this far from solar max. Take a look if you get a chance. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Super Mono on Saturn this morning
by Naz & David 21 Sep '03

21 Sep '03

Tried my new TMB Super Mono 8mm on Saturn (my first view this season of the ringed planet) this morning. Compared to my Radian 8mm, this occular seems to have an advantage contrast wise - the image just seemed more pleasing. It also seemed snappier at focus but the seeing was not that good. I like it, will be keeping it and await eagily the arrival of its 10mm brother. I'm going to try it on Mars tonight and will post what I see. Took my first webcam shots of Saturn, still need to get the camera setup right for this beast - obviously needs a LOT more gain and slower shutter speed that Mars. I may need to monkey with the gamma and saturation settings. Cheers David

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