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Swap meet at SPOC Saturday?
by Patrick Wiggins 30 Apr '02

30 Apr '02

I have not been able to reach Siegfried via phone or email so I'll just put this out to general discussion. Is there any interest in having a swap meet at SPOC 2 before the star party this coming Saturday evening? Would also give folks an extra excuse to come out early and tour the new facilities. Tomorrow is my last day at the planetarium and while moving 26+ years of stuff I've come across all kinds of stuff I'd like to get rid of and a swap meet would work great for me. If there seems to be interest here I'll include an announcement in News. Patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sportsman's Guide 10 x 50 binoculars
by RStmarie＠aol.com 29 Apr '02

29 Apr '02

Has anyone seen the 10x50's at K-mart for $30. K-mart is going out of business up here in Farmington. Would they be a good buy?

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Archae - Astronomy
by Hank Williams 29 Apr '02

29 Apr '02

I received the message below from a friend in Arizona. I tried to put moon cycles (both earth viewed and star viewed) into the 18.5 or 9.25 cycles on the petroglyph, but neither worked out to whole numbers. So, I'm stumped, but thought the great minds of this group could probably come up with an answer. Thanks!! Hank Williams ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have a question to test your knowledge of astronomy. Last week when we were at the Hopi Reservation petroglyph site, the guide was showing us various places among the over 15,000 petroglyphs and where the old cultures would track the equinox to help them with spring planting. There was one location where he said they tracked the moon. The total cycle ran 18.5 years where it showed 9.25 years from one location to its outer most point and then 9.25 years back to the same location on the rock...a total of 18.5 years. Again, this what the guide told us. Does this make sense to you? Have a nice day. Regards, Dennis

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FW: Planetary Marathon
by David Dunn 29 Apr '02

29 Apr '02

I wanted to open this up to everyone, not just OAS. > We are planning a "Planetary Marathon" for Friday night (5/3) at Antelope > Island. We are going to set up in the White Rock Bay trailhead parking > lot. The idea is that all 9 of the planets are visible for the next couple > of weeks and we are going to try to see them all in one night. We hope > that everyone will come out and enjoy the night. With a 3/4 moon we should > be able to see alot of galaxies be fore midnight. John Sulivan said that > they will wave the $8 fee as we don't mind some of the campers coming over > to look through the telescopes. > > See you there. > > Thanks. > David Dunn > 801-961-3253 >

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15-45x70mm Zoom binocular review
by Chuck Hards 28 Apr '02

28 Apr '02

This is a case of a sheep in wolf's clothing. The 15-45x70mm zoom binocular sold by Sportsman's Guide is an attractive unit, many of the components are identical to those on the 15 x 70mm Bear brand. The instruction sheet is the same one packed with the 10x50 binocular, in German and English. The binocular has "JC Optics" silkscreened onto the prism housing; the warranty card was issued by Grampus Enterprises. The binocular came with a soft case, dust covers for objectives and eyepieces, an "L" bracket made of molded plastic (identical to the one that came with the Bears), and a folding table-top tripod with ball-turret for the "L" bracket to attach to. Neck-strap and cleaning cloth round out the package. Rubber armor in green and black, and fold-down eyeguards make for an attractive binocular that can be used by eyeglass wearers. The binoculars seemed to work well on terrestrial objects during the daytime. The first thing noticed is the small apparent field at 15x- I'd say its only about 3 or 4-degrees at 1000 yards. The zoom lever is located ahead of the right eyepiece, with an indicator just ahead of the left eyepiece. 15x, 30x, and 45x are indicated, with a dot between those powers. Zoom control is continuous. As the magnification was increased, the apparent field opened right up until at 45x, the field was very wide. This is typical of all zoom eyepieces and was not unexpected. The narrow field at 15x was in sharp contrast to the very wide field of the fixed-power Bears. Night use revealed the shortcomings. On Jupiter, there were obvious ghosts, no doubt from the extra lenses needed for the zoom system. I also noticed spurious color flares around Jupiter and bright stars. While collimation seemed good at 15x, the optical trains pulled apart as magnification increased, until at 45x I had a hard time achieving image fusion. My eyes were pulled so far that I was getting a headache from the strain. There was plenty of eye-relief, but the image was soft at all powers, and combined with the ghosts and flares made the experience frustrating, and no amount of eye-relief can compensate for a poor image. Even at 45x, where I should have seen at least some banding on Jupiter, only a smeared-out blob was visible. These binoculars were obviously intended for surveillance, explaining the "car-top" tripod. I cannot recommend these for astronomy. Anyone using them on the night sky will only come away frustrated. Perhaps the lesson here is that optical systems built to do "everything" will do nothing well. I am returning this pair to Sportsman's Guide for a refund. Priced at $99.97, they are no bargain. I'll stick with my Bears. Chuck's rating: 0 stars (of 5 possible) unusable for astronomy. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com

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Binocular Astronomy Resource Page
by Richard Tenney 28 Apr '02

28 Apr '02

I've moved it to a more appropriate place: http://www.uvaa.org/links.html Or simply go to www.uvaa.org and hit the LINKS button and find it under "Science and Education" Added a couple of new links, and updated some existing link info. Any and all feedback (suggestions, comments, criticism, additions, etc.) is/are welcome. Rich __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com

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Sportsman's Guide 10 x 50 binoculars
by Chuck Hards 26 Apr '02

26 Apr '02

The 10 x 50's arrived today; here are my impressions: Surprisingly heavier and sturdier than I expected. Solid feel, the hinge is not sloppy in the least, and has a smooth motion. It stays where you put it, yet adjusts fairly easily. Standard anti-reflection coatings on the exterior objective and eyepiece surfaces (at least; I didn't disassemble them), appears to be Magnesium Flouride judging from the blue tint. The image is sharp and contrasty. "WA" is imprinted on them, which I assume to mean "wide angle". FOV is stated as 367' at 1000 yards, which translates into about 8-degrees; perhaps a little more. Not bad! (My 7x50s have a noticeably smaller AFOV at around 7-degrees or slightly less.) Eye relief is just barely adequate for me to use them with my glasses on, but thanks to fold-down eye-guards, I can just see the entire field of view with glasses. Without my glasses, there is eye relief to spare. These are a cut above what you'd normally find on the "outdoors" aisle at K-mart or Shopko. They come with a neck strap, soft carrying case with strap, dust covers for objectives and eyepieces, and a cleaning cloth for the optical surfaces. Collimation was dead-on; I could detect no tendency for my eyes to pull one way or the other. After a five-minute session, my eyes didn't feel strained, as they would with a bino slightly out-of-collimation. BK7 prisms. Textured, soft "leatherette" exterior, easy to grip, not a hard-plastic molded texture. Large center-focus wheel, with right-diopter adjustment. Again, the right eyepiece was solid in adjustment and feel, with no slop. The 10X magnification is slightly better than lower powers, in my opinion, for astronomical use, and low enough to hand-hold for an extended period without fatigue. Anything higher and you would need a tripod, but shouldn't with these. Perhaps the only shortcoming I can find is that there is not a tripod-mounting hole on the front of the hinge. These are not binoculars for group-viewing. An intrepid "do-it-yourselfer" could come up with a "cradle" holder for them, using Velcro straps. Alternatively, if you have access to a small lathe and threading taps, you could make a tripod adapter that threads-on the front hinge stud. If I get a pair for myself, this would probably be the route I'd personally take. This pair is destined for donation to SPOC-2. The price can't be beat. At only $19.97 plus a small shipping charge, they compare well to what you'd find in a retail shop for up to $100. If you want to outfit the entire family with their own pair of astronomical binoculars, without breaking the bank, this is the unit you've been looking for. If you want a binocular for a tripod or parallelogram mount, keep looking, or be prepared to kluge-up a homemade holder. Stock #WX2-59237 $19.97 10x50 binoculars http://www.sportsmansguide.com Toll-free order line: 1-800-888-3006 (24/7) Chucks rating: 4 stars (out of 5 possible) Big bonus for price, docked for lack of tripod socket. And as always with Sportsman's Guide, they won't last forever. If you want a pair, order quickly. 15-45x70mm "zoom" review soon! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness http://health.yahoo.com

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Mark your calendar
by Richard Tenney 25 Apr '02

25 Apr '02

Hi all, Recently I was contacted by a woman in North Carolina about doing a special star party on July 5th (Friday night) for people attending an upcoming Science Fiction Convention called "EnderCon"; fans of Orson Scott Card (of "Ender's Game" fame) will be at UVSC that weekend. I happily agreed (they will donate $200 to the club [UVAA]) and am thinking we might hold it in South Fork Canyon at the new parking lot up there (in Provo Canyon up the road past Vivian Park) -- not too far away from UVSC and with fairly dark skies (despite limited horizons). If any of you have a better idea about where to hold this, let's hear it. If any of you can come that night and bring along a scope, please let me know. They don't know yet how many people to expect, but will have a better idea as the date gets closer. I realize this is 4th of July weekend, and many of you may be traveling or otherwise occupied that night, but this sounded like a fun group. Of course everyone is welcome (SLAS and OAS and any others that might be interested) regardless. Who knows, you might just get to share your favorite deep-sky object with Mr. Card, and have your copy of one of his books signed at the same time... :-) I will post detailed directions to the parking lot later. Thanks, and see you there! -Rich __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/

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Clear Skies for Planets
by Joe Borgione 22 Apr '02

22 Apr '02

The storm gods have granted us some nice skies tonight (4-21) along the Wasatch Front; I just got back in after an impromptu star err, I mean planet party at Churchill Jr High at Wasatch Blvd and about 3700 south. We had a good look at all 5 planets; Mercury came into view at about 8:45 or so and was visible to about 9:25. If it's clear on Monday (4-22), I'm going to be there again; I'll bring my telescope this time. A number of people were there and were interested in looking through more than binoculars. If anybody wants to join me, I'm setting up about 8:30-8:45. Joe Borgine

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Star party tonight (Saturday)
by Patrick Wiggins 20 Apr '02

20 Apr '02

The weather *seems* to be clearing so here's a reminder of the SLAS star party at the Harmon's at the Brickyard plaza, 3200 S.1300 E. in SLC. Entire schedule at http://planet.state.ut.us/slas/PARTY.HTML and http://SLAS.WS. Patrick

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