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Sheena's looking for star gazing spots
by Patrick Wiggins 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

Hi all, Sheena McFarland is working on a story for the Tribune, compiling at Top 10 list of stargazing spots in Utah. She's looking for 5 spots within 30 minutes of the Salt Lake Valley and then another 5 anywhere in Utah. She is not on Utah-Astronomy but you can send her your suggestions at smcfarland(a)sltrib.com. patrick

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Sheena's looking for star gazing spots
by Jay Eads 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

I remember a night at Lakeside about 2 years ago where Joe left to go home because he forgot something for his scope he needed. The rest of us were up and observing when about 11:30 or so, I don't remember the exact time, it may have been more like 12:00a.m. a truck pulled up from the dirt road that leads to the hills to the west. They pulled over, shinning their high beams on us, then pulled off the road and shut their lights off. I stood there for about 30 minutes watching them. We knew they were watching us, perhaps with night vision. Finally they got in their truck, heard the doors shut and they started up, turned on their brights and drove off. If I recall correctly, Joe passed them on the way in and had a quick conversation and they were rather redneck. I hear a banjo playing in the background. I have never felt unsafe at Lakeside or anywhere, just saying at Lakeside and the Pit I have run into an incidents like this at both sites. It's a shame people don't clean up after themselves though.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sheena's looking for star gazing spots
by Erik Hansen 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

>It should be noted that the dark sky sites are our private star party locations, so in effect the article will be inviting the public to those. These sites are for people who want to take a break from public outreach. SLAS offers plenty of opportunities to the general public. It takes very little effort to find dark sky sites, we list them on the SLAS website for example. Will Shenna's article include Dark Sky etiquette? Are you going to welcome people with their high beams on? Will it include a link to SLAS website? Was this approved by the BOD 's? Perhaps no one will read the article and will make no difference. On the other hand perhaps it will. Surely the tribune has other articles they could write. Erik I remember a night at Lakeside about 2 years ago where Joe left to go home > because he forgot something for his scope he needed. The rest of us were up > and observing when about 11:30 or so, I don't remember the exact time, it may have been more like 12:00a.m. a truck pulled up from the dirt road that > leads to the hills to the west. They pulled over, shinning their high beams > on us, then pulled off the road and shut their lights off. I stood there for about 30 minutes watching them. We knew they were watching us, perhaps with night vision. Finally they got in their truck, heard the doors shut and they started up, turned on their brights and drove off. If I recall correctly, Joe passed them on the way in and had a quick conversation and they were rather redneck. I hear a banjo playing in the background. > > I have never felt unsafe at Lakeside or anywhere, just saying at Lakeside and the Pit I have run into an incidents like this at both sites. It's a shame people don't clean up after themselves though. > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > > Send messages to the list to > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > > The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. > > To unsubscribe go to: > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options". >

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ASOD: NGC 1325
by Kelly Ricks 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

I just want to say a quick congrats to Jay Eads for his wonderful contribution to Astronomy Picture of the Day today. http://www.asod.info/ Beautiful work! ~Kelly Ricks

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Good-Bye Dark Skies in Eastern and Southern Utah
by Erik Hansen 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

Light pollution is at the very bottom of the list of the problems associated with fracking. > There is a good discussion over on Cloudy Nights on light pollution from fracking. Here on this map on this link: > > http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/rpd/shale_gas.pdf > > The map prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Agency, delineates the extent of recoverable shale plays in the continental United States; anywhere in a shaded area will more than likely experience increase light pollution in the near future. > > In this link if you look at pictures 10 and 14 you can see what a well is like at night: > > http://www.uppergreen.org/interactive-map-pinedale-anticline.html > > As stated by a friend from the forum: > > "Elsewhere notice the fleet of Halliburton trucks serving one fracking rig. > Note other structures, such as the stations to reinsert toxic water; it cannot be used for cattle. The groundwater is contaminated and some companies now provide citizens with bottled drinking water. The ozone concentrations are higher than those in L.A. There are about 7,000 wells (gas) with 3,500 more on the way. > > This is only the tip of one iceberg. The Upper Green is at the top of what some call the Unita Basin, an area said (again, by some) to contain four time as much oil as Saudi Arabia--not what they have left, but what they had. As I've noted here before, all of eastern Utah is heading into The Great White Light, and that includes all our beloved red rock country with its many national parks. Anyone still want to retire to the Four Corners with their 36' dob? > > In your mind's eye, extrapolate what you see in the photos to an area all the way down to northern New Mexico and you can see why some of us are so concerned. Bloomberg reports that in five to seven years we will surpass Saudi Arabia in oil production. It's called the New American Gas and Oil Revolution. It will go on for a long time, folks, and will...well, you know > what it will do to visual astronomy." > > Look at the images for the Jonah Field . . . image those stretching from the Uinta Basin to southern Utah . . . > > http://www.uppergreen.org/interactive-map-jonah-fields.html > > Here is a link to the interactive map to the Upper Green (river) in Wyoming. > > http://www.uppergreen.org/interactive-map.html > > In Utah this will kill visual and imaging in the areas it is going to happen. > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > > Send messages to the list to > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > > The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. > > To unsubscribe go to: > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options". >

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Forum down
by Jay Eads 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

Chuck, I just was on it so it should be fine. Thanks for the heads up. On 2013-08-09 12:41, Chuck Hards wrote: > Jay, your forum is down. At least, I can't access it from either computer > or phone. >

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Bring on the Geminids!
by Daniel Holmes 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

http://www.xkcd.org Dan -- Daniel Holmes, danielh(a)holmesonics.com "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" -- Lord John Whorfin

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Andromeda Galaxy-M31 (8 August 2013)
by Jay Eads 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

Dave, Wow! Great shot. I hope the next couple of days are good as I am heading out to Vernon for Friday, Saturday and probably Sunday night.

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Clouded out again
by Debbie 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

This has been the story since late June. Clouds and wind. and hot. http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/ZnLdgMNkey.html?1 Debbie

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Forum down
by Chuck Hards 09 Aug '13

09 Aug '13

Jay, your forum is down. At least, I can't access it from either computer or phone.

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