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Explore Scientific Eyepieces
by Debbie 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Hi, Has anyone viewed through a 24mm 82 degree field eyepiece? I'm thinking of getting one since my weight limit for my scopes is 1.6 lbs. I don't think I can afford the 22mm Nagler since I have other interests taking my time and money. A bit balmy down here so we will enjoy it while we can. Debbie

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Super Massive Black Hole
by Jay Eads 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Two items on this. There is an Astrobite on this paper located at this link: http://astrobites.com/2012/11/26/can-you-hide-a-super-massive-black-hole/ Written by a grad student for undergrad students. Here is the link to the abstract and you can download the PDF on this paper here. http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.3208

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ATM report for the 12/1/ session
by Hutchings, Mat 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Charlie, Josh and Mike attended and made the ATM session on 12/1/12 a fun one. Charlie made a tool to work his 5 5/8" mirror blank on his machine. The tool was made of dental stone and marbles. He chose to use round marbles as the very small initial contact point of the marbles will more quickly grind into conformance to the already generated curve of the blank. We welcomed first time attendee Mike Wilson to the garage and were duly impressed by his interest and enthusiasm for ATMing. He is in the process of acquiring a kiln which he plans to use for blank making. Casting, slumping and annealing blanks are some of the things that he is planning on doing with the kiln. Josh used his bath interferometer to test an 8" mirror I recently have completed. We got good experience in getting good images of the fringes and using the program "open fringe" to evaluate the in 'grams. Josh and I will provide training on using the bath interferometer to my ATM mentor in February, so we are spending time getting ourselves proficient with this tool. Thanks to the attendees for making this a great session! Mat This message and any attachments are solely for the use of intended recipients. The information contained herein may include trade secrets, protected health or personal information, privileged or otherwise confidential information. Unauthorized review, forwarding, printing, copying, distributing, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you received this email in error, and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender and delete the message and any attachment from your system. Thank you for your cooperation

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Killer Deal on Celestron SkyScout
by Chrismo 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Hey All, Daily Woot has the SkyScout at $99! Perfect time to buy if you've ever thought about owning one. http://www.woot.com/offers/celestron-skyscout-personal-planetarium?utm_sour… -Chrismo

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 118, Issue 1 re: super massive black hole
by John R. Peterson 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

It's important to realize that black holes don't just "suck" everything around them in. If the Sun were to suddenly be replaced by a black hole, the Earth would simply continue to orbit as it does now (granted, things wouldn't be very nice here). It's only when there's enough friction to slow things down that they spiral in. Or, tidal processes can be strong enough on a closely approaching satellite star to pull matter of, just as happens in a binary system where one is a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole. There are some stars that come incredibly close the the 3-4 MILLION solar mass (!) black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These stars have been monitored using space-based microwave observatories and ground-based radio observatories for over 15 years (only longer wavelengths can penetrate through the dust and gas between us and Sag A* (That should have shown up as an asterisk after the capital A, and is read: "Sagittarius A-star" -- did the quotation marks show up?? you never know what's going to be translated in email text), and in the last few years adaptive optics on the World's great ground based 'scopes have added to the data. A good summary of this long project, including some great time laps animations can be found here: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0846/ The reason it's pretty clear that our supermassive black hole is not gobbling lots of stuff up the way it no doubt did earlier in the life of the galaxy is that we don't see much evidence of it the way we do in what are called "active galaxies" that often have these incredible jets of matter and radiation streaming out of them. A great example is M-87, the great Virgo galaxy. Once again, it wasn't until the advent of more advanced space-based as well as ground-based telescopes that the evidence began to pile up. John R. Peterson -----Original Message----- >Message: 1 >Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2012 00:06:17 -0700 >From: RON VANDERHULE <deepsky100(a)msn.com> >To: utah-astronomy <utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> >Subject: [Utah-astronomy] super massive black hole >Message-ID: <BAY164-W24069E1C041CE7E12F4BE281420(a)phx.gbl> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > I am not sure what I am missing about the unusual nature of NGC 1277 and its' massive black hole. Isn't the purpose of a black hole >to feed on its' host galaxy until the meal is finished? So the more a black hole consumes the bigger it gets and the smaller the host >galaxy gets. We see this in NGC 1277 and it will be our fate also in the future. Yes? >As long as I have your attention what percentage of time does the Universe spend reshuffling and merging of galaxies as compared to >existing in a somewhat finished state??? > >Ron > >------------------------------ >

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Totally bummed
by Joe Bauman 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

Hey Chuck, we missed you too! Let's hope for l & o. -- Joe ------------------------------ On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 10:24 AM MST Chuck Hards wrote: >Just this morning I realized that I had completely forgotten about the SLAS >Solstice party last night. My wife and I had planned to go, but after we >both had to work yesterday, it just slipped our minds. I was really upset >about missing the ATM gathering at Mat's and I guess that cloud just pushed >everything else out. > >I SO wish I had a "cookie-cutter" job with decent hours...manufacturing has >just taken all of my free time for going on ten years. I could find >another job easily enough, but would make about the half the pay I'm >getting now, and with the mountain of divorce-related debt I have, moving >into something less lucrative isn't an option for another decade or so, >unless I want to live out of a shopping cart. Virtually all of my >recreational eggs are in my retirement basket. > >I may as well just sell the basement full of astro stuff I've accumulated >over the last 44 years and find something else to be interested in. I pay >club dues but can't even make a monthly meeting. Seems like it's been >forever since I haven't had to get up at 4 AM. > >I hope everyone had a great time last night. Maybe I'll see you there next >year. >_______________________________________________ >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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Totally bummed
by Chuck Hards 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

Just this morning I realized that I had completely forgotten about the SLAS Solstice party last night. My wife and I had planned to go, but after we both had to work yesterday, it just slipped our minds. I was really upset about missing the ATM gathering at Mat's and I guess that cloud just pushed everything else out. I SO wish I had a "cookie-cutter" job with decent hours...manufacturing has just taken all of my free time for going on ten years. I could find another job easily enough, but would make about the half the pay I'm getting now, and with the mountain of divorce-related debt I have, moving into something less lucrative isn't an option for another decade or so, unless I want to live out of a shopping cart. Virtually all of my recreational eggs are in my retirement basket. I may as well just sell the basement full of astro stuff I've accumulated over the last 44 years and find something else to be interested in. I pay club dues but can't even make a monthly meeting. Seems like it's been forever since I haven't had to get up at 4 AM. I hope everyone had a great time last night. Maybe I'll see you there next year.

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Next ATM session
by Hutchings, Mat 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

Hi, all ATM's; just a reminder that the next ATM session is on 12/1 (this Saturday) starting at 09:00. As usual, let me know if you need directions to my house. For any new subscribers to this list who are wondering what ATM means in this context, it is Amateur Telescope Maker. We do all kinds of telescope making including primary mirrors for Newtonian telescopes, overhauls of scopes, observing aids (dew heaters, etc.) and observing chairs. It's a great time for us telescope nuts to get together and help each other out. Future dates for these sessions are: 1/26/13 2/23/13 3/30/13 Hope to see you this Saturday! Mat This message and any attachments are solely for the use of intended recipients. The information contained herein may include trade secrets, protected health or personal information, privileged or otherwise confidential information. Unauthorized review, forwarding, printing, copying, distributing, or using such information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you are not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you received this email in error, and that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please contact the sender and delete the message and any attachment from your system. Thank you for your cooperation

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super massive black hole
by RON VANDERHULE 01 Dec '12

01 Dec '12

I am not sure what I am missing about the unusual nature of NGC 1277 and its' massive black hole. Isn't the purpose of a black hole to feed on its' host galaxy until the meal is finished? So the more a black hole consumes the bigger it gets and the smaller the host galaxy gets. We see this in NGC 1277 and it will be our fate also in the future. Yes? As long as I have your attention what percentage of time does the Universe spend reshuffling and merging of galaxies as compared to existing in a somewhat finished state??? Ron

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Moon + Jupiter
by Dion Davidson 30 Nov '12

30 Nov '12

Here is one of the coolest photos I've seen of the Moon + Jupiter get-together this week: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104605541194704556978/posts/N6tiRHukcUk You have to click on the photo to see the Jovian moons in detail. Dion

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