I was out with binoculars in the foothills of Mt. Timpanogos early this morning. Fascinated with The Eyes peering at me. Mars and Regulus looked spooky. Venus was splendid! Found the Winter Hexagon and then looked at Orion Nebulae. My favorite is always the Pleiades. Looked at several clusters. I was sorry I hadn't set up my scope. The eastern skies were so clear. Morning glow was getting brighter so I went in. I think the sky would've been too light before Jupiter was above the almost 12,000 ft mountaintop. Will keep watching for it. Kathy
On Sep 25, 2015, at 8:46 AM, utah-astronomy-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:
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Today's Topics:
1. Flat field (Dave Gary) 2. Re: Morning lineup (Joel Stucki) 3. Re: Morning lineup (Chuck Hards) 4. Re: Morning lineup (Joel Stucki)
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Message: 1 Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 04:05:29 -0600 From: Dave Gary <davegary@me.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Flat field Message-ID: <F2A390A9-C7CA-4E17-9ED8-85CA795A06C2@me.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
For those that image?what type of flat-field setup do you have? Did you purchase the setup or did you build your own flat-field box? What type of light source do you use? If anyone has instructions on how to build a simple flat-field light box any information (pictures would be nice) would be greatly appreciated. Make the descriptions simple. Something that someone who nearly failed shop class (really, I almost did) could understand. Failing that, give me all the technical low-down and I?ll get the wife to help me out so that it actually works when the project is completed.
Dave
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Message: 2 Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 06:39:45 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joel Stucki" <joel.stucki@gmail.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Morning lineup Message-ID: <1443188385248.9fee8046@Nodemailer> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
I finally got up early to see this. Mars and Regulus are less than a degree apart and shine like two eyes looking at you, one red one blue. Venus dominates the eastern sky and is brilliantly bright. After a bit Juipter rises also with 3 of its moons trailing to the east. From my position I watched these rise over Mount Timpanogos. ?Mars is unimpressive through the scope as the atmosphere was not very stable and Mars is about as far from us as it gets. Jupiter is always fun but given the low position I was struggling to make out the cloud bands. Venus on the other hand was the best I have seen it. While there was some shimmer, you could make out the entire sphere with a large crescent brightly illuminated.?
?
?Also I was impressed to see Orion so high in the sky and the Pleiades past the Zenith. I had one of the best views of the Orion Nebula I have had from my light polluted back yard. I guess it pays to get up early. Now I just need to invest in a sling shot for my neighbors porch light.
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Message: 3 Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 08:11:14 -0600 From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Morning lineup Message-ID: <CAHmuOYrEaVgsECEoZWeuKj1Av7+Gn_=p5pvwszYxpiKcd5yMRA@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Nice post, Joel, thanks.
Mars and Regulus are slightly further apart than yesterday, but not much. Closest approach must have been during daylight hours from the Western US. A nice conjunction, though.
Keep your eye on Mars for the next 8 months. Mars season comes in 2016 and it's going to be moving fast and brightening up quickly as winter wanes. I think I read that it will surpass 18 moa this opposition. Not as big as possible but bigger than some recent ones.
I may fire-up Brent's 22" Dob for that one, if we get a night of still air.
On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 7:39 AM, Joel Stucki <joel.stucki@gmail.com> wrote:
I finally got up early to see this. Mars and Regulus are less than a degree apart and shine like two eyes looking at you, one red one blue. Venus dominates the eastern sky and is brilliantly bright. After a bit Juipter rises also with 3 of its moons trailing to the east. From my position I watched these rise over Mount Timpanogos. Mars is unimpressive through the scope as the atmosphere was not very stable and Mars is about as far from us as it gets. Jupiter is always fun but given the low position I was struggling to make out the cloud bands. Venus on the other hand was the best I have seen it. While there was some shimmer, you could make out the entire sphere with a large crescent brightly illuminated.
?
?Also I was impressed to see Orion so high in the sky and the Pleiades past the Zenith. I had one of the best views of the Orion Nebula I have had from my light polluted back yard. I guess it pays to get up early. Now I just need to invest in a sling shot for my neighbors porch light. _______________________________________________
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Message: 4 Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 07:46:01 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joel Stucki" <joel.stucki@gmail.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Cc: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Morning lineup Message-ID: <1443192361207.5389d92c@Nodemailer> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Yes. My charts are showing about 9:40 pm last night was their closest point at about 47' apart. At 6:30 this morning they were 48' 59". Yesterday they were 52' 44" at 6:30. ?So today should have been closest although the difference is very small and the angle between them has changed 43 degrees in that time.
On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 8:26 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
Nice post, Joel, thanks. Mars and Regulus are slightly further apart than yesterday, but not much. Closest approach must have been during daylight hours from the Western US. A nice conjunction, though. Keep your eye on Mars for the next 8 months. Mars season comes in 2016 and it's going to be moving fast and brightening up quickly as winter wanes. I think I read that it will surpass 18 moa this opposition. Not as big as possible but bigger than some recent ones. I may fire-up Brent's 22" Dob for that one, if we get a night of still air.
On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 7:39 AM, Joel Stucki <joel.stucki@gmail.com> wrote: I finally got up early to see this. Mars and Regulus are less than a degree apart and shine like two eyes looking at you, one red one blue. Venus dominates the eastern sky and is brilliantly bright. After a bit Juipter rises also with 3 of its moons trailing to the east. From my position I watched these rise over Mount Timpanogos. Mars is unimpressive through the scope as the atmosphere was not very stable and Mars is about as far from us as it gets. Jupiter is always fun but given the low position I was struggling to make out the cloud bands. Venus on the other hand was the best I have seen it. While there was some shimmer, you could make out the entire sphere with a large crescent brightly illuminated.
?
?Also I was impressed to see Orion so high in the sky and the Pleiades past the Zenith. I had one of the best views of the Orion Nebula I have had from my light polluted back yard. I guess it pays to get up early. Now I just need to invest in a sling shot for my neighbors porch light. _______________________________________________
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End of Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 151, Issue 36 ***********************************************
Kathy,I think we met at the last star party on Timpanogos. How close you are to the mountain of course makes a huge difference in your horizon. "Winter hexagon" is a new asterism for me. Looking at my charts I am guessing it is the same as I have marked as "Winter Circle" or "Winter Octagon". I must admit it looks more naturally as a hexagon as the two extra stars included on my chart between Capella and Pollux are all mostly in a straight line. Asterisms are always very useful to me, often more so than constellations. Generally in light polluted skies I often cannot find enough stars to see constellation shapes well and in dark skies the main stars get drowned in the background field stars. Asterisms are often patterns that "pop" a bit more under any sky condition. But I think I have never used the winter circle before because those constellations, Orion, Gemini, Taurus, as well as the bright star Sirius are some of the easiest for me to find. Next time though I will have to see if I can spot the hexagon pattern of bright stars. On Friday, Sep 25, 2015 at 9:14 AM, Kathy <grammykt@gmail.com>, wrote: I was out with binoculars in the foothills of Mt. Timpanogos early this morning. Fascinated with The Eyes peering at me. Mars and Regulus looked spooky. Venus was splendid! Found the Winter Hexagon and then looked at Orion Nebulae. My favorite is always the Pleiades. Looked at several clusters. I was sorry I hadn't set up my scope. The eastern skies were so clear. Morning glow was getting brighter so I went in. I think the sky would've been too light before Jupiter was above the almost 12,000 ft mountaintop. Will keep watching for it. Kathy
participants (2)
-
Joel Stucki -
Kathy