Tonight's the big night, get those binos & mounts ready! Weather prospects are excellent. Patrick has a map posted at: http://planet.state.ut.us/slas/maps/map012.jpg Also, at this moment I hold in my hands a copy of Phil Harrington's Star Ware, third edition, and starting on page 297 is a description and construction article for Glen Warchol's "crutch mount". Congratulations, Glen! Unfortunately, Phil edited-out the all-important "El Presidente" ingredient (ask me later...). I will bring this copy with me tonight; it's Glens own advance copy. Glen plans to be at Binopalooza tonight. Note that he will be using one of my parallelogram mounts, since he gave the crutch mount away at the April SLAS meeting! We will have the Bear/Oberwerk comparison set-up for a while also, if you want to compare these clones for yourself. I am also bringing the S.G. 10x50's ($19.97!) that are so impressive for the price, as well as the 7x50's with internal nebula filters. I am bringing my 12x25's, and will try and detect at least 20 Messier & NGC objects with them. (bets, anyone?) Rich Tenney will be there also, volunteering his own parallelogram to help with the B/O showdown before he settles into his own observing program. Thanks, Rich! I am also thinking of bringing a telescope, though bino-activity may be enough to keep me occupied all-night. If I don't bring one of the scopes that were in S&T, I'll bring my fiberglass 10" dob. Hope to see you all there! Bill Kelley, you'll be there in spirit, I'm sure. Get well soon! Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
I can't believe he edited out the most important part... I've got my quad-pod-dob bino-mount all set and ready to go, and the weather does indeed look fabulous. I'm not sure how I'll get my son to a 9:00 am swim team practice on Friday.... See you all soon- Joe Borigone -------------------
Chuck Hards wrote:
Also, at this moment I hold in my hands a copy of Phil Harrington's Star Ware, third edition, and starting on page 297 is a description and construction article for Glen Warchol's "crutch mount". Congratulations, Glen! Unfortunately, Phil edited-out the all-important "El Presidente" ingredient (ask me later...).
Hey, Joe, remember that you're making the coffee! I'll bring my mug! I wonder if that left-over, New-Year's bottle of Captain Morgan is still hiding in back of the fridge.... I don't think it will quite go the distance, but I have to be back before dawn to babysit, so my wife can go to work (dad used to tell me: "Son, a good woman has a good JOB!" ...dad was full of chauvenistic advice..) I think I'm good until 2 or 3 before I turn into a pumpkin. Going through the Tull tapes right now. Maybe I'm living in the past, but I like the early stuff best.
I can't believe he edited out the most important part... I've got my quad-pod-dob bino-mount all set and ready to go
Is this the mount you modeled after the "Mouse-Trap" game? ;) Can't wait to see it! See you there! Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
I've got some good espresso beans and some guatamalen (sp?); grinding is one the hings I need to do before I go. If you bring the Capt. Morgan, it could be a short night, or a really long one! Seeing is believing; set your web browser to http://utstdp-ims.state.ut.us/website/test/eclipse Images from the eclipse party; it seems to work best with Internet Explorer, Netscape users might have to click on a blank image to make them appear. Some where about image 30 or so is my mount. I don't think I'll win any design awards, but it works..... It's getting increasingly difficult to be here at work; I may just have to bug out a little early..... -------------------
Hey, Joe, remember that you're making the coffee! I'll bring my mug! I wonder if that left-over, New-Year's bottle of Captain Morgan is still hiding in back of the fridge....
I can't believe he edited out the most important part... I've got my quad-pod-dob bino-mount all set and ready to go
Is this the mount you modeled after the "Mouse-Trap" game? ;) Can't wait to see it!
See you there!
Chuck
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--- Joe Borgione <jborgion@xmission.com> wrote:
Seeing is believing; set your web browser to
Totally cool, Joe! You must have cleaned-out Goodwill of every crutch they had! Glen will be proud! Gotta get photos of you standing next to it. C. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
For those of you who missed out, we had an excellent night at Lakeside under the stars; Chuck estimated seeing at 6.4, a bit dusty but otherwise great skies; 4 telescopes showed up along with many binoculars and some innovative mounts. I left about 1:40 (didn't get home until 3:30, long drive to Utah County!), Chuck and Joe stayed longer. Great music, excellent company, and a good time had by all I think. Talk of another in a couple of months; you won't want to miss it again. -Rich --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
What type of telescope were these wonderful pictures taken with? jb
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Hey, weren't you guys supposed to be comparing binocs, mounts, or something? What was the results??? Or am I off the beam there? -- Joe
--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Hey, weren't you guys supposed to be comparing binocs, mounts, or something? What was the results??? Or am I off the beam there?
We did some comparing, Joe, but mostly just had a blast! One of my co-"reviewers" didn't make it, and nobody wanted to take the B/O challenge, though we had both of them mounted all-night. I'll have some commentary on binos soon. There was a good variety of mounts, variations on the parallelogram. Bruce had his "mini", I had my aluminum home-made, Rich had the wood version (worked more solidly and smoothly than my aluminum one!), and Joe had his "quad-pod" crutch mount, which is a thing to behold. Bill brought his neat set-up on surveyor's tripod as well. Steve Dodds from NOVA brought a 12.5" with binocular-viewer, but left before I had a chance to look through it, darnit! (Lets get that thing out again soon!) Dave Bennett showed us some neat spindle galaxies, obscure globulars, and best of all, some BOK globules in Sagittarius, which stood out pretty darn well from the Lakeside site. I am just amazed at how good some objects look in a big binocular. M51 was an impressive sight indeed. The North American nebula was difficult until it rose out of the horizon haze, then was easily seen. Same with the Veil nebula. No 2 globulars are created equal, and this is really demonstrated in the bino view. M13, M3, and M4 would dominate a binocular view, but lesser clusters seemed "just along for the ride". What set the tone for the evening, and got it off to a great start, was the coincidental, but perfectly timed production of Floyds "Time" (Dark Side of the Moon) to the setting crescent moon. Everyone was glued to the eyepieces as the moon dropped behind the mountain, perfectly centered in a "V" between two hills. Soon only the "dark side" lit by earthshine was visible, until it disappeared AT THE EXACT moment that the music ended. Applause broke out up and down the observing line. I'm not kidding! We were amazed at the perfect timing of the song with moonset. Cosmic forces were at work. I saw more satellites than I expected. Anyone else notice a lot of satellites? Also saw a total of perhaps six sporadic meteors all night, with the brightest magnitude 2. Joe Borgione performed with excellence in his role as camp barrista, brewing a Guatemalen coffee that kept me up until dawn this morning! This was a fun star-party that I hope we can do again soon. Thanks to EVERYONE who attended! Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
Wow, sounds like everyone had a blast. Wish I'd been there, even though I don't own a pair of bios. -- Joe
Don't ever let a lack of equipment discourage you from attending a star-party with a particular emphasis. I brought six binoculars; there were plenty to go around. Several people arrived with no equipment at all, and got their eyes full. Most of us would find an object, then "make the rounds", seeing what others had found, making a circuit back to our own, to find a new object. Rich was making log entries fast and furiously. He also had his 6" Dynascope and I brought my fiberglass 10" Dob, so occasionally we would see what an object looked like with more power and aperture. He also brought a laser-collimator, and we tweaked our alignment before it got truly dark. Neat little device, I think I'll start looking into one seriously. Jupiter was too low to see any detail other than blurred banding and of course the moons. Venus was a fat gibbous pearl. The moon was distinctly three-dimensional in the binoculars; someone else made the same observation though I can't recall who it was at the moment. Played "Also Sprach Zarathustra" while moongazing (before the Floyd). Felt like throwing a bone in the air. I remembered to check the mileage from the interstate exit this time: 5.25 miles from the point where you get off the exit ramp to the turn-off to the site. Patrick got a photo of the sign at the turn-off, hopefully will post it when he gets back. Hope to see you at the next one, Joe! Chuck --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Wow, sounds like everyone had a blast. Wish I'd been there, even though I don't own a pair of bios. -- Joe
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I second all of Chuck's sentiments here. I have attended MANY a star party, but this was a first for me in terms of all the binos set up; I must say they certainly enhance the overall experience. I too was surprised at the superb image of M51 in the Bears -- better than what I've seen in many telescopes of far more aperture (of course it helps that it was perfectly positioned in a dark sky...). It was also a pleasure to observe with so many seasoned veteran observers. I would have stayed all night if I didn't have to be at work today. Again, the only downside for me was trying to stay awake on the long drive home. Rich --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Don't ever let a lack of equipment discourage you from attending a star-party with a particular emphasis. I brought six binoculars; there were plenty to go around. Several people arrived with no equipment at all, and got their eyes full.
Most of us would find an object, then "make the rounds", seeing what others had found, making a circuit back to our own, to find a new object. Rich was making log entries fast and furiously. He also had his 6" Dynascope and I brought my fiberglass 10" Dob, so occasionally we would see what an object looked like with more power and aperture. He also brought a laser-collimator, and we tweaked our alignment before it got truly dark. Neat little device, I think I'll start looking into one seriously.
Jupiter was too low to see any detail other than blurred banding and of course the moons. Venus was a fat gibbous pearl.
The moon was distinctly three-dimensional in the binoculars; someone else made the same observation though I can't recall who it was at the moment. Played "Also Sprach Zarathustra" while moongazing (before the Floyd). Felt like throwing a bone in the air.
I remembered to check the mileage from the interstate exit this time: 5.25 miles from the point where you get off the exit ramp to the turn-off to the site. Patrick got a photo of the sign at the turn-off, hopefully will post it when he gets back.
Hope to see you at the next one, Joe!
Chuck
--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Wow, sounds like everyone had a blast. Wish I'd been there, even though I don't own a pair of bios. -- Joe
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Hi all, I'm hoping you could help me with an idea I want to forward to the police. I can't recall the name of the professor in New England (I seem to recall) who has taken photos of the space shuttle in orbit using some fairly ordinary equipment. The reason I'm interested is that he processes videotape that he shoots through his telecope and gets these fabuloud images of things like the shuttle in orbit. He may stack the images from the tape, enhance them through computer processing, plas multiple views off each other to cancel out grain and restore details that can't be seen in any individual frame. At least that's how I believe stacking is done. What I want to do is to refer the police to this expert, or some other specialist on image stacking, so that they will understand that the videotape taken in the Shriner's Hospital parking lot might be processed by someone to bring out details of cars that could have been involved in Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping. If anyone knows what I'm taking about and can tell me who this expert is, or knows of a site on the Internet where the technique is discussed, I would like to pass it along to the police. Assuming they haven't already thought of doing it, or don't have the expertise themselves, they could contact this specialist and get his advice about processing the videotape. Thanks, Joe Bauman
Hi all, Please excuse my mistakes in the last note -- I was so eager to send along my plea that I didn't proof it as I should have and it was full of typing mistakes. So here is an improved version: I'm hoping you could help me with an idea I want to forward to the police. I can't recall the name of the professor in New England (as I seem to remember) who has taken photos of the space shuttle in orbit using some fairly ordinary equipment. The reason I'm interested is that he processes videotape that he shoots through his telescope and gets these fabulous views. He may stack the images from the tape, enhance them through computer processing, play multiple views off each other to cancel out grain and restore details that can't be seen in any individual frame. At least that's how I believe stacking is done. What I want to do is to refer the police to this expert, or some other specialist on image stacking, so that they will understand that the videotape taken in the Shriner's Hospital parking lot might be processed by someone to bring out details of cars that could have been involved in Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping. If anyone knows what I'm taking about and can tell me who this expert is, or knows of a site on the Internet where the technique is discussed, I would like to pass it along to the police. Assuming they haven't already thought of doing it, or don't have the expertise themselves, they could contact this specialist and get his advice about processing the videotape. Thanks, Joe Bauman
--- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
He may stack the images from the tape, enhance them through computer processing, play multiple views off each other to cancel out grain and restore details that can't be seen in any individual frame. At least that's how I believe stacking is done.
The problem with surveillance tapes is that there is nothing to stack. The object moves through the frame, changing it's orientation. With objects at "infinity", such as satellites and celestial objects, the subject is held in or near the center of the field for many, many frames, and it's orientation doesn't change quickly on the scale of the image sampling. Too, these tapes are recorded at a dead-slow rate, to conserve tape. I'd be very surprised if anyone outside of police channels could get much more useful information out of them. Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
Good point. You're probably right. I didn't think of that. But if they can shift the frame a little to follow a vehicle and get two images to stack (maybe adjust size, etc.) it might give a little bit of detail like the make of the car. Probably not. I still passed information along to the police. -- Best wishes, Joe
Thanks for the effort, Joe, you never know. Maybe some good will come of it. C. --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Good point. You're probably right. I didn't think of that. But if they can shift the frame a little to follow a vehicle and get two images to stack (maybe adjust size, etc.) it might give a little bit of detail like the make of the car. Probably not. I still passed information along to the police. -- Best wishes, Joe
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Joe, his name is Ron Dantowitz. He had an article in S&T some years ago detailing his process. Not being at home as I write this, I can't look up the issue. Chuck --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
Hi all, I'm hoping you could help me with an idea I want to forward to the police. I can't recall the name of the professor in New England (I seem to recall) who has taken photos of the space shuttle in orbit using some fairly ordinary equipment. The reason I'm interested is that he processes videotape that he shoots through his telecope and gets these fabuloud images of things like the shuttle in orbit.
He may stack the images from the tape, enhance them through computer processing, plas multiple views off each other to cancel out grain and restore details that can't be seen in any individual frame. At least that's how I believe stacking is done.
What I want to do is to refer the police to this expert, or some other specialist on image stacking, so that they will understand that the videotape taken in the Shriner's Hospital parking lot might be processed by someone to bring out details of cars that could have been involved in Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping.
If anyone knows what I'm taking about and can tell me who this expert is, or knows of a site on the Internet where the technique is discussed, I would like to pass it along to the police. Assuming they haven't already thought of doing it, or don't have the expertise themselves, they could contact this specialist and get his advice about processing the videotape.
Thanks, Joe Bauman
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Due to a home pc meltdown, I've not been able to get my email until today (monday, 6/17) from work. I just want to add my 2 cents about the great time we all had at the first ( of what I hope is many ) Binopalooza. The skies were great, and the company better. The music, coffee, chocolate, and even the dust added to a terrific time. I don't think any official comparisons were made on binoculars; it's safe to say they all worked well; everybody saw a lot of cool objects, far far away. I'm ready for another one, but my suggestion is to move up in elevation. Current dry conditions really have the west desert and places like the Wedge in a flour-like dust bowl condition. That stuff can't be good for optics... Or lungs.
From the concert scene; Lyle Lovitt and his Large Band at Kingsbury Hall Sunday night was outstanding.
JOe Borgione -------------------
Hi Folks, Joe is right about the dust, though i'd compare it to talcum powder myself ;-) ... There are a few people (myself included) who may be opting for Wolf Creek instead of Monte Cristo for July's SLAS private star party on the 12th and 13th. I'm not sure if Chuck wants to do another Bino Rama so soon but it's definitely what Joe would call 'up in elevation' Dave Bennett On Monday, June 17, 2002, at 07:42 AM, Joe Borgione wrote:
I'm ready for another one, but my suggestion is to move up in elevation. Current dry conditions really have the west desert and places like the Wedge in a flour-like dust bowl condition. That stuff can't be good for optics... Or lungs.
How was Wolf Creek last Friday? How would the SLASers feel if UVAA joined them at Wolf Creek in July? I'd sure like to try it out... Rich --- David L Bennett <dlbennett@mac.com> wrote:
Hi Folks,
Joe is right about the dust, though i'd compare it to talcum powder myself ;-) ...
There are a few people (myself included) who may be opting for Wolf Creek instead of Monte Cristo for July's SLAS private star party on the 12th and 13th. I'm not sure if Chuck wants to do another Bino Rama so soon but it's definitely what Joe would call 'up in elevation'
Dave Bennett
On Monday, June 17, 2002, at 07:42 AM, Joe Borgione wrote:
I'm ready for another one, but my suggestion is to move up in elevation. Current dry conditions really have the west desert and places like the Wedge in a flour-like dust bowl condition. That stuff can't be good for optics... Or lungs.
ATTACHMENT part 2 image/jpeg x-unix-mode=0644; name=WC Fields.jpg http://homepage.mac.com/dlbennett/Menu6.html
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Rich et al, Wolf Creek was great last Friday. We did have some orographic clouds roll in around 1 or 2 am but we had some great views before hand. Scope's (and people in attendance): Don Colton's 18", the Grahn's 24", 16", and 25x100 binos, Kim Hyatt's 9 1/2", Robert Fisher's 15" and 30x77 bino's, my 10", and Lowell Lyon (he's a telescope in his own right). We had most everyone seeing the central star in the Ring Nebula with averted vision in Don Colton's StarMaster. He and I we're both able to hold the star without averted for several seconds at a time. Neither of us had never seen it so distinctly before. The transparency wasn't as great as Wolf Creek can be but the seeing was pretty decent. Don was using 500x for most of his double stars...Antares was amazing. I was glimpsing 6.7mag in UMi but have seen 7.4 before with Kim Hyatt. I stayed for half the day of Saturday hiking off the Ridge playing with my macro settings on my camera. Great trip for a one nighter! Like I said the official SLAS private star party is currently scheduled for Monte Cristo on July 12th, 13th...which, if i'm not mistaken is a joint star party with OAS?...but a few of us who like the quick access, dark skies and flat ground are headed to Wolf Creek. I can't speak for anyone else but anyone from UVAA would be welcome in my book. dlb On Monday, June 17, 2002, at 12:55 PM, Richard Tenney wrote:
How was Wolf Creek last Friday?
How would the SLASers feel if UVAA joined them at Wolf Creek in July? I'd sure like to try it out...
Rich
--- David L Bennett <dlbennett@mac.com> wrote:
Hi Folks,
Joe is right about the dust, though i'd compare it to talcum powder myself ;-) ...
There are a few people (myself included) who may be opting for Wolf Creek instead of Monte Cristo for July's SLAS private star party on the 12th and 13th. I'm not sure if Chuck wants to do another Bino Rama so soon but it's definitely what Joe would call 'up in elevation'
Dave Bennett
participants (6)
-
Chuck Hards -
David L Bennett -
David Moulton -
Joe Bauman -
Joe Borgione -
Richard Tenney