For those of you who were sitting at home, or surfing the Wedge (and I don't mean Newport Beach CA) last evening, early this morning I joined Tyler Allred (Orem) at the gravel quarry about 1 a.m. (sorry I missed the folks from BYU who were up earlier), and was later joined by Joan, Lowell, and Robert Fisher around 2 for some early winter fun. A nagging breeze kicked up just before I arrived, but in spite of the scope moving on its own a little too often, we managed to find some pretty neat stuff. For one thing, a welcome plethora of meteor activity (are we close to a shower?) all night. In addition to adding a few new H-400 objects to my log book (some open clusters in Taurus, a few diffuse nebulae and a small Planetary nebula in Orion), and Stephens Quintet, we were treated to the California Nebula (huge!), Abell 21 (the medusa nebula) and Hubble's variable Nebula (all firsts for me) among other deep-sky gems, along with a very cool "3-D" view of M42 in Robert's new AP Traveler with the Denkmeier binoviewer fitted with 24mm Panoptics -- an experienced not to be missed. Half the fun up there was listening to Joan's frequent ooohs and aaahs ;o) -- I love her enthusiasm. Aside from an unfortunate mishap with my DSC's hitting the pavement too hard (:o( it was a fun way to greet the dawn... now if I can just get caught up on my rest... <yawn>. _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
Did you have clears skies A few of us went to the Star Party in Park City and were 80 - 90% cloud covered. There was also some wind that kicked up. We weren't that far apart. I left at about 9:00 under almost 100 % cloud cover. Siegfried ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Tenney" <retenney@yahoo.com> To: "Utah-Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com>; "UVAA" <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 8:00 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Dawn Patrol: observing report from the gravel pit
For those of you who were sitting at home, or surfing the Wedge (and I don't mean Newport Beach CA) last evening, early this morning I joined Tyler Allred (Orem) at the gravel quarry about 1 a.m. (sorry I missed the folks from BYU who were up earlier), and was later joined by Joan, Lowell, and Robert Fisher around 2 for some early winter fun. A nagging breeze kicked up just before I arrived, but in spite of the scope moving on its own a little too often, we managed to find some pretty neat stuff. For one thing, a welcome plethora of meteor activity (are we close to a shower?) all night. In addition to adding a few new H-400 objects to my log book (some open clusters in Taurus, a few diffuse nebulae and a small Planetary nebula in Orion), and Stephens Quintet, we were treated to the California Nebula (huge!), Abell 21 (the medusa nebula) and Hubble's variable Nebula (all firsts for me) among other deep-sky gems, along with a very cool "3-D" view of M42 in Robert's new AP Traveler with the Denkmeier binoviewer fitted with 24mm Panoptics -- an experienced not to be missed. Half the fun up there was listening to Joan's frequent ooohs and aaahs ;o) -- I love her enthusiasm. Aside from an unfortunate mishap with my DSC's hitting the pavement too hard (:o( it was a fun way to greet the dawn... now if I can just get caught up on my rest... <yawn>.
_______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Thank you, Siegfried and others, who went to Park City Sat night. Both Friday and Saturday started out so beautifully without a cloud in the sky, only to have almost complete cloud cover by nightfall. Disappointing to those who were looking forward to a last relatively warm and dark night of viewing. I know I look forward to the weekends for some practice time with my new Dob. A reminder of USU's Jr Engineering event at Stansbury Park Elementary this Tuesday. Set up time around 6:30. I will be out of town, but Tom S. will be point person. Patrick, could you send out directions to the school? I never got them from the organizers. Thanks. -A
Weather.gov say's the outlook for Bryce Canyon is: Saturday night partly cloudy, lows 28 degrees, Sunday night rain mixed with snow, Monday night rain mixed with snow... Saturday 4:35 pm, just passed Beaver heading south on I-15 listening to Karen Carpenter's rendition of "Rainy days and Mondays" and looking at all the clouds. Checked in at the Bryce Canyon Pines Motel, dropped some gear off and headed to the park to meet with Mark Bloomenthal for a night of star gazing. Sitting out in front of Ruby's like a stalker waiting for Mark to show, the sky started to clear so I knew he must be getting close. For some reason, the sky clears when Mark appears. I can't remember when the Moon looked so good. Low in the west and "going down". I was temporarily caught off guard by the sight and contrast of blaze orange clouds, which covered the park, and the bordering dark blue sky. We drove to Bryce Point and set up our scopes. The sky was dark! I mean, I can't remember seeing a darker sky. Oh sure, you could see small open patches of stars here and there, but for the most part it was as advertised, a dark sky. And then the clouds lifted... Did you know that under certain conditions, the Milky Way might actually screw up your night vision? When you can spot someone peeing across the parking lot at 12:00 Midnight it's TOO BRIGHT! And where did all the recognizable constellations go? Thank God I have a GoTo telescope. I would have been in REAL trouble if I had to rely on any particular guide stars to hop to. Mark knows the sky pretty well and even he wasn't completely sure what was where. To give you an example of how many stars were visible, my GoTo has a on board data base of some 147,000 objects, and has an identification feature which will accurately identify an object centered in the eyepiece if the scope is set up and properly aligned. I put the scope on an object and asked it to identify it. The words "Bite me" scrolled across the controller in bright red letters. Shades of Wolf Creek crept into my consciousness as a cold breeze kicked in and knocked the temperature to a whopping 4 layers in a matter of seconds. It was cold enough that my ex wife could have been hovering in the corner of the parking lot and I wouldn't have even noticed. That's frightening! After 5 hours of standing around I was beginning to get pretty tired. We held off leaving until M42 cleared the tree directly in front of me. Earlier, I had to remove my "bucking saw" from behind the seat of the truck to make room for the 12 gauge otherwise I would have seen M42, much earlier. ;) Just kidding. Being tired and hungry we decided to packed it in and head for the nearest coffee shop for something to eat. WRONG! I thought Magna's streets rolled up early, this place shuts down at 9:30 PM sharp! I wonder if anyones actually had a door slammed on them. What no 7-11's??? Sunday morning: I awoke to the sounds of wind and rain tapping on my door telling me it was time to check out. The clouds had settled in for what may be the beginning of the end of the season. It was raining in my rear view mirror as I left Bryce. All I can say is good luck Monday night Patrick. Don't forget to pack your umbrella and a sandwich!
Guy, what a great report! Thanks for the nice descriptions. I too have had the bewildering experience of really struggling to sort out a couple of constellations because the sky was so dark that far too many stars showed up. Best wishes, Joe
You're welcome Joe. But with just one visit to Bryce, from what I seen, I think the skies over Wolf Creek were as good. While I complain about it, I don't find the far off glow from SLC too objectionable considering the relatively short distance travelled. If there were a few trees close by to block out the glow, it would be even better. One thing I did notice is that there seems to be more airplane traffic around Bryce. I like the Gravel pit too when there are no clouds hanging over the summit. When present, the clouds act like a photographer's unmbrella and can be a bit annoying. However, knowing that there are places close by that serve hot coffee early in the morning makes that a little more bearable. So, being fairly new to the club, where do folks usually go during the winter months to observe? I usually have to blindly tip toe through snow covered, but not quite frozen, dog poop to set up in the back yard. I and the wife wouldn't mind ME finding another spot less frequented by "our kids"... ;) Quoting Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com>:
Guy, what a great report! Thanks for the nice descriptions. I too have had the bewildering experience of really struggling to sort out a couple of constellations because the sky was so dark that far too many stars showed up. Best wishes, Joe
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Good question, Guy. Where does one go during Utah's long winters? I've observed in deep snow in the hills and out in the desert, but it's never warm enough. Even Utah's "Dixie" is a bit too cold for me for a long night under the stars. So, I'm hoping this winter to take a trip to Death Valley for some serious winter observing, probably in January. Anyone else game? Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com> serius est quam cogitas
Death Valley is a bit far. I usually go to St. George. The nights are only in the 20s and the daytime is pretty nice. Although - - - Baja is pretty nice in February. Punta San Francisquito is 90 miles of 4 wheel drive from anywhere, and the electricity is provided by a generator which is turned off at 10:00 pm. The temperature at night there is around 50. Its right on the Sea of Cortez. You hear whales spouting all night and the sunrise is better than any I have seen anywhere else. The best way to get there is by private plane. For info and pics go to: http://www.aeroventure.com/Aeroventure/Places_To_Go/Mexico/Mexico1.htm Brent --- Kim Hyatt <kimharch@msn.com> wrote:
Good question, Guy. Where does one go during Utah's long winters? I've observed in deep snow in the hills and out in the desert, but it's never warm enough. Even Utah's "Dixie" is a bit too cold for me for a long night under the stars. So, I'm hoping this winter to take a trip to Death Valley for some serious winter observing, probably in January. Anyone else game?
Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com>
serius est quam cogitas _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Sounds great, Brent, but for those of us who don't own a plane...? I've only been to Death Valley once, about 15 years ago. As I recall the drive was one very long day. Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com> serius est quam cogitas ----- Original Message ----- From: Brent Watson<mailto:brentjwatson@yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy<mailto:utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 1:26 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Winter observing? Death Valley is a bit far. I usually go to St. George. The nights are only in the 20s and the daytime is pretty nice. Although - - - Baja is pretty nice in February. Punta San Francisquito is 90 miles of 4 wheel drive from anywhere, and the electricity is provided by a generator which is turned off at 10:00 pm. The temperature at night there is around 50. Its right on the Sea of Cortez. You hear whales spouting all night and the sunrise is better than any I have seen anywhere else. The best way to get there is by private plane. For info and pics go to: http://www.aeroventure.com/Aeroventure/Places_To_Go/Mexico/Mexico1.htm<http://www.aeroventure.com/Aeroventure/Places_To_Go/Mexico/Mexico1.htm> Brent --- Kim Hyatt <kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com>> wrote:
Good question, Guy. Where does one go during Utah's long winters? I've observed in deep snow in the hills and out in the desert, but it's never warm enough. Even Utah's "Dixie" is a bit too cold for me for a long night under the stars. So, I'm hoping this winter to take a trip to Death Valley for some serious winter observing, probably in January. Anyone else game?
Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com>>
serius est quam cogitas _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com<mailto:Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com>
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com<http://www.utahastronomy.com/>
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com<http://mail.yahoo.com/> _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com<mailto:Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy<http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy> Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com<http://www.utahastronomy.com/>
One of my favorite local activities in the winter is night diving Blue Lake, just South of Wendover. At night while floating on the surface of the lake during a surface interval, the night sky is bright with stars. There is a section of large hills between the lake and Wendover which does a good job of blocking the majority of light. I have recently thought about travelling South from Wendover on Hwy 93 in the direction of Ely, Nevada to see how the sky looks. I'm thinking that 30-40 miles South of Wendover, the sky may be great. You could book a room at Motel 6 in Wendover, do a little winter day time or evening diving in 70 degree water, eat yourself sick at the Peppermill Casino and then head South a little ways for a night of star gazing. Come back to the Casino, win a car, and catch a nap and repeat the process for a second night. Anyone interested??? Quoting Kim Hyatt <kimharch@msn.com>:
I've only been to Death Valley once, about 15 years ago. As I recall the drive was one very long day.
I've never scuba'd, but used to enjoy snorkeling once in a while out there. If you find a 25-year-old flashlight, cooler with 3 cans of Buckhorn in it, and some car keys, at the bottom of Blue Lake, give me a call! --- diveboss@xmission.com wrote:
One of my favorite local activities in the winter is night diving Blue Lake, just South of Wendover.
_______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
Your cooler and flashlight are in good company then. Right along with a couple of dive knives, a student or two and, ooops, did I say that? ;) I've mapped that lake several times and there are no items like those you've described anywhere. The bottom of the lake has claimed a lot of items over the years. My guess is the cooler and buckhorn are long gone. Word is, the Enola Gay was stationed at Wendover for a while prior to it's infamous flight. And that it used to practice for it's mission by dropping empty bomb hulls into the lake. This way they could recover and reuse the hulls. Hey, maybe NASA could practice landing their... nevermind. ;) Quoting Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com>:
I've never scuba'd, but used to enjoy snorkeling once in a while out there. If you find a 25-year-old flashlight, cooler with 3 cans of Buckhorn in it, and some car keys, at the bottom of Blue Lake, give me a call!
--- diveboss@xmission.com wrote:
One of my favorite local activities in the winter is night diving Blue Lake, just South of Wendover.
_______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Observe during the winter? What a novel concept .... Actually, often too many clouds get in the way. When I have gone it's to the St. George vicinity but there's so much light pollution from Las Vegas that this is a problem. If I were going to travel as far as Death Valley, which does sound like a nice idea, I'd probably head to Tucson instead to see my son and his wife, and drag my telescope there too. That is, if it's ever repaired. Best wishes, Joe
Too bad about your scope, Joe. Good luck. I had a nightmare with Meade getting my LXD650 mount to work properly. In five years (including previous owner) it's been back to Meade as many times. If I ever buy another Meade product, it won't be one that could ever need servicing. They haven't screwed up their eyepieces too much... Kim Hyatt Architect 1849 East 1300 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84108 801.631.5228 kimharch@msn.com<mailto:kimharch@msn.com> serius est quam cogitas ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Bauman<mailto:bau@desnews.com> To: Utah Astronomy<mailto:utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 1:00 PM Subject: Re: [Utah[utah-astronomy] Bryce Canyon report... Observe during the winter? What a novel concept .... Actually, often too many clouds get in the way. When I have gone it's to the St. George vicinity but there's so much light pollution from Las Vegas that this is a problem. If I were going to travel as far as Death Valley, which does sound like a nice idea, I'd probably head to Tucson instead to see my son and his wife, and drag my telescope there too. That is, if it's ever repaired. Best wishes, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com<mailto:Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy<http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy> Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com<http://www.utahastronomy.com/>
diveboss@xmission.com wrote:
So, being fairly new to the club, where do folks usually go during the winter months to observe?
I go through a door in my library and into my observatory. When it gets cold I come back inside to warm up or just replace the eyepiece with a CCD camera and control everything from inside. Death Valley would be prettier, though... :-) Patrick
Sieg, I think it cleared off sometime between 10 and 11 (at least it did at my house in Lindon; that's when I decided to pack up the scope and head up). It was clear the rest of the night. Other than the cold breeze it was very good seeing 'til dawn. Rich --- Siegfried Jachmann <Ziggy943@xmission.com> wrote:
Did you have clears skies
A few of us went to the Star Party in Park City and were 80 - 90% cloud covered. There was also some wind that kicked up. We weren't that far apart. I left at about 9:00 under almost 100 % cloud cover.
Siegfried
----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Tenney" <retenney@yahoo.com> To: "Utah-Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com>; "UVAA" <uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 8:00 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Dawn Patrol: observing report from the gravel pit
For those of you who were sitting at home, or surfing the Wedge (and I don't mean Newport Beach CA) last evening, early this morning I joined Tyler Allred (Orem) at the gravel quarry about 1 a.m. (sorry I missed the folks from BYU who were up earlier), and was later joined by Joan, Lowell, and Robert Fisher around 2 for some early winter fun. A nagging breeze kicked up just before I arrived, but in spite of the scope moving on its own a little too often, we managed to find some pretty neat stuff. For one thing, a welcome plethora of meteor activity (are we close to a shower?) all night. In addition to adding a few new H-400 objects to my log book (some open clusters in Taurus, a few diffuse nebulae and a small Planetary nebula in Orion), and Stephens Quintet, we were treated to the California Nebula (huge!), Abell 21 (the medusa nebula) and Hubble's variable Nebula (all firsts for me) among other deep-sky gems, along with a very cool "3-D" view of M42 in Robert's new AP Traveler with the Denkmeier binoviewer fitted with 24mm Panoptics -- an experienced not to be missed. Half the fun up there was listening to Joan's frequent ooohs and aaahs ;o) -- I love her enthusiasm. Aside from an unfortunate mishap with my DSC's hitting the pavement too hard (:o( it was a fun way to greet the dawn... now if I can just get caught up on my rest... <yawn>.
_______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
_______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
Rich Wrote: surfing the Wedge. Rich, right on; that brings back memories. I used to be 8 feet tall until I body surfed the Wedge. Now I am a short little 6 footer. The Wedge was cloudy and breezy most of the night. Those who made it to the Overlook were Don Colton, Bill Biesele & wife, Kim Hyatt & kids, Bob Taylor, and Jim Gibson. We setup in the camping area. Mike Bailey and Tom Watson went out on a big flat somewhere near the Wedge. Checking the sky periodically through out the night and sleeping in-between, I finely got a rap on the van window about 3 AM and the sky was nice and clear but a little unsettled. The wind had quit which was nice. The wait was worth it. It didnt take Don long to put his beautiful 18 GOTO Dob into action. Bob Taylor had a 16 f/4.5 (?) Dob he had made in a John Zeigler class. I had my 20 f/5.375 Dob with filter slider loaded with a UHC filter and an OIII filter and we were cruzn the sky. At 3 AM Orion was very high in the sky. We did the usual by observing M42 with Trapezium and surrounding nebula. It was fun do dial in the UHC and OIII filter to see the difference. The nebula around Trapezium was very mottled and the dark nebula to the left (relative to the eyepiece) was very dark. Don found the Horse Head nebula, which I would have passed up as one of those impossible objects to see without a H-Beta filter. Don also found the Horse Head in my 20 scope without any filter at all and then we dialed in the UHC and the OIII filter. I dont remember which one gave the best view but Don said it was the best he had ever seen it. I could see in a relatively dark part of the sky with a few stars around and even darker ink spot that turned out to be the Horse Head. Once I knew what I was looking at I could see that the head wad facing down. It didnt look like Richs picture posted on utahastronomy.com but with that in mind I could begin to make out the back light at the edge of the ink spot; very subtle. The Eskimo nebula in Gemini was really neat; nice and bright with little sparklies ( a technical term used by astronomical offico-not-oes denoting a cool view) on the interior glowing a blueish-green. We saw the huge undulations of the Rosette nebula, and M46 with its beautiful planetary. We did get to Stephens Quentet and the nearby NGC 7320 (?). We also saw Hubbles Variable nebula. I have been trying to find NGC 4236 (mag 10.7 22X5) for a long time in Draco between the stars Giausar and Kappa Draco. I started looking for it back when I equated large with bright because it showed up well on the chart. I soon learned that any magnitude spread out over a large area is a hole lot less bright and 10.7 mag isnt all that bright to begin with. I still cherish the challenge of trying to find it in my 12.5 f/7 scope. I know others have done it. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? vote.yahoo.com - Register online to vote today!
participants (10)
-
Ann C. House -
Brent Watson -
Chuck Hards -
diveboss＠xmission.com -
Jim Gibson -
Joe Bauman -
Kim Hyatt -
Patrick Wiggins -
Richard Tenney -
Siegfried Jachmann