May 2004 - UVAA - mailman.xmission.com

Workshop/Moon Watch
by Jim Gibson 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

There will be a workshop/moon watch at Fort Provo on Saturday night May 1st starting at 6:30. PM. The park has to be cleared by 11PM. The work shop will be given by John Zeigler and he will present a discussion on the light train and on eyepieces (how the work, not necessarily which ones to buy). If time permits, Jim Gibson will present a short introductory discussion on the moon and it features. To make things interesting for the new folks a free CD will be given away that can be used as an aid to learning moon features and their names. There is also some material on the Apollo missions on the CD. There will be 2 Telrads for sale at the price of $40.00 each for any one who is interested. Fort Provo can be reached by getting off of I-15 on Provo Center Street and going West. From the West side of I-15 go to the 2nd stop light at Center Street and Geneva Rd. Turn right and go about a block and you will see the Fort and the park on the right-hand side. Bring lawn chairs, a snack, the kids, and a telescope or binoculars. If you have none of the above, come anyway. When you arrive look for some strange old guy with a parallelogram and binoculars and if Rich Tenney doesnt show up, then look for a young 60 year old guy with a suave short hair cut and with a parallelogram and binoculars. Jim Gibson --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢

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Re: [UVAA] Question on GO-TO scopes
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

Here is what "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide" has to say on it. Do You Need a "Go To" Telescope? For the $300-to-$500 cost of a good beginner's scope, should you buy one with the "Go To" capability, such as a Meade ETX-AT or DS-2000 model? They are seductive. Just press a button, and away they go. They make it fun to explore the sky with kids. In the low-cost "Go To" scopes, what you sacrifice is image quality for any object you do find. For the same $300 to $400 that a small 70mm-to-80mm "Go To" telescope costs, you could have any of the following: a larger 90mm-to-105mm Maksutov, a 90mm long-focus refractor, a 130mm Newtonian reflector or a 6-inch (150mm) reflector on a Dobsonian mount. All will shoe brighter, sharper images, provided you do the work to find objects. Star-hopping guides and charts are the low-cost alternative to "Go To" computers. Using them to star-hop across the sky requires that you learn the sky, essential knowledge for cultivatin a long-term love affair with the stars. Debbie

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Star Gazing session
by John and Lisa Zeigler 29 May '04

29 May '04

We are helping out the Girl Scouts in July with a star gazing session for some of their camps. The Trefoil lodge just up the hill from Bridal veil falls is the location, its a great dark sky sight just outside Provo. If anyone is interested in assisting us at these sessions on July 26 and July 29 from 7 pm till about 11 pm, please let us know if you can come and what equipment you have. We will be taking a 12.5" F8 truss Dob, a 10" F4.5 Coulter rebuilt into truss tube, 8" F4 Sonotube Dob, and a 120 mm Vixen refractor on a GEM (we may have a Zeiss BinoViewer by then), and 20X60 Pentax Binocs. We would love to have any additional equipment present, and someone to help us show the girl scouts the stars. Thank you! Lisa Zeigler

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Weekend weather
by Jim Gibson 20 May '04

20 May '04

It doesnt look real good for viewing in Northern Utah this weekend. Southern Utah will have the best skies Thursday night and not quite as good Saturday night. There is a weather system moving in on Friday night pretty much state wide. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year

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Weekend observing report from Gravel Pit & Rush Valley
by Richard Tenney 19 May '04

19 May '04

Friday night proved to be pretty good from the Gravel Pit. Three scopes showed up; my 16, Daniel "Galaxy Hunter" Turner's 17.5" and Lou Griffin's 20-inch, joined later by a group of enthusiastic young adults. The seeing was poor/fair until the clouds fully departed about 10:30, and seeing was decent as we lingered until about 1:30. I managed to log about 25 H-400 objects there, mostly open clusters and galaxies in Orion, Auriga, Cam. and Gemini, and one nice PNe, NGC 1501. The weather was downright balmy. Over 40 degrees at least until midnight, and I never even donned the gloves. The most difficult object of the night was NGC 2185, a diffuse nebula in Orion. Very challenging object. Anyone on the list have any luck with this one? I barely saw the nebulosity, but the seeing was poor and it was low in the sky. Any personal observing notes on this as to what to expect with good seeing would be appreciated. Saturday at the "pit 'n pole" in Rush Valley the sky was much clearer. Unfortunately I arrived late and a bit frustrated from getting lost (sorry to bark at you Jim!), joining a large group (including my 2 compainions from the night before) that was quickly dissipating about 10-ish. While it has a better South-Western horizon than the gravel pit (in spite of some light pollution from the chem depot), overall isn't a better site, and was actually much colder than the gravel pit ironically. Again I managed to bag approx another 25 objects, spending most of the night hunting galaxies in Leo and UMa; some nice galaxy cluster surprises, e.g., NGC 3681,3684, 3686, and 3691 in the same eyepiece field (@115x in the 22 Nagler), and 3185, 3190, and 3193 in another view, etc. Lots of fun multiple galaxy pairs, trios, and quads, including groups near NGC 3395 and NGC 3607. Saw the beautiful dual transit on Jupiter (with superb color banding in the 17.5") about 11:20, and was treated to an easy find of Omega Centauri (my first view ever) skimming along just above the horizon approx. 2 a.m. (just two of us left by then). I'd sure love to see that baby overhead before I die in a big dob under clear dark skies... Tired (yet happy) after two nights of getting to bed after 3am and not being able to sleep in past 8. Yawn. (Sorry, I suspect this post is a yawner too), -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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Comet NEAT easy binocular target even in the city
by Richard Tenney 12 May '04

12 May '04

The comet was an easy find in my 9x binoculars last night when the clouds parted just after 10 pm from my rather light-polluted home in Lindon. Soon as the weather clears you should check it out if you haven't seen it already. (see the link below to a nice map) Debbie W. also snapped some good pics of it; hopefully we'll see them in the gallery shortly (hint hint). -Rich http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/article_110_1.asp __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861

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Weekend Weather
by Jim Gibson 12 May '04

12 May '04

There is a high pressure moving in which will keep most of the clouds away over Utah From Thursday night until Saturday night state wide. The Vernal Area could be bad for viewing Thursday night. By midnight Saturday a weather system will be coming in from the Northwest. There will be some wind ahead of the storm Saturday night, but there may be a few good hours of viewing before it gets here. The weather report did say partly cloudy during the day and mostly clear during the night both Thursday and Friday nights. Thursday and Friday nights look very promising. Saturday night is iffy. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2'

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Question on GO-TO scopes
by David Trevino 07 May '04

07 May '04

I would like to ask those that have GO-TO scopes their opinion on them. Looks too me that one could spend more time observing that trying to find objects. (although some argue that finding them is half the fun). Anyway, here is my train of thought: Last year I bought a 4.5" dobsonian. It is not the greatest, but some nights the viewing is good from my driveway, enough to keep me interested (and better eyepieces helped tremendously). But my greatest frustration is trying to keep it pointing in the right direction. I can find planets and other objects just fine at low/medium power, but when I get to high power, it is really hard to keep them in view. (the mount may not be as good as it could be since a little bump or push when trying to focus is enough to move it off target). Anyway, I see that Walmart has the Meade DS-80AT for under $250. I know it is smaller aperture than my current scope, but I am atracted by its computer controls. If it indeed can find and track objects as described, then I can spend my time learning how they actually look (most photographs are taken with larger scopes so they don't look the same). I am not worried about the aperture since I am in John and Lisa's telescope class, so later this summer I'll have a 12" scope. In this case the Meade would aid in pointing me in the right direction, so I can recognize my target in the finder for the larger scope. Any comments or ideas on this or other affordable computerized mounts will be greatly appreciated. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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Scouter needs star party help this summer
by Richard Tenney 07 May '04

07 May '04

If any of you are available and of the mindset to do some good public service, your help is needed on select Wednesday evenings this summer starting in June. At least 2 people (and scopes if you have them) are needed to assist at Camp Maple Dell near Payson Lakes for the following Wednesday nights: June 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. July 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th. August 4th. Mr. Rasmussen, the scouter that's hosting these writes: "If your members could choose just one or two dates that they'd like to volunteer to bring up their scopes, that would mean we'd have 4 scopes for the scouts to see with (including my 2 scopes). I average 60-70 boys taking the Astronomy merit badge per week, but have about 100-150 people show up to just enjoy the night classes that start at 10:00pm each night. With that many people, viewing through one scope at a time creates extremely long waits. If someone doesn't have a scope, I have two scopes myself (10" LX200 and 6" dobsonian). Camp Maple Dell is located about 15 minutes up Payson Canyon, just below Payson Lakes (Utah County). We have a large viewing area (called the "Bowl") that has no lights around and vehicles with the scopes will be allowed to drive (5 mph) up to the area. If the volunteers' phone numbers are given to me, I can remind each of them before the came how to get there. Thanks, Mr. R. (a.k.a. Kerry Rasmussen) Ogden, UT (801) 393-9306 thedane(a)relia.net rasmussenk(a)m.ogden.k12.ut.us Please RSVP directly to him if you are available any of these nights. Please CC me when you email him so I have an idea how many respond. -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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RE: [UVAA] Russell Eyepieces
by Griffin Louis A Civ OO-ALC/MAKGBA 03 May '04

03 May '04

Jim, after reading that review, I'm going to get a couple myself and do some comparisons - I also want to get that 85mm for my Dob - hoping to get all of the Pleadies in the FOV -----Original Message----- From: uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 4:37 PM To: john(a)johnstelescopes.com; Utah Valley Astronomy Association Subject: [UVAA] Russell Eyepieces John I ordered a 15mm and a 19mm eyepiece, both 2" from Gary Russell today. Thanks for the info. Lisa Good luck tomorrow. Tomorrow at this time it will all be over. Jim --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa

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