March 2004 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

New planet?
by Patrick Wiggins 14 Mar '04

14 Mar '04

This just showed up on the Minor Planet Mailing List. considering the news conference NASA has called for tomorrow, this could be interesting... Patrick Here's a snippet from the HST Daily Report: Loads for SA075O02_F1 were signed off @ 072/0800z. SA075O02 supercedes SA075O01, and includes the additional "Director's Discretionary Target" for proposal # 10041 "Characterization of a Planetary-sized Body in the Inner Oort Cloud".

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Hubble on 60 Minutes Tonight
by Mark 14 Mar '04

14 Mar '04

Just noticed that the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the subjects on tonights edition of Sixty minutes!!! Could be interesting...... Enjoy!,, Mark

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Photo Caption Contest winners
by Chuck Hards 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

First let me thank all the participants; some of the entries had me in stitches. There is one winner, and two runners-up. All three win a prize. And now, a drum roll, please.... The Grand Prize, Harlow Shapley's autograph on an index card, is awarded to Bob Grant for his entry: "Late Breaking News! (UPI Wire Service) Somewhere in France, March 1916. Outrage against noise pollution leads to arguments, and the banning of clothes pins and playing cards at inaugural Messier Marathon. Discord seen as an ill omen, foretelling of continued factiousness for future generations of amateur stargazers." *** First Runner-Up, winning a keychain laser pointer (less batteries) is awarded to Michael Carnes, for his entry: "I'd rather star-hop, so I took off the training wheels." *** Second Runner-Up, also winning a keychain laser pointer (less batteries) is awarded to Brent Watson, for his entry: "Wait 'till you see the version for Alvan Clark's Yerkes refractor." *** The laser pointers take standard LR-44 button batteries. The same ones used in your reticle illuminators. I'd like to commend Brent also for sheer quantity of entries, he really outdid himself and threw himself into the spirit of the competition. I'll post the winning captions on the Gallery page in coming days. Will the winners please send me their mailing addresses off-list. I will mail out prizes within a few days of receipt of your address. This way no-one has to wait until we are all at the same place at the same time. Thanks again to all who submitted entries, I'll post another photo in the not-to-distant future, as soon as I can scrape up more prizes worthy of such a grand affair. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com

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You are here: Earth as seen from Mars
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon. It was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit one hour before sunrise on the 63rd martian day of its mission. Small (18 kB) http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040311a/11-ml-02-eart… Large (366 kB) http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040311a/11-ml-02-eart…

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File this under very bad ideas
by Jim Cobb 11 Mar '04

11 Mar '04

Inventor patents device for ads in space Thursday, March 11, 2004 Posted: 9:41 AM EST (1441 GMT) MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Orion, the Big Dipper and Andromeda could be joined in the heavens by ads for soft drinks and cigarettes if a Russian inventor's device catches on. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/11/russia.space.ap/index.html Jim ---- Jim Cobb james(a)cobb.name

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Apple picture
by RStmarie＠aol.com 11 Mar '04

11 Mar '04

In a message dated 3/10/2004 01:27:46 Mountain Standard Time, paw(a)trilobyte.net writes: http://planet.state.ut.us/temp/APPLE.JPG Pretty cool Patrick! Now, knowing the military has a telescope system that could have inspected the Shuttle tiles for damage before re-entry I wonder how big a telescope amatuers would have to have to resolve detail on satellites in orbit without adaptive optics? Is it something we could do or is it just beyond us? I will have to get out an almanac and look at the Dawes Limit formula.

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Large sunspot
by Chuck Hards 11 Mar '04

11 Mar '04

The current large spot formation is favorably placed, nearly centered on the solar disk. A smaller pair is just to it's left, in a correct-image scope. Watch this spot at high powers (above 100x) and see it change shape as you observe. Be sure to use proper filtration. Thanks to Jim Gibson for calling it to my attention. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com

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Utah Astronomy Photo Album down
by GeyserGuy＠comcast.net 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

Hi group, Cynthia just called to have me send this email message out. Her DSL is temporarily off line, so the Astronomy photo album will not be available for a few days. She will post an updated message tomorrow. Mark Knowlden, MBA CPA State of Utah Div. of Administrative Services Department of Finance (801) 538-1715

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Annooyance, Part 2
by Kim Hyatt 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

I've followed most of the comments regarding the spherules - they triggered a vague memory of something that I could only recently recall. I'm reminded of the spherules in oolitic limestone. They are the right size, just a millimeter or two, but my memory fails how they formed on earth. Can anyone with a geologic background respond? -----Original Message----- From: Joe Bauman [mailto:bau@desnews.com] Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 9:52 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Annooyance, Part 2 Hi Friends, here's another closeup by Opportunity, one of the more recent views by the microscopic imager. You'll see this time and again in pictures of "blueberries": They are roughly symmetrical, with a sort of point at top and seams running down the sides. Sometimes they are elongated. You can see what I'm talking about a bit more clearly if you use your photo manipulation software to darken the image and increase contrast. Frequently these things are on stalks, possibly due to material weathering away under them but maybe the stalks are part of a growth cycle. Sometimes the stalks are quite dramatic. Anyway, I am not giving up on the idea that they could be strange lifeforms, that are difficult to recognize as life becuase they're so alien. The closest I can come to an Earth analogue is fungus, like mushrooms, or plants like succulents. Sometimes they remind me of primitive animal life like echinoderms (sand dollars are the remains of echinoderms). Here are views of living sand dollars. http://www.seashells.org/identcatagories/naturalsand.htm Anyway, take a glance at this interesting image from Opportunity: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/039/1M131648550EFF0544P2953M2 M1.JPG Best wishes, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Apple picture
by Patrick Wiggins 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

After mentioning the flashing geosyn satellite named Apple here Monday night I went back out and got a picture of it. http://planet.state.ut.us/temp/APPLE.JPG was taken between 05:50:00 and 05:51:30. The field is about 11.7' x 15.3'. The brightest star in the field is SAO 117935. Flashes were about 14" apart. Patrick

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