October 2006 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Why I prefer taking data :)
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Oct '06

27 Oct '06

I spent the last hour or so taking pictures of Comet Swan. None of the results are worth showing to anyone. Overexposed coma, underexposed tail. And then I saw this on one of the other listserves I'm on: http://home.ptd.net/~tbash/images/SwanOct26LRGB.jpg And that, boys and girls, is why I tend to stick with taking data (astrometry/photometry/occultations) and not making "pretty pictures". At least I do pretty well at gathering data... ps :)

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Odd objects
by Chuck Hards 26 Oct '06

26 Oct '06

On more than one occassion, and over a span of decades, I have seen completely dark objects, "flying" in straight-line paths at night. Detected only by their silhouettes, as stars and the Milky Way winked-out when they passed. Always very fast, 10-20 degrees per second. At first I thought about bats, owls or some other nocturnal bird, but they usually fly in a formation of 3. Completely soundless, even minutes afterwards- so I don't think they could be supersonic jets. When they were detected, it was usually several times during the same night, sometimes multiple passes over parallel courses. Then no sightings for years and years. I have seen them mostly over the desert, can't recall seeing them over an alpine location. Anybody else ever notice these things? Any ideas besides hallucination? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Dr. Ostlie's Lecture @ SLAS - 10/24
by Seth Jarvis 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

My hat's off to Lowell and the other SLAS folks who provided last night's lecturer. Dr. Dale Ostlie spoke on "The Ins & Outs of Pulsating Stars" and it was absolutely fabulous. Thanks, SLAS, for offering this. That's going to be a tough act to follow. Seth Jarvis

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Dr. Dale Ostlie's presentation at SLAS
by Lowell Lyon 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

Chuck: Tom Sevcik has volunteered to record onto DVD or VHS all of the SLAS general meeting guest speakers. You will soon be able to check out from the SLAS librarian the talks that you can't see in person. Thanks. Lowell

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Not-So-Odd Object
by Wayne Sumner 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

Oops, I meant comet Swan. ( Must have had a senior moment.) Sorry, I didn't try estimating its magnitude, but I'll try the next time it's clear. Wayne A. Sumner Math/Physics/Astronomy/Engineering Boy's Tennis Coach Northridge High School Davis School District (801) 402-8610 >>> Chuck Hards <chuckhards(a)yahoo.com> 10/25/06 7:36 AM >>> Great report, Wayne, thanks. (I assume you mean comet Swan?) I was planning on taking a peek after Kurt's posting as well, until my mom called with a deceased water heater. I spent the evening shopping for, and installing her new one. Finished at 10:30 and after my 3 mile run and a cold supper, showered and collapsed into bed for 4 hours of sleep. Of course tonight the weather isn't cooperating. :o( Did you do any brightness estimates by comparing it with stars of known magnitude? The trick is to rack the star out-of-focus until it subtends about the same diameter in the eyepiece(s) as the comet. Makes brightness comparisons a lot easier. --- Wayne Sumner <wsumner(a)dsdmail.net> wrote: > I had a wonderful view of Comet Dawn last evening > around 7:30. It was > big and bright in the 25x100 binoculars I bought > from Patrick a few > weeks ago. The binoculars made it easy to sweep up > the comet even just > knowing the general location of the comet above > Corona Borealis and > right of Hercules. There was no sign of a tail in > my light polluted > skies, but the small, bright nucleus was surrounded > by a large coma. A > great view. Thanks for the heads up. > Wayne Sumner __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Not-So-Odd Object
by David Dunn 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

I took at look at it last night and the night before in 10X50 binos. It looked much better last night. On Monday night, I was barely able to identify it as a comet. Last night it had moved higher in the sky and seemed larger. There are several stars near it. Only the brightest one was visible from my front yard. I would think that several of the stars would be visible if I didn't have two street lights and a bunch of porch lights to look at while observing to the north. As I think even more about it, on Monday, the comet was closer to the street light as well. That would have increased the stray light I was getting. I used a telescope last night as well. This was real nice. I think I just started to see a little bit a tail in my 10" f/5 Dob. If it is nice this weekend, I may have to go up the canyon and see what it looks like from a dark sky. Dave -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com@mailman.xmissio n.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:37 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Not-So-Odd Object Great report, Wayne, thanks. (I assume you mean comet Swan?) I was planning on taking a peek after Kurt's posting as well, until my mom called with a deceased water heater. I spent the evening shopping for, and installing her new one. Finished at 10:30 and after my 3 mile run and a cold supper, showered and collapsed into bed for 4 hours of sleep. Of course tonight the weather isn't cooperating. :o( Did you do any brightness estimates by comparing it with stars of known magnitude? The trick is to rack the star out-of-focus until it subtends about the same diameter in the eyepiece(s) as the comet. Makes brightness comparisons a lot easier. --- Wayne Sumner <wsumner(a)dsdmail.net> wrote: > I had a wonderful view of Comet Dawn last evening > around 7:30. It was > big and bright in the 25x100 binoculars I bought > from Patrick a few > weeks ago. The binoculars made it easy to sweep up > the comet even just > knowing the general location of the comet above > Corona Borealis and > right of Hercules. There was no sign of a tail in > my light polluted > skies, but the small, bright nucleus was surrounded > by a large coma. A > great view. Thanks for the heads up. > Wayne Sumner __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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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Comet Swan reported to have suddenly brightened by 2 magnitudes
by Canopus56 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

"October 24: C/2006 M4 (SWAN) is reported to have brightened suddenly by as much as two magnitudes--possibly as bright as 4.0! This would make it a much easier naked eye object and may foretell stronger tail development or even disruption." Kronk's comet page http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Odd objects
by Seth Jarvis 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

Many years ago while sweeping the sky with binoculars I saw a tight formation of three small, faintly glowing stylized chevrons moving quickly and silently through my field of vision. They were way too slow to be a meteor, but much faster than any aircraft or satellite. I followed them for several seconds with the binoculars. That image stayed with me for about a decade as an amazing yet inexplicable mystery until I came upon photographs of meteor trains and I finally understood what I'd seen. My point with all of this is that over time you'll probably discover a workable explanation for what you were seeing, too. Meanwhile, enjoy the phenomenon! Seth Jarvis -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+sjarvis=slco.org@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 7:12 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Odd objects On more than one occassion, and over a span of decades, I have seen completely dark objects, "flying" in straight-line paths at night. Detected only by their silhouettes, as stars and the Milky Way winked-out when they passed. Always very fast, 10-20 degrees per second. At first I thought about bats, owls or some other nocturnal bird, but they usually fly in a formation of 3. Completely soundless, even minutes afterwards- so I don't think they could be supersonic jets. When they were detected, it was usually several times during the same night, sometimes multiple passes over parallel courses. Then no sightings for years and years. I have seen them mostly over the desert, can't recall seeing them over an alpine location. Anybody else ever notice these things? Any ideas besides hallucination? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Odd objects
by David Dunn 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

I have seen bats & owls at star parties before. I remember seeing several of them in flying over Eden when we were doing a party in the park there. They would have been hard to identify until they got near enough to a light so that I could tell what they were. The owls weren't real fast. The bats didn't fly straight. I have also seen ducks and geese fly at night. Some of the ducks fly pretty fast. Maybe yours were part of the missing "dark matter" in the universe. Dave -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+david.dunn=albertsons.com@mailman.xmissio n.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 7:12 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Odd objects On more than one occassion, and over a span of decades, I have seen completely dark objects, "flying" in straight-line paths at night. Detected only by their silhouettes, as stars and the Milky Way winked-out when they passed. Always very fast, 10-20 degrees per second. At first I thought about bats, owls or some other nocturnal bird, but they usually fly in a formation of 3. Completely soundless, even minutes afterwards- so I don't think they could be supersonic jets. When they were detected, it was usually several times during the same night, sometimes multiple passes over parallel courses. Then no sightings for years and years. I have seen them mostly over the desert, can't recall seeing them over an alpine location. Anybody else ever notice these things? Any ideas besides hallucination? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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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Shrinking stars
by Patrick Wiggins 23 Oct '06

23 Oct '06

What a beautiful night this has been! Apparently the cloud gods forgot there was no Moon and did not notice me opening my observatory. :) Following Tyler's lead I cut way back on my EFL going from 4,000mm to a bit over 1,800mm. Took 20 one-minute shots of the core of M-31 and 60 twenty-second shots of M-27. Then 20 darks and flats of for each object (you'll note from the vignetting on M-27 I didn't get its flat quite right). Stuffed all of that into CCDSoft and let it do it's thing for an hour or so (my Macs are fast, the one lonely Windoze machine I use to run TheSky and CCDSoft is not). And what follows is what popped out. It's getting late even by my standards so I didn't take a lot of time formatting or Photoshopping but I'm glad the stars look more like Jenny Craig graduates instead of the Sumo wrestlers I have been getting. :) http://utahastro.info/temp/M27-23OCT2006.JPG http://utahastro.info/temp/M31-23OCT2006.JPG Carpe Noctem! pw p.s. I tried shooting Comet Swan but the coma is so bright it burned out in no time and the tail is so faint that even a 10', tracked exposure showed only a couple of ribbons.

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