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

Hubble Spacetalk Webcast 5:00pm? MDT 3-7-2006 - Supernovas and acceleration of universe expansion
by Canopus56 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

Reposted from sci.astro.amateur: http://hubblesite.org/about_us/public-talks.shtml Exploding stars and the expanding universe are each exciting topics. Taken together, they have repercussions that affect the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Dr. Riess will discuss how supernova explosions can trace the history of the expansion of the Universe. From these groundbreaking results comes the conclusion that the cosmic expansion is speeding up, powered by a mysterious dark energy. Is the universe doomed to expand ever faster toward inevitable desolate isolation? ====================== Full text of announcement: ====================== WEBCAST ANNOUNCEMENT: The following event at the Space Telescope Science Institute will be webcast live. The recorded webcast will also be available for viewing online the following day. To view the webcast, you may need to download and install software. See the web site listed below in advance for details. ---------------------------------------------- Hubble Space Telescope Public Lecture Series at the Space Telescope Science Institute Speaker: Dr. Adam Riess, Space Telescope Science Institute Topic: Dark Energy and the Fate of the Universe Date: March 7, 2006 Time: 8 PM Place: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Auditorium Price: Free admission and free parking Phone: 410-338-4700 Internet: http://hubblesite.org/about_us/public-talks.shtml Exploding stars and the expanding universe are each exciting topics. Taken together, they have repercussions that affect the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Dr. Riess will discuss how supernova explosions can trace the history of the expansion of the Universe. From these groundbreaking results comes the conclusion that the cosmic expansion is speeding up, powered by a mysterious dark energy. Is the universe doomed to expand ever faster toward inevitable desolate isolation? Lectures on a diverse selection of cosmic topics are held the first Tuesday of every month at 8 PM in the STScI Auditorium, located at 3700 San Martin Drive on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Admission is free and free parking is available in the lot across the street. This lecture will be webcast live. The recorded webcast will also be available for viewing online the following day. To view the webcast, you may need to download and install software. See the web site listed below in advance for details. Further information and directions are available by calling 410-338-4700 or on the internet at: http://hubblesite.org/about_us/public-talks.shtml NEXT MONTH: April 4, 2006 Dr. Massimo Robberto, Space Telescope Science Institute Star Formation in the Orion Nebula __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Photograph of North Pole Sunrise-Moonset
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

A friend forwarded an e-mail w/ an attached image that purports to show a simultaneous rising sun and setting moon at the north pole. It makes the moon appear many times bigger than the sun, so I'm skeptical that it is authentic. Has anyone seen it before and care to comment? I've attached it in case anyone cares to examine it. Mike Bailey

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Photograph of North Pole Sunrise-Moonset
by Seth Jarvis 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

Some folks wanted to know where to find the "Crescent Moon Over the North Pole" image. I googled around a bit and found several references to the image. For those of you who want to see it, here's an easy link: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/north-pole-moon.html Seth

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Photograph of North Pole Sunrise-Moonset
by Seth Jarvis 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

That image has been submitted to us as well - most recently about two weeks ago. It's a nice bit of computer-generated imagery, but no way is it a real photo. Here's what I take away from looking at it: 1) There's no liquid water at the pole to create the reflection of the moon shown in the image. 2) The "land" around the reflection is brown and very earth-like, impossible at the North Pole. 3) No camera would allow you to image the Sun and the ground and in the Sun's glare discern background stars. 4) No focal length with which I am familiar could show the Moon that big and also show such a wide angle view of the Sun's glare. And finally, 5) the Sun-Earth-Moon geometry won't support a crescent Moon being visible from anywhere near a pole such that it appears to be directly above the Sun on the horizon. These things make the rounds on the Internet and it's interesting to see how a rumor or "authentic photo" can achieve near immortality once it enters cyberspace. It reminds me of a statement made by a well-regarded educator who's name escapes me at the moment, "Be careful what you let into your brain, because you'll have a helluva time getting it out if you ever find out you were wrong." Seth Jarvis, Clark Planetarium -----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 Olhomorto(a)aol.com Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 6:20 PM To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Photograph of North Pole Sunrise-Moonset A friend forwarded an e-mail w/ an attached image that purports to show a simultaneous rising sun and setting moon at the north pole. It makes the moon appear many times bigger than the sun, so I'm skeptical that it is authentic. Has anyone seen it before and care to comment? I've attached it in case anyone cares to examine it. Mike Bailey

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Orion 100mm ED
by Chuck Hards 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

The $899 price is very attractive for a 4" APO tube assembly. I am very happy with my 80mm ED, wondering if someone on the list ever laid-out the cash for the 100mm? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Comet picture
by Patrick Wiggins 06 Mar '06

06 Mar '06

Nice shot of Comet Pojmanski: http://www.cosmotography.com/images/small_comet-pojmanski-c2006a1.html Patrick

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Opinions from Standard-Examiner.
by David Dunn 05 Mar '06

05 Mar '06

I enjoyed a couple of the opinion pages in the Standard-Examiner over the last few days. The political cartoon was also funny. http://www.standard.net/xx/opinion/75415/ http://www.standard.net/xx/opinion/75719/ http://www.standard.net/xx/opinion/cartoon/?cartoon=75656 Thanks, David Dunn 801-961-3253

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Gravity demo for school presentations
by Canopus56 05 Mar '06

05 Mar '06

Here's a post from a usenet group regarding a demo for a fifth grade school presentation on relative planetary surface gravity. It looked pretty effective, so I thought I would pass it on: ================== From: Brian Tung Date: Sun, Mar 5 2006 2:01 am Groups: sci.astro.amateur <snip> I started out with a little planetary gravity demonstration: I divided the class into 10 groups of three, and gave them each secret instructions to fill a pencil cup with a certain number of marbles and a certain number of cotton balls. Each team got, in effect, a planet, and the weight of the pencil cup was according to the surface gravity of the planet (pretending that there is a surface at the cloudtops of the gas giants). So, for instance, the cup for Jupiter weighed about two-and-two-thirds as much as the cup for Earth. I designed this demonstration because they often teach you to figure out what you would weigh on each planet, but you don't get a visceral feel for it. After filling the cups, each team went around and tried to guess which other cups were which planets. Pretty much, they all got Jupiter and Pluto right, but they were surprised by some of the other ones. In case you were interested, here are the relative weights I used: Jupiter 2.64 Saturn/Neptune 1.13 Earth 1.00 Venus 0.90 Uranus 0.89 Mercury/Mars 0.38 Moon 0.16 Pluto 0.06 I also brought a cup that I prepared (because it contained lead shot, and please, no Cheney jokes) for the Sun, which has a surface gravity about 28 times that of the Earth. They were suitably impressed by how heavy that thing was. <snip> ====================== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Comet 2006/A1 Pojmanski obs rep 3/5/2006 12:15UTC
by Canopus56 05 Mar '06

05 Mar '06

Observing Report 3/5/2006 12:15 UTC from Little Mtn., Utah approx. 41 deg N, 111.8 West. NELM-ZLM - 5.3-5.5 - suburban transition zone Scanning with 10x50 5.5 deg TFOV binos it was easy to pass over Comet 2006/A1 Pojmanski as a quasi-stellar object. In this light polluted location, the tail of the comet seen in Pete Lawerence's and a recent APOD photo is not visible - Peter Lawerence's C. Pojmanski photo 3/5/2006 5:05 UTC http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/comets/pojmanski.html Robin Leadbeater 3/4/2006 5:15 UTC http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/astro2/spectra_25.htm APOD 3/3/2006 by Tunc Tezel http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060303.html - however, the nucleus and coma are visible, and reveal more detail on applying more magnification. Comet Pojmanski was found between HIP101690, a v7.5, G9III star in Aql, and a small flag-shaped asterism about 1 deg away, the brightest star in which is HIP101339, v6.5. Because of its quasi-stellar appearance at low-magnification, having a good ephemeris location and chart plot in hand is recommended. C2006/A1 is now on its outbound track, having crossed the ecliptic back around Feb. 26: JPL 3-D generator: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?sstr=2006a1 In a small refractor at the lowest useable magnification, 22x, Comet C2006/A1 could be mistaken for a globular cluster. Applying higher magnification - 35x - the nucleus and faint coma are resolved. The nucleus and coma have a DC=6 dispersion. "DC6 = the central zone very prominent. Steep brightness profile; most of the light is in the central condensation." The coma was as a thin 2 arcminute layer around the brighter 4-5 arcmin nucleus. The faint beginnings of the tail are seen in the form of the coma being distorted away from the Sun's position below the horizon. (I have to wonder what more internal structure of the nucleus would be shown by a high quality, observatory grade photo of the comet.) Due to the lack of time caused by the advancing astronomical twlight and the bright light of Venus, a reliable magnitude estimate could not be made. The comet is still definitely brighter than the HIP101339, v6.5, using the Modified Out-Out Method, but is not a naked-eye object in an NELM 5.3-5.5 sky. Two rough measurements of coma size using the drift were taken, one at 35x (~30 secs) and a second at 47x (~20 secs). This implies a size range of 4.7-7.0 arcmins and is consistent with Robin Leadbeater's 3/4 photo. Northern hemisphere observers apparently have not been contributing to the Harvard Minor Planet Center. Comparitive measurements by other observers end on 2/26 with southern hemisphere observers. http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/icq/CometMags.html On the morning (12 UTC) of March 6, Comet Pojmanski passes about 2 degrees southeast of glob cluster NGC6934, v8.9, dia. 5.9'. This continues to be a nice early morning comet - assuming the weather will cooperate. The comet is higher in the sky, as compared to 2/26, and starts rising around 4:15am local time for 41N U.S. observers. The best views probably can be had around 4:45am to 5:15am - after Comet Pojmanski has risen out of the extinction zone, but before the end of astronomical twilight becomes a factor. Again, delaying arrival to your dark sky op to beyond 5:00am local time risks missing the comet, since astronomical twilight arrives around 5:30am local time. - Canopus56 (Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Red rain could prove that aliens have landed (?)
by Patrick Wiggins 05 Mar '06

05 Mar '06

I'm not quite ready to include this in News but I have checked with a friend from the UK that tells me the publication is a serious newspaper so I figured I'd post it here and see what y'all think. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1723913,00.html Patrick BTW, regarding my earlier bovine post, some will be happy to know that another URL has surfaced in which the cows are fighting back. However, not wanting to offend the more conservative elements of this list, you'll need to have me email you the URL off list. :-)

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