May 2007 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] dirty lens
by Chuck Hards 07 May '07

07 May '07

This is excellent advice from a professional, accustomed to the care and feeding of high-dollar optics. Truthfully, it takes a rather astonishing buildup of dust to seriously degade imagery, whereas just a few scratches from too-frequent or improper cleaning can degrade an image much more noticeably...and, its permanent. On 5/7/07, Rob Ratkowski Photography <ratkwski(a)hawaii.rr.com> wrote: > > Bottom line, be gentle and you really > don't need crystal clean optics. > >

1 0

Obs Notes - 5/6-7 SPOC Ealing
by Kurt Fisher 07 May '07

07 May '07

Chuck Hards wrote, > Good report, Kurt, thanks. Was the neighbor's dog behaving itself? Sparky still barks constantly but he or she is getting a little desensitized to having someone at SPOC at night. If I keep all the doors closed and tip-toe around inside the building making as little noise as possible, he will take a break. But a clank from setting the safety stop on the step ladder sends him off for another two-minute barking fit. I guess the dog must be afraid of the dark. He shutup when the Moon rose and there was light to see by. > I have a silcone-based anti-fogging solution meant for > safety glasses that works rather well. It's probably just transit with the weird weather we've been having. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

1 0

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Lawn astronomers vs sprinklers.
by Michael Carnes 07 May '07

07 May '07

You could carry a 5-iron. One good stroke will redirect the water flow straight up. At that point, you've only got to be a few feet away. >I second Daniel's request. Is there any way they can be turned off and >than restarted again after we leave. I can do that on my system so that >they go on manually and then go back to automatic. I have avoided >bringing any large telescopes for that reason. Jokes aside, I've been out there when sprinklers that weren't supposed to come on did in fact come on. I heard a lot of things muttered that we generally try not to say at public star parties. MC

1 0

RE: [Utah-astronomy] Observing notes - Ealing 4-26-2007 Lunar visual
by Kurt Fisher 07 May '07

07 May '07

Don, Thank you for showing me a 2.5mm and 4m TMB Burgress planetary eyepieces on Saturn using Seigfried's new refractor at 400x-500x at Friday's Harmon's urban star party. A high-end engineered wide-angle 60deg short (3 and 5mm) eyepieces made good sense for planetary work. The wide-angle image spreads a dimmer image of the small planetary apparent disk over a relatively larger area of the fovea, resulting in a better perception of details. Spreading the planetary disk with a wide angle also probably breaks down the assumptions behind Knisely's useful magnfication rules-of-thumb that I normally apply to resolution limits. I'm not sure if we pushed Seigfreid's refractor into the range of extreme magnification on Saturn, but the review literature for the TMB mentions that unlike stock DSO lenses, it is engineered to reduce lateral scattering that causes multiple images of a feature to appear when used on very bright targets, e.g. - lunar visual observing. Those secondary scattered images are present in Plossels, but are two dim to perceived. Undoubtedly, your call that that in part was the distortion that I was seeing on the Ealing is right. Performance and price usually, or at least should be, related. At $100 a pop, the TMBs seem like a good price point compromise as compared to a TeleVue 2.5 or 5 Nagler at $290 a lens. You mentioned you were looking at the Plato craterlets as a resolution test. Here's Knisely's map for a Plato crater diameter sequence diagram: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/520616/pag… Cloudy Nights, Lunar Forum, 7/18/2005 "Guide to Plato Craterlets" D. Knisely (map and list) - Kurt Astromart TMB eyepiece review http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=464 Knisely's Useful Magnifications Modified to add a 5mm exit pupil for "low-medium power" LOW POWER (3.7 to 9.9x per inch of aperture)(6.9mm to 2.6mm exit pupil) LOW-MEDIUM POWER (5.1 to 9.9x per inch of aperture)(5mm to 2.6mm exit pupil) MEDIUM POWER (10x to 17.9x per inch of aperture)(2.5mm to 1.4mm exit pupil) HIGH POWER (18x to 29.9x per inch of aperture)(1.4mm to 0.8mm exit pupil) VERY HIGH POWER (30x to 41.9x per inch of aperture)(0.8mm to 0.6mm exit pupil) EXTREME POWER (42x to 75x per inch)(0.6mm to 0.3mm exit pupil) EMPTY MAGNIFICATION (100x per inch and above) Modified from D. Knisely, 5/14/2004 sci.astro.amateur Usenet post, Thread "Eyepiece advice, again" _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

4 4

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Calling all robot-makers - Regolith robot excavation challenge
by Michael Carnes 04 May '07

04 May '07

Got a friend here at work who actually built a 'bot and won a few rounds on 'Battle Bots'. I don't think he'd be interested unless there was another 'bot he could pound with a hammer. >Here's your chance to build your retirement fund up with the $250,000 first place prize for the - >2007 Regolith [Robot] Excavation Centennial Challenge >P.S. Well, it's sort of astronomy related. -:) Not any more.

1 0

Calling all robot-makers - Regolith robot excavation challenge
by Kurt Fisher 04 May '07

04 May '07

Here's your chance to build your retirement fund up with the $250,000 first place prize for the - 2007 Regolith [Robot] Excavation Centennial Challenge http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/regolith/ Here's a paper from last month's 38th Lunar and Planetary Institute annual conference on designing a lunar bulldozer. Kokany, A. et al. 2007. Practical Questions on Moving of Lunar Soil. 38 LPI Abs. 1395 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/1395.pdf - Kurt P.S. Well, it's sort of astronomy related. -:) _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

1 0

Favorite Salt Lake Astro-Weather Links for 2007
by Kurt Fisher 04 May '07

04 May '07

Ben, thanks for link. That's a good Utah weather dashboard. One of the problems with these weather links is that they tend to get outdated. The 300 mile doppler radar was a good addition. It is also available at NOAA SLC. http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=mtx&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loo… Daniel, thanks for all the help. This thread really helped me to get my weather links tightened up to a good useable list. Even so, after concluding that last night would have no clear skies, I looked outside after midnight and again at 3am. There was a nice horizon-to-horizon hole overhead! Too bad the hole was gone by the time that I woke up. Back to cloud cover! - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

1 0

Re:[Utah-astronomy] Favorite Salt Lake Astro-Weather Links for 2007
by daniel turner 04 May '07

04 May '07

Nope, I prefer the view from the satellite. You can see trends developing from a long way off and the camera never has water on the lens. Also Infrared data continues after sunset so you can critique your forecast when you get back home later that night. The water vapor fills in the cirrus clouding that Infrared doesn't quite pick up. I also use the 4k and 2k animations, which have much higher resolution. I don't like handing people a stack of URL's, it's like handing them a running chain saw and sort of implies that they really want it and actually know what to do with it. The U of Wyo site is a good example. First hurdle is the soundings are listed in Zulu time, which is military for UTC. Many people can't (or won't learn to) translate that into local time. Next you need to know that the inversion isn't there at sunset but quickly develops during prime evening viewing time. The data for inversion is best seen at 12z or the morning sounding, which may be a couple of mouse clicks away before you click on the map for the SLC station. Next hurdle: The data page is just a white background with numbers on it. No dancing Gecko no animated Spiderman ads, no eye candy, just data. Next hurdle: the elevation is in meters, the temperatures are in Celsius, and the numbers go down the page as the data goes up in the sky, most unfriendly. So I know the meters to feet is divide by three and multiply by ten, and I can do a rough translation from C to F as 0 is 30, 5 is 40, 10 is 50, 15 is 60, etc but by this time most of Generation X has gone into "whatever" mode and surfed away. I guess I would rather just leave a trail of breadcrumbs and let the really hungry ones follow it. Or not. DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

Re:[Utah-astronomy] Favorite Salt Lake Astro-Weather Links for 2007
by Kurt Fisher 04 May '07

04 May '07

> Many of the weather websites that I > use have URL's that are dynamically > generated and only valid for a > short time. . . . They want the instant > gratification of a live link. Properly space web cameras can give a good idea of what the weather will be in the future. I like the West Wendover camera. On a day like today, I can see around sunset what the weather is probably going to be like in Salt Lake and Tooele in a few hours by looking at the Wendover camera. It gives a more accurate visual impression than the IR satellite image. West Wendover now http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/camera/single/WestWendover.php vs. West bench North South Salt now http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/camera/single/NSL.West.php vs. the IR sat image http://www.weather.gov/sat_tab.php?image=ir Looks like no clearing tonight. > If we are in a stable and clear weather > pattern, I then use the mesoscale map that > I gave the link to (it's in the archives if > you want it). It gives wind arrows with > feathers on them for strength and a > temperature and gust speed number. Roll your > mouse over them and you get elevation, > humidity and dew point and in some sites > . . . Click on a site and see a 2 day > history of wind temperature and dew point. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/slc/current/meso.nwut.php Oh, that's what your'r supposed to use that map for. You had me wondering. -:) > I also look at weather sounding information > from the U of Wyoming. Weather soundings show > you temperature and dew point in the > vertical direction as well as precipitible > water in the entire air column. That's a good one, Daniel. I hadn't thought of that. http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1

Re:[Utah-astronomy] Favorite Salt Lake Astro-Weather Links for 2007
by daniel turner 03 May '07

03 May '07

Many of the weather websites that I use have URL's that are dynamically generated and only valid for a short time. I've tried to explain how I get to them but when people are web surfing don't have the attention span for that. They want the instant gratification of a live link. Basically I start with the Continental US map of watches and warnings. This gives me a broad picture of where the problems might blow in from in the next few hours. Currently we are under a Snow Alert so that's all I need to know about today. Cedar City is in a Red Flag Warning, high wind and low humidity, so there is fire danger in the desert there. Next I look at the 7 day forecast for Salt Lake City, it tells me that we will have cloud cover until at least next week. If things were looking good at this point (which they are not) I would look at the 4k Infrared animations for the western US. This tells me if there is an approaching cloud front. As it gets closer to sunset I look at 2k animations of Infrared and Water Vapor. On Astronomy Day this year, there was a large wet one marching across Nevada towards us in the afternoon. I made my decision not to go out based on that. As it happens the front stalled briefly at Wendover and gave us a few hours of clear, but I'm happy with the call I made. If we are in a stable and clear weather pattern, I then use the mesoscale map that I gave the link to (it's in the archives if you want it). It gives wind arrows with feathers on them for strength and a temperature and gust speed number. Roll your mouse over them and you get elevation, humidity and dew point and in some sites cloud cover. Click on a site and see a 2 day history of wind temperature and dew point. This is how I learned to stay out of dry lakebeds like Pit n pole. They are consistently 10 to 20 degrees colder than a higher elevation site just a few miles away. I also look at weather sounding information from the U of Wyoming. Weather soundings show you temperature and dew point in the vertical direction as well as precipitible water in the entire air column. Less than a centimeter is good, more than a centimeter is bad. Also you can read the inversion layer. This tells you when it is warmer in the mountains than the valley bottoms. You could go up to 7000 feet and be above most of the moisture in the atmosphere. Good stuff to know in the wintertime. My take on the Clear Sky Clock is that it is a good attempt but it falls short. The Transparency bar is really the precipitible water in the air column but doesn't tell you whether it's all bunched up in a cirrus layer or spread thin over the entire column. The weather sounding from U of W does tell you this. Also the CLC cloud cover bar doesn't even see the thin cirrus layers. Last Saturday's CLC for SPOC was rated as "clear" while anyone who was there knows better. Oh and I also often just stick my head out the door and just look up at the sky. I learned to do that from Guy. DT __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1