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

(no subject)
by Kurt Fisher 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Here's British uber-observer Pete Lawrence's photo of an inverted Y shaped prominence taken about 6 hours before Saturday's Sun Party. http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/solar/2007/Halpha/2007-06-03_08-02-15_H-alpha.… It could also be an arch with a second sprite prominence in the foreground. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

1 0

ISS tonight
by Patrick Wiggins 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

ISS is set to make a pass high over N. Utah tonight (Sunday). Rise in the SW ~22:49 Nearly straight up ~22:52 Pass into Earth's shadow and fading from view high in NE ~22:55 pw

5 10

TLC stooping low
by Patrick Wiggins 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

I just noticed The Learning Channel is running an hour long program tonight called "An Astronaut Scorned: Lisa Nowak" which it describes as: "An astronaut learns her boyfriend has replaced her with another women." Surely The "Learning" Channel can report on something worth learning. I'll let someone else watch it and let me know if it's as yellow journalistic as it sounds... pw p.s. Happily ISS put on a good show tonight.

1 0

Orion filter threads - problems with?
by Kurt Fisher 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Erik wrote in another thread - > Kurt, One filter for my 2 inch eyepeices and one for > my 1 1/4 eyepeices. Anyone else out there have any > problems with the threading on Orion Filters? Erik I only have the low-end stuff - the 1 1/4". Haven't noticed any threading problems, except on my filter wheel. One filter wouldn't take, but I don't remember the manufacturer. Any others having problems with their 2" filters? - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Obs. Rep. Jordan River Sun Party 6-2
by Kurt Fisher 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Eric wrote: > I have found alot of confusion from amateurs about prominences, > flares, and CME's. Definitely, particularly with respect to the difference between a flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME). But IMHO it's caused more by a lack of republication of accepted classification schemes. For most amateurs they are hard to find online or in print. For prominences, Zirin's _Astrophysics of the Sun_ (1988, Marriot Lib. Call No. QB521 .Z57 1988) is the source I've usually seen quoted. Noted amateur David Knisely has done a good summary of definitional terms from Zirin ( http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/halpha.htm ) - that in plain language are pretty hard to interpert or apply without the example photos in Zirin's book. In Zirin's definitions, a prominence is a supertype definition covering any "H-Alpha emission features projecting beyond the limb of the sun," and covers a pretty broad range of phenomena from the small inverted Y shape seen last Saturday, up to an including the large 20 latitude degree spanning coronal loops in the Devil Sun picture ( http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030418.html ) or the eruptive prominence shown in the very cool April 3, 2000 APOD ( http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000403.html ) that you pointed to. Types of prominences are not restricted to just large coronal loops or large eruptive prominences. Knisley's quote summary of Zirin goes on to say that: "They generally come in two broad classes: Active (limb flares, surges, sprays, loops), and Quiescent (Quiet Region Filaments, Active Region Filaments)." CLASS 1: QUIESCENT FILAMENTS/PROMINENCES (long lived, fairly static) a. QRF (Quiet Region Filament) ie: hedgerow, curtains, floating arches, arcs, fans, etc. b. ASCENDING PROMINENCES (end of the quiescent phase) "Disparition Brusque" ("lifting off") eruption. c. ARF (Active Region Filament): a filament in or near an active region (netural line filaments). CLASS 2: ACTIVE FILAMENTS/PROMINENCES (short-lived, moving) a. LIMB FLARES (bright blobs, sometimes expanding into eruptive prominences). b. SURGES: collimated ejected material previously not seen (very sudden jet of gas). c. SPRAYS: uncollimated ejecta previously visible as pre-flare elevated features (violent explosion). d. FLARE LOOPS and CORONAL RAIN (often post-flare ejecta or other gas). See Knisely's online summary for a more detailed description of these classes. (I haven't seen any online images illustrating the Mt. Wilson sunspot classification scheme.) The plain text defintions don't give much clear guidance for the average amateur to apply. I've always found Maurice Gavin's drawings summarizing Zirin's definitions to be helpful when trying to describe prominences in plain text: http://home.freeuk.com/m.gavin/promtypex.gif The AAVSO Solar Division has a good gallery containing images of many of these prominence classes (although they aren't labeled with the Zirin definitions): http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/limb.shtml http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/limb1.shtml http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/solarphoto.shtml Best wishes - Kurt P.S. - Maybe a good solar imaging project for you lurking Sun party regulars would be to take an image of one of each of the Zirin prominence types. For lurkers, the AAVSO also has a good online summary of the Zurich classification system for describing sunspots. http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/solar/zurichindex.shtml _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Obs. Rep. Jordan River Sun Party 6-2
by Kurt Fisher 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

> Hi Kurt, That was not the one, it was on > astronomy picture of the day > on April 3rd, 2000, its a 20 minute time lapse > of a high energy prominence. Thanks. Here's a corrected link on one of the three: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000403.html You got the second one in the Achronmatic Refractor thread. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Apodizing Mask
by Michael Carnes 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Never tried the mask Eric. I use a curved secondary holder (Protostar) on my 10" dob. No spikes. MC zing Mask > >Hi All, While I am on the subject, any Newtonian user ever tried an >apodizing mask. >They can be an effective way to reduce diffraction spikes as well as >chromatic abberation. Erik

1 0

Apodizing Mask
by erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Hi All, While I am on the subject, any Newtonian user ever tried an apodizing mask. They can be an effective way to reduce diffraction spikes as well as chromatic abberation. Erik

1 0

Achromatic Refractors
by erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Hi All, I'm new to utah-astronomy mail list, I understand filters have been discussed. I own a 6 inch f 5 Achromatic and own the Lumicon Minus Violet and Orion V-Block. I have found the V-Block to be most effective and when used with an apodizing mask eliminates almost all purple. On the moon I use them with a polarizing filter. The only draw back with the Orion filter is that the 2 inch filters don't thread on my eyepiece adapters so I needed to by the 1 1/4 inch filter. The lumicon threads well on all my eyepiece adapters. I apoligize for my bad links for solar astronomy, please try them again http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/ast.162/lect/energy/energy.html http://solarscience.mfsc.nasa.gov Erik

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Obs. Rep. Jordan River Sun Party 6-2
by Kurt Fisher 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Erik, Here's the link that you are shooting for - the famous "Devil Sun" picture: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030418.html - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1