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

Perseid Meteor Shower
by Debbie 15 Aug '07

15 Aug '07

I just found this on You-Tube. Very cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XTBrYWrey0&feature=dir Debbie

3 2

Large Ammo Boxes for your Telescope Packing Pleasure
by Patrick Wiggins 15 Aug '07

15 Aug '07

I just heard from a guy with several shipping boxes that were used to ship some sort of military rockets (Sorry Guy, the rockets have been removed <grin>). Sounded like something that could be used to pack telescopes and accessories. He's asking $5 a piece or 5 for $20. Begin forwarded message: >> A friend of mine recently acquired some large Army-surplus Rocket >> Boxes that he'd like to offer up for your dust-proof, water-proof, >> packing needs. >> >> These boxes are 12" x 36" wide, and 12" tall. That's 3 square feet >> of space. And, should you need it, they still have the rocket- >> shaped styrofoam inserts. >> >> And, they're GREEN! >> >> If you're interested, email him at arnehultquist AT >> utahDOTgov

1 0

Re: Wolf Creek Stellacam3 Images
by Naz & David 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Richard, the mount I'm using is a Vixen GPDX, I have a controller that I can program for PEC but I didn't bother this evening. This limits exposure to about 30sec but I was only polar aligned as good as the alignment scope can give me and that can limit things as well. The camera is available from Ariondack for $900 uncooled, I use a b/w 9" Sony monitor (with a red acrolyte filter) I picked up off ebay for $15. That's all you need if you don't want to record your images. You could use a video camera/recorder for that but I choose to use a frame capture card and an old clunker laptop (still running w98!). I managed to make a movie of the Perseids frames (mpeg-4, runs on my iPod Video which is kind of cool). From this I was able to pick out nine obvious "strikes". Tracing their path back (tricky because the lens distorts things a bit), seven came from the Perseids expected radiant north of Perseus but two bright ones seemed to come from Cassiopeia. I'll put the nine frames on the gallery when it comes back up, the movies too big to post but it looks great on the b/w monitor via the iPod! Cheers David ----- Original Message ----- From: Naz & David To: ZZ_Utah Astro List Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 11:12 PM Subject: Wolf Creek Stellacam3 Images I posted in my gallery (http://www.utahastronomy.com/album53) a set of single frame captures of various dso's I observed on Saturday night at Wolf Creek using a Stellacam3 and 7.1" MCT. They pretty much match what I was seeing real time on the monitor, most objects I had refreshing somewhere between 10 to 15sec integration, a few a bit less and some at 25 to 30sec. I didn't really track camera settings etc as I was enjoying the object detail too much, just about a full five hours observing before the wind picked up at 0300hrs. The images certainly aren't pretty compared to what you get with a bigger ccd, many minutes worth of stacked images and a bunch of image processing mucking about but having these real time (and at much less cost) makes up for it. The camera appears to triple or more the aperture of my little scope. When the wind started I set a StellacamII up with Tamron 4-12mm CCTV lens and put it on a tripod and pointed it east in an attempt to capture a few Perseids. Took about 85minutes of 8.5sec exposures but have not had time to see if I got anything yet. Cheers David

1 0

Down memory lane
by Patrick Wiggins 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Ann Blanchard emailed me today asking about a written history of SLAS. I don't think one's ever been written (I'm going to bring it up with the board) but it did get me thinking and dong a bit of strolling down memory lane. A few items of SLAS history: The first meeting of the SLAS was held on 29 July 1971. A list of all board members and newsletter editors is at: http:// users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/slas/SLASBOD.XLS Current members who initially joined in the 70s (making them our own "Quorum of the 70s") are Grim, Bruce S Sep 1971 Hards, Chuck Mar 1974 Wiggins, Patrick Jan 1975 Vardon, Gary S Apr 1978 Jachmann, Siegfried Sep 1978 Goodman, Nate Jun 1979 Green, Charles L Oct 1979 Memories...

3 2

Suppressing mirror flop in 10" GEM mounted Newt
by Kurt Fisher 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Chuck wrote: > We should meet face-to-face with the hardware > in-hand. Then I could show you my custom cell as well. Thank you for the offer, Chuck. You are busy guy, so let me know whatever is convenient for you over the next couple of weeks. If you are going to SLAS swap meet on August 18, I could bring the scope to the swap meet and we could discuss it there. - Kurt fisherka(a)csolutions.net _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

3 3

meteor activity Friday night
by Chuck Hards 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Friday night I noticed at least 3 meteors that at first I took to be sporadics, but then I realized that they all had approximately the same radiant, near Sagittarius. Anybody else notice this? A couple of meteors had radiants that suggested that they were Perseids, espeically one very bright, long one early in the evening, before the radiant was even up.

4 7

Fwd: Star Party
by Richard Tenney 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Please do a "reply to all" (since Steve isn't on the list) if you would be willing to help Steve and the boys out. Thanks! -Rich --- Steve Boyce <sboyce(a)WiLife.com> wrote: > Subject: Star Party > Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:40:09 -0600 > From: "Steve Boyce" <sboyce(a)WiLife.com> > To: <retenney(a)yahoo.com> > > Richard, > > I have a question regarding star parties. > > Do you have any planned for the pit n pole anytime > through the > > remainder of the year? > > I have a scout group of about 9 boys that are > working on their > > Astronomy merit badge and would like to take them to > some dark skies. > > We are located in Tooele, but I don't think that > they could get the > > same experience in Stansbury as I have had with you > guys personally in > the past > > out in Rush Valley. Just not as many people and you > just can't beat the > dark. > > Not to mention how nice everyone is. > > If you wouldn't mind getting back with me it would > be great. > > I have an old 17.5 inch Coulter that I am in the > middle of trying to > > make into a truss dob. I can still use the old > mount, so I could > > bring it a long as well. But I know that it can't > touch some > > of the beauties that I have seen out there before. > > > > Thanks for your help. > > > > Steven Boyce > > > > > > <http://www.wilife.com> > Steven Boyce > IT Manager > > O: 801.316.4791 > F: 801.316.4701 > > 132 East 13065 South Suite 200 > Draper, Utah 84020 > www.wilife.com <http://www.wilife.com/> > www.lukwerks.com <http://www.lukwerks.com/> > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222

1 0

Wolf Creek Stellacam3 Images
by Naz & David 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

I posted in my gallery (http://www.utahastronomy.com/album53) a set of single frame captures of various dso's I observed on Saturday night at Wolf Creek using a Stellacam3 and 7.1" MCT. They pretty much match what I was seeing real time on the monitor, most objects I had refreshing somewhere between 10 to 15sec integration, a few a bit less and some at 25 to 30sec. I didn't really track camera settings etc as I was enjoying the object detail too much, just about a full five hours observing before the wind picked up at 0300hrs. The images certainly aren't pretty compared to what you get with a bigger ccd, many minutes worth of stacked images and a bunch of image processing mucking about but having these real time (and at much less cost) makes up for it. The camera appears to triple or more the aperture of my little scope. When the wind started I set a StellacamII up with Tamron 4-12mm CCTV lens and put it on a tripod and pointed it east in an attempt to capture a few Perseids. Took about 85minutes of 8.5sec exposures but have not had time to see if I got anything yet. Cheers David

2 1

Suppressing mirror flop in 10" GEM mounted Newt
by Kurt Fisher 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Chuck, I assume that what you are talking about is something like this page on doing a clipectomy - http://www.lefevre.darkhorizons.org/lxd55/clipectomy.htm - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Suppressing mirror flop in 10" GEM mounted Newt
by Kurt Fisher 13 Aug '07

13 Aug '07

Chuck, >From the back of the scope there are three spring loaded finger screws that set the position of the mirror by connecting to a metal cell back. Next to each positioning screw is a separate metal screw that fixes the position of the cell. On the interior tube side of the mirror, three plastic clips apparently hold the metal to the metal cell back. Suggetions I have received are: 1) glue the primary cell to the cell back plate using "silicone glue" in three dime sized dolops. I assume this is RTG silcone, brand name GE Silicone II. I am concerned about using the right glue, since I would not want to permanently affix the mirror to the cell back. 2) Cut pieces of bicycle inner tube up and insert them under the clips. The clips can be tightened while the inner tube spacers are flexible enough to give. 3) Check the secondary for play (which I have done). The degree of mirror flop couldnot be properly assessed until I replaced the extruded bar with a custom extra heavy duty bar. Before the X-HD bar the cone error exceeded 1 degree. With the X-HD bar and at the 10 and 2 o-clock positions I can constrain it to 6 and 10 arcmins. At the 3 and 9 pm positions, it is about 10 arcmins on one side and about 20 arcmins on the other. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

1 0