February 2008 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

RE: [SPAM] - Re: [Utah-astronomy] Moonbeam? - Email found in subj ect
by Corr, Tom 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

Aloha Rob: No, sadly, I was so surprised by the phenomenon and the rainshower that was taking place was so short-lived, that I did not have time to run out to the car and locate a camera. I failed as a Boy Scout leader to live up to its motto: "Be prepared." But I was so glad to be able to have witnessed it. I wished I had had some forethought to have contacted you before going to Hawaii, I would have enjoyed an opportunity to meet you. -----Original Message----- From: Rob Ratkowski Photography [mailto:ratkwski@hawaii.rr.com] Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:29 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [SPAM] - Re: [Utah-astronomy] Moonbeam? - Email found in subject Sender ALLOWED [ Remove <https://vq.co.linn.or.us/pk/banner?op=remove_from_allow&From=utah%2Dastrono my%2Dbounces(a)mailman.xmission.com&VU=aV47PNhFIWR67juHByvmTQ> ] [ Block <https://vq.co.linn.or.us/pk/banner?op=block_sender&From=utah%2Dastronomy%2D bounces(a)mailman.xmission.com&VU=aV47PNhFIWR67juHByvmTQ> ] <https://vq.co.linn.or.us/userguide/details_allow.html> details Vanquish Anti-Spam <https://vq.co.linn.or.us/pk/heldemail> Control Panel Aloha Tom you saw a moonbow, something that I have seen a few times and I even have a photo of one on the gallery page. http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=5857 <http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=5857> You did get an unexpected surprise and are among a small group that has seen this night time vision. Did you photograph it??, capturing the colors is luck but it does happen. Aloha Rob _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy <http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy> Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com <http://gallery.utahastronomy.com> Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com <http://www.utahastronomy.com>

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Yesterday's Spiral Jetty and Tree of Utah pictures (OT)
by Patrick Wiggins 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

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Obs Report 2008-2-10 7-8UT 12-1MST
by Canopus56 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

Last night was one of the few cloudless nights in the last month. Although it was cold, I decided to load up a small 60mm refractor, drive up to Little Mountain pass east of Salt Lake City and split a couple of doubles just to get out of the city. On the drive up, dewing was evident on my windshield. Lt. Mtn. pass was windless and a little warmer than the city on the lower valley floor. The sky to the north north west was about mag 3.7 (zet Aur) with Mars within 2 degrees of bet Tau (Elnath). About 2 degrees north west of ElNath is 26 Aur, the 5.4 mag primary of STF753 (CCDM J05386+3030). The mag 5.4 AB pair (F9III+B9.5V) is separated by 12.2" from mag 8.8 STF753C and is listed as a color contrast double in Haas' book. The CCDM entry indicates that this system is a multiple. In the CCDM, the A and B components are listed at mag 6.1 and 6.5 with no separation while Cartes du Ciel returns a 0.45" separation. The C component is the mag 8.8 star at 12.2". The CCDM lists a fourth mag 11.5 component, but not having checked the CCDM before leaving, I was unaware of it at the eyepiece. STF753 AB-C was a nice white gold pair easily separated at 20 power and that was inspected further at 32 power. Along with Mars, I watched for STF753 for about 20 minutes. This has been an unusual severe winter featuring almost a complete cloud-out since mid-December. Multiple storm fronts have been punctuated with very brief gaps of clear air between the fronts. True to form, no sooner than I had set up and located 26 Aur, a deck of high-alitude clouds started to move in from the south south west traveling towards the north north east at a very high rate of speed. I continued to watch 26 Aur until the cloud band reached that portion of the sky and then transfered to another double near the zenith in UMa. However, the rate of speed of this high cloud deck was so rapid that by the time I got near the target, the cloud band had reached the zenith. I wrapped up with a quick look an easy wide, yellow and blue pair in the north-north-east - del Boo (STF27, CCDM J15156+3319), that appears on many colorful double star lists, including Mullaney's _Celestial Harvest_, Belmont Society Colorful Double Star list and the Astroleague double star list. del Boo is the 3.5 mag (G8IIIFe-1) primary separated by a generous 102" from the 8.7 mag (G0) secondary. With the high cloud deck closing in, I took a quick look at M13 in Hercules and finished with an attempt at another easy wide double, STF 1888, an unequal pair 5 degrees north of zet Boo. Before I could even acquire zet Boo to star hop north, the cloud deck swept in and ended the session. I did not measure the temperature. The small refractor with a dew shield did not dew up, as did a 32mm e.p., while a smaller 20mm e.p. did dew up. The approximate dew point is listed by our local weather service around -2.7C (27F) and the overnight low at the lower elevation airport at -3.3C (26F). - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Society for Astronomical Science meeting
by Jerry Foote 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

Happy New Year to Everyone! Now that the holidays are over and, I hope, things are settling down, I thought I'd add another item to your New Year's Resolutions: to start thinking about a paper that you'd like to present (oral or poster) at the Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium this coming May 20-22 in Big Bear, CA. The deadline for abstracts is March 14, 2008. I know, two months away but with the hectic lives we lead, those eight weeks will be come and gone before you know it. Remember that your paper doesn't have to be about some startling new discovery. It can be about work in progress that you're doing in just about any field of interest related to doing astronomy science with your telescope. If you have some results, preliminary or final, we'd be interested to hear about them. Talks about techniques, getting the most out of equipment and/or software, are just as welcome, providing they are of general interest and don't get "too commercial." In other words, the field is pretty much wide open. You'll find more details on the SAS web site http://www.socastrosci.org including an MS Word sample document that has formatting styles and guidelines. If at all possible, please use this for your final paper so that editing the final proceedings can go smoothly. If you have any questions, please let us know. You can send an email to the program committee at program_at_socastrosci_dot_org. All abstracts and papers should be sent to that email address to assure that at least one person on the committee receives it. Sending it to a personal email may send it into the Cyberspace version of a black hole. We look forward to seeing you in May and to a great meeting. Jerry Foote Program Committee and Trustee Society for Astronomical Sciences www.socastrosci.org/ jfoote(a)scopecraft.com

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OT: Sports cars
by Chuck Hards 09 Feb '08

09 Feb '08

Just wondering if any other astro list members share my interest in sports cars and roadsters. I'm not talking about "point and shoot" horsepower muscle cars, but cars that go fast yet were designed for curves. Cars that were meant to be driven on the open road and enjoyed for the driving experience. Some examples would include the MG midget, the Triumph Spitfire, TR6 or TR7, Toyota 2000 GT, Jaguar XK-E series, Datsun 1600, 2000, or 240Z, Mazda RX-7, Miata, RX-8. Anybody?

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Shuttle Atlantis Launch
by Howard Jackman 08 Feb '08

08 Feb '08

Just watched the Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch on NASA TV. I have to say that I was very impressed by the strength of the video stream off the external fuel tank camera. Hardly any static or beak up of signal until just pass the orbiter rolling back right side up and again just around fuel tank seperation. In the past the video's been pretty sketchy as far as staying static free. I admit I haven't had the chance to watch the last 2-3 launches on NASA TV to compare to todays, but I enjoyed this one. Howard ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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Not just SLAS
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Feb '08

08 Feb '08

Just a reminder that Utah-Astronomy is not just for SLAS members and that there are at least a few non-SLAS members that live here. Not that I have any problems with folks posting messages here for SLAS members. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows. Cheers! patrick Your "friendly" co-moderator

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Shuttle surfing
by Canopus56 07 Feb '08

07 Feb '08

Shuttle main page http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/ NASA Live TV http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html (A direct paste link for your media player - may deprecate) http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1369080&segment=149773 Current shuttle position in orbit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/ Hourly schedule during shuttle missions http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Schedule.html http://hubble.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasa-tv.php Nasa one-click local satellite overflight time applet http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html Utah one-click page http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=U… (All the Utah overpasses are short-duration, low-altitude through Feb. 14.) Calsky satellite overflight web application http://www.calsky.com/ Shuttle multimedia center http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/index.html The NASA TV live feed from orbit that is only one during shuttle missions are always stunning - right up there with the Hubble images in "addiction" factor. - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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SLAS Inreach
by Canopus56 07 Feb '08

07 Feb '08

The following BAA program may be of interest with respect to the 2008 SLAS Inreach effort. - Kurt ================================================ BAA electronic bulletin No. 00326 http://www.britastro.org/ ================================================ Back to Basics Assistant(s) Council have recently agreed that our Meetings Secretary, Hazel Collett, needs assistance to help organise the popular and successful Back to Basics (B2B) meetings. The Assistant (or Assistants) will probably need to help organise two meetings per year in any part of the country and to this end it is likely that at least two Assistants will be required, once covering, say, the north and the other the south of the country. B2B meetings are best coordinated with a local astronomical society (AS) and so the Assistant(s) will need to liaise with them. In addition, the new Assistant(s) will also need to liaise with the New Members Coordinator so that new members are aware of these meetings. In more detail, the Assistant(s) will be required to carry out the following tasks:- 1) In collaboration with the Meetings Secretary decide on an area in which to hold the meeting(s) and select a suitable local active AS. 2) Agree with the local AS suitable venue(s). 3) Agree a suitable date (around the first Saturday in October and 3rd or 4th Saturday in January). 4) Book the venue and invite speakers (usually Section Directors / active observers). 5) Discuss with the local AS catering arrangements and agree a price for this. 6) Ask local AS to supply a map and information about their society to go on a flyer. 7) Put together flyer/booking form, arrange printing of this for circulation in BAA Journal plus local advertising by AS. 8) On Day of the meeting ensure everything is in place and oversee proceedings. The aim, once a suitable society has been found, is to ask them to coordinate the local facilities and in this way it is hoped the new Assistant(s) will not find the position too onerous. The Meetings Secretary will, of course, generally be available to give help and guidance at each stage. Will anyone wishing to help the Association in this way please contact the President at their earliest convenience. Roger Pickard, President and Hazel Collett, Meetings Secretary ================================================= BAA electronic bulletins service. E-mail: circadmin(a)britastro.org To unsubscribe please send an e-mail to circadmin(a)britastro.org Bulletin transmitted on Thu Feb 7 18:21:24 GMT 2008 (c) 2007 British Astronomical Association http://www.britastro.org/ ================================================= ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

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New moon today
by Canopus56 07 Feb '08

07 Feb '08

First day of the current lunar cycle - progressing to the eclipse on the 20th. - Kurt P.S. - A small image of the current Moon can be included on any web page using the code snippet below placed anywhere in the body section of an html page. When you click on the image, it will go to the USNO site and give you an enlarged image of the current lunar disk and terminator. <a target=new href="http://aa.usno.navy.mil/idltemp/current_moon.php"><img src="http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/phase.gif" alt="Image of Today's Moon Phase from USNO" class="floatleft" width="55"></a> ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

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