January 2009 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

OT: GO UTES!!
by Chuck Hards 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

BEAT THE TIDE!! WOOT WOOT!!

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Meridian Telescopes
by Chuck Hards 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

Has anyone made a purchase from Meridian Telescopes? http://www.meridiantelescopes.com/index.htm I recently emailed a question about one of their listed products but have not yet received a reply. They have made recent changes to their Website (Nov. '08), so it should be fairly current.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Stellar color perceptions
by sjseebergp＠webtv.net 02 Jan '09

02 Jan '09

Only slightly OT In the 1970`s at NBC, in Burbank, Calif. sat one young man looking at two walls of tv monitors. As every human sees color slghtly differently...in addition to male/female differences his eyes saw about what a good cross section of the public would call average. That one young man was observing all NBC programming for over 30 days as yet un-aired. He would say [in a clear voice] for example, "number 33 soften the blue in the dress, or number 17, brighten the red tablecloth, etc. So , what we all saw on the West Coast whether to be broadcast in the West or beamed East depended on one young man`s eyes. Then the individual viewer at home could intensify or dim, sharpen, or contrast at will..but based on the average. Probably all done by computer in the New Days. This young man came up to Griffith Observatory where my husband worked and I quizzed him about even the hint of colors he saw when looking through the roof scope. But, alas, just the same white fuzzy dots we all saw. Thanks for the memories! Jan Seeberg Vancouver Sidewalk Astronomers USA

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Image of M86 and Friends
by Tyler Allred 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Hi all. Here is a link to a luminance only image of M86 and friends. This is another image from a couple of nights ago. This is a fun one to look around and the count galaxies. Be sure to click on the image for the full version. Here is the link: http://71.18.228.62/images/Eyes2.jpg I hope you enjoy this image. Tyler Image Info: ASA N8 Astrograph Losmandy G-11/Gemini FLI Maxcam CM-10 19 x 5 minutes luminance MaxIm DL and Photoshop _____________________________________________

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A snack in Gemini before bedtime
by Canopus56 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Chuck wrote: > I see colors through the eyepiece differently, depending on which eye is > doing the looking. . . . .It's rare that the colors I perceive are what I've > read in descriptive texts. IMHO, some of the inability to perceive colors can be attributed to color illiteracy. Haas's descriptions are often attributed quotes from an 1844 celestial guide by Smyth and a 1917 guide by Webb. Mullaney's descriptions are unattributed quotes that he garned from Pickering, Barnard, Smyth, Flammarion, the Herschels and others. All of these color descriptions come from 19th century or early 20th century authors and pre-date color film. I suspect that those historical times required a basic educated person to be able to mix paints and have a good color vocabulary. In the era of color film, unless you take art classes, a basic school education does require much beyond naming the primary colors. Most people would be hard pressed to name the secondary colors off the top of their head, much less tertiary colors. Now you can just show the thing to someone in a cell phone picture instead of having to describe it. With cell phone camera's, there's no reall need to verbally describe colors beyond your basic red-blooded American male color set of green, camouflage green, brown, camouflage brown, black, flat (camouflage) black, gun metal black and gun metal gray. My own terse descriptions are due in part to my lack of color vocabulary. This reminds me that I bought and stored a color wheel in one of my astronomy gear boxes for use in describing star colors. I'll have to pull that out and start using it. At least I can expand my color vocabulary from the primary colors into tertiary colors modifed by the basic descriptors of tint (add white), tone (add grey) and shade (add black). Clear skies - Kurt

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New Astronomy Blog
by Ann House 01 Jan '09

01 Jan '09

Move over Utah-Astronomy. There is a new astronomy blog in town. Our very own Sheena McFarland from the SL Tribune started this one and can be found below. She has another wonderful astronomy story in today's paper about the upcoming meteor shower and also announces her blog. She told us it was coming and I was watching for it. Thank you, Sheena, for your science-astronomy stories and for plugging our hobby. http://sunspottingstargazing.blogspot.com/ -A

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Mercury Jupiter
by Patrick Wiggins 31 Dec '08

31 Dec '08

Thanks to a reminder from Dave Bernson I went out earlier this evening and saw Jupiter and Mercury right next to one another. Frustrating that the clouds were lurking there so it took 7x35 binos to spot them at first but once located and the sky darkened Jupiter was easy but Mercury took some effort. Thanks Dave! patrick

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Thomas Harriot - first reported astronomical telescope use
by Canopus56 31 Dec '08

31 Dec '08

In the December 2008 issue of the J. Br. Astron. Assoc., historian Allan Chapman << url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Chapman_(historian) >> presents a telescopic drawing of the Moon dated July 26, 1609 by early English astronomer Thomas Harriot. The drawing is no _Sidereus Nuncius_, but is noteworthy in that it predates Galileo's earliest reported use of a telescope to view astronomical objects. Chapman places Galileo's first astronomical use of a telescope in late November or December 1609. IMHO, Harriot's lunar drawing is very crude and does nothing to displace the preeminance of Galileo's more detailed drawings and analysis in _Sidereus Nuncius_. Galileo also was the first to publish. Harriot's drawings were unpublished. The earlier Harriot observation is also mentioned in the online Galileo Project Timeline of Galileo's life. << url: http://galileo.rice.edu/chron/galileo.html >> Harriot's July 26, 1609 drawing can also be viewed at the Galileo Project website. << url: http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/harriot_moon.html >> Chapman also reviews the ambiguous evidence supporting the existance of the English Diggs reflector telescope. Chapman conludes the Diggs scope probably did not exist. Clear Skies - Kurt Chapman, A. Dec. 2008. Thomas Harriot: the first telescopic astronomer. J. Br. Astron. Assoc. 118(6):315-325. P.S. - The J. Br. Astron. Assoc. article is a version of lecture given by Chapman in Dec. 2007. This may be old news and not new news to some. This (Dec. 2008) was the first time I ran across this reference.

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First Light Image with ASA N8 - M81 and M82
by Jerry Foote 31 Dec '08

31 Dec '08

Tyler, Great image! After all of your work to get this system working it seems to have paid off. Cindy says "beautiful." Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote(a)scopecraft.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A snack in Gemini before bedtime
by Canopus56 31 Dec '08

31 Dec '08

Chuck wrote: > The difference between the male and female brain when at the eyepiece <snip all> This informal online test of your gay-dar indicates it - like your TIVO's rating system - is in place and in working order. -:) Happy New Year - Kurt P.S. - Astronomical colors are so subjective that I do not worry about them. It is the fact that many observers see some kind of color - instead of a just another couple of more white dots - that signals a pair may be more interesting to look at.

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