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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] S and T in trouble
by Debbie 14 Feb '09

14 Feb '09

I dropped the magazine because I don't have room for all the magazines. They build up year after year and my storage space is limited. Plus the local library has the magazine. Debbie On Thu Feb 12 14:13 , Howard Jackman <sumoetx(a)yahoo.com> sent: >Yeah I've been so disapointed in it lately as well, I had wanted to drop astronomy in favor of S&T but now I might just let both go. I'm so dissapointed in the quality of both mags....pity, we need good solid resources in astronomy but economics are just too brutal right now. > >Howard > > >--- On Thu, 2/12/09, Chuck Hards chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> From: Chuck Hards chuck.hards(a)gmail.com> >> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] S and T in trouble >> To: "Utah Astronomy" utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com> >> Date: Thursday, February 12, 2009, 1:31 PM >> The magazine is no longer owned by the senior editorial >> staff; hasn't been >> for a couple of years now. That's when the decline >> started- the loss of >> Roger W. Sinnott, et. al. My old editor, Gary Seronik, was >> sent packing >> from the S&T offices and has been living back in his >> hometown of Vancouver >> BC since the sale. >> >> I let my subcription lapse last fall. It's no longer >> the resource it once >> was, and never will be. >> >> On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 1:12 PM, daniel turner >> outwest112(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >> >> > I'm usually the last one to become alarmed at such >> things but I'm beginning >> > to get concerned about bedtime reading material Sky >> and Telescope Magazine. >> > It started with the loss of S. J. O'Meara last >> year but is seems to have >> > picked up speed at an alarming rate. David Levy is >> gone as well as Stuart >> > Goldman. Stuart was the group's web guru and >> lately they have stopped >> > sending the weekly news email. This latest issue was >> missing the Q and A >> > section and with it any mention anywhere of Roger >> Sinnott. Also alarming is >> > the recent thinness of the advertisers list. Orion no >> longer has an ad and >> > Astronomics has cut it's full page add in half. >> Page count is shrinking and >> > the new editor is giving bombastic editorials about >> the magazine not being >> > "dumbed down". >> > >> > I know the economy is a problem for every one and >> print media in general is >> > under pressure from the Internet, but S & T seems >> to be in big trouble >> > during a time when people traditionally look to their >> hobbies for some peace >> > of mind. >> > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> Utah-Astronomy mailing list >> Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >> http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >> Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com >> Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com > > > > >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy >Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com >Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Exciting times in small exoplanet search
by Jerry Foote 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Joe & Jim, Exploanets are found in three ways: transits in which the planet dims the parent star as it transits our line of site; by measuring the radial velocity change of the parent star as the planet and star orbit their common center of gravity; and direct observation such as the Hubble telescopes image of Fomalhaut-b. In the case of transiting planets virtually all are hot Jupiter sized planets that orbit their parent star rapidly in a few days. These transiting planets are confirmed by radial velocity measurements. By correlating these radial velocity changes with the transit period, confirmation is achieved. The direct radial velocity discovered planets are also for the most part in the range of hot Jupiters but their orbit does not cross our line of sight to the star thus a transit is not seen. There has been only one planet discovered (XO-3b) that is very massive ~12 x Jupiters mass. There was some controversy over its mass as the theoretical dividing line between a planet and a brown dwarf is 13 Jupiter masses. As for large sunspots being confused with an exoplanet transit, there would not be a radial velocity change when measuring a spotted star. A final note if you want to see a transiting planet with a small scope, set your calendars for June 6, 2012 at 01h 29m 28s UT at which time Venus will transit our Sun. The ingress will be visible in N. America while the entire transit will be visible from a swath starting in Alaska and ending in Australia. Book you tickets now!!! 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] Exciting times in small exoplanet search
by Jay Eads 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Does that make us individually a Tin Man and/or a Tin Woman? On 2009-02-13 23:25, Chuck Hards wrote: > Some of the snooty ones wear gold-foil hats. My grandmother wore an > antimony-foil hat. Judging by my clarity of thought lately, I wore a > lead-foil hat at one time. > > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:21 PM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@???> wrote: > > > Patrick's got it all wrong. We wear aluminum foil hats nowadays -- too hard > > to find tinfoil. jb > > > > >

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Score another for Tyler
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Tyler's done it again. He reworked another of my images but this time I sent him all the original FIT data (not the compressed, lower quality JPG stuff he used before). See the results here: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68&g2_page=3 The couple of my shots he's worked so far have been made from several 1 minute exposures. At his suggestion I spent most of last night getting several hours worth of 5' guided exposures of a nice little edge on spiral galaxy. I can't wait to see what he makes of that. :) Oh, and by way of tempting folks to come to next week's SLAS meeting, Tyler tells me he's holding off on releasing his newest image until the meeting. If even he thinks it's special it's got to be great. patrick

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Horsehead and Flame
by Stephen Peterson 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Tyler, Just WOW! Have a list of questions, perhaps they will get answered at the meeting. How accurately are you polar aligned versus exposure length? Is the G11 still set up each session or do you now have a fixed position? What were the exposures? My DSLR can take darks and do the subtraction itself is that adequate or should I not use that feature and take a separate dark set? Lot more questions but I'll wait. In awe, Steve

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S and T in trouble
by daniel turner 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

I'm usually the last one to become alarmed at such things but I'm beginning to get concerned about bedtime reading material Sky and Telescope Magazine. It started with the loss of S. J. O'Meara last year but is seems to have picked up speed at an alarming rate. David Levy is gone as well as Stuart Goldman. Stuart was the group's web guru and lately they have stopped sending the weekly news email. This latest issue was missing the Q and A section and with it any mention anywhere of Roger Sinnott. Also alarming is the recent thinness of the advertisers list. Orion no longer has an ad and Astronomics has cut it's full page add in half. Page count is shrinking and the new editor is giving bombastic editorials about the magazine not being "dumbed down". I know the economy is a problem for every one and print media in general is under pressure from the Internet, but S & T seems to be in big trouble during a time when people traditionally look to their hobbies for some peace of mind. DT

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Star Party Reminder
by Dunn, David 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Speaking of Debbie, OAS will be joining with Debbie on the 20th and 21st for a star party in St. George. All astronomers are invited. We plan to meet in the parking lot of Motel 6 at about 4pm. We will then head out to a nice dark place to hold the star party. If you plan to attend, please let me know so that we don't miss you. I will get you my cell phone number so we can stay in touch. A couple of us are planning to be there even if the weather is bad. We will find something else to do if it is cloudy. Thanks, Dave

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] S and T in Trouble
by stormcrow60＠xmission.com 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Hi Daniel, I always thought Astronomy was the better magazine anyway. True, S & T had more for the amateur or astronomical hobbyist. Especially those that built their own scopes. But I always thought Astronomy magazine had superior articles. As far as the lamenting that there are no astronomy magazines for the more technical amateur astronomer, there are always college journals or science journals to read. I for one take pleasure in reading an article I can comprehend and enjoy, instead of having to decipher formulas written within the context of an article. I mean trying to grasp multiple dimensions, membrane theory and quantum physics is difficult enough. So for me at least, to keep it in somewhat layman's terms makes reading the article enjoyable. Otherwise, it would be like trying to read someone's college dissertation on chemistry. That may sound like fun or interesting reading to others, but not for me. Just my take. Jon

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M-77 & Cloudy night humor
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Here's a group of M-77 LRGB JPG images y'all are welcome to work with and see how well you can do by combining them into a spiffy color image. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68&g2_page=3 And by way of some cloudy night humor, here's a self portrait I took years ago featuring the SLAS banner. You'll note that despite being where I was when the shutter was snapped I made sure I held the banner so folks in the northern hemisphere could see it ok. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/TOC.JPG Night all! patrick

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Lulin - moon getting close
by Jim Gibson 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

About 6:15 this morning (Friday the 13th) I took my Galileo 15X70 binoculars out side to see if I could find Lulin. To my disappointment there was a pretty bright moon out but I could still find Spica in Virgo. My Galileo’s have about a 4 degree field of view (FOV) and my planetarium software said that Lulin was about 12 degrees from spica in the direction of Kappa Virginis but slightly lower. I found what I believe is Hip 67271 a star with spectrum k3 that appeared orange to me. I expected that Lulin was going to be in the same FOV, and it wasn’t readily apparent. I almost missed it. Lulin was just on the verge of seeing. I didn’t need averted vision but then again it was so faint that I had to jiggle the binos around to make sure my mind wasn’t making it up. With the moon at about 16.5 degrees away didn’t help any. The moon will move farther east and tomorrow night (morning) won’t be any better. Tomorrow morning the moon will be about 6.5 degrees away with a lower declination. Better wait 3 or 4 more days and pray for the cloud gods to take a vacation in the Sahara. Jim

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