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

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sunspot (gone?)
by Canopus56 08 Jul '09

08 Jul '09

www.spaceweather.com was reporting today that sunspot 1024 was fading and then had a resurgence within the last 24 hours. - Kurt

1 0

Sunspot
by Patrick Wiggins 08 Jul '09

08 Jul '09

There is a nice little sunspot near the center of the Sun's disk today. Maybe more soon??? pw

3 4

ISS Overflights for the next week
by Canopus56 08 Jul '09

08 Jul '09

[From the NASA PR machine] NASA Press Release: Space Station Marathon http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/03jul_sightings.htm?list89139 "The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built." Higher angle overflights from SLCC from NASA ISS applet http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=Uni… ISS Sun Jul 05/05:22 AM 5 44* 10 above NW 11 above ESE ISS Mon Jul 06/10:13 PM 5 32 11 above SSW 11 above ENE ISS Mon Jul 06/11:49 PM 5 26 11 above W 10 above NNE ISS Tue Jul 07/04:36 AM 5 46 10 above NW 11 above ESE ISS Tue Jul 07/10:37 PM 6 68 10 above WSW 10 above NE ISS Wed Jul 08/05:01 AM 5 48 10 above WNW 11 above SE ISS Wed Jul 08/09:28 PM 4 34 24 above S 11 above ENE ISS Thu Jul 09/03:50 AM 5 48 10 above NW 11 above ESE ISS Thu Jul 09/09:51 PM 6 64 10 above WSW 10 above NE * - Max angle, e.g. for "ISS Sun Jul 05/05:22 AM " the maximum altitude is "44" degrees. Note the station has grown so large that it now ocassionally flares at magnitude _ -8 _. But "At present, the flares are unpredictable" per the NASA story above. The ISS can be seen during the daytime. See June 13 image at: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/06/17/iss-now-visible-in-daytime/ http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=16&month=06&year=2009 - Kurt

3 2

Re: [Utah-astronomy] An image for you purists out there - Pelican Nebula in hydrogen alpha / grayscale
by Joe Bauman 08 Jul '09

08 Jul '09

My guess is that the diffraction spikes in Tyler's extraordinary photo are related to the telescope's lenses or the filter, and that they are not a problem. Maybe it's something like the flaring I sometimes get. -- Joe

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] An image for you purists out there - Pelican
by Jerry Foote 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

Hi Tyler, That is a very fun image. Scanning through the detail really blows your mind. I do have a question: In many of your images the diffraction spikes around the bright stars show a "dotted" pattern. What is causing this? With the LRGB images I had always assumed that it was part of the combining of the LRGB images but this one is H-alpha. Looking closer I wonder if it isn't a moiré pattern of the multiple images coupled with a small dither between images. Again very nice. Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote(a)scopecraft.com

2 1

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Observing Carbon Stars
by JayLEads 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

Fletcher, Thank you so much! I checked my email at 6:03p.m. and nothing has come through yet. I look forward to getting your list. Thanks for the recommendations, especially correcting the list from Florida . I look forward to receiving your list. I think that Carbon Stars are something that I might enjoy observing. Again, thank you! Could you split the file in two parts and send and then I cut and paste them if it is Excel? Let me know. Thanks, Jay On 2009-07-07 23:03, Fletcher Gross wrote: > Jay, I sent you my personal list of Carbon Stars > but it may be too big to go through. We'll see. I > did look at the article from the Northeast > Florida Astronomical Society and have a few > comments about their best of the best. > > First it should be R Leporis not R Lepus (in the > subsequent longer list, they have the correct R > Lep). Next, I have never been impressed by Y > Canes Ven or Mu Cephei. Both have been gold > without any red at all every time I have looked > at them despite the fact that they have > impressive names: La Superba and Herschel´s > Garnet Star, respectively. Instead of these, I > would add V Aquilae and T Lyrae. > > Carbon stars are a hobby of mine. Unfortunately, > the variability of these stars affect the color > as well. As a general rule, the dimmer the star > is in its cycle, the redder. My personal > favorites and the ones I have found most likely > to be red or at least reddish orange are > > R Leporis, V Hydrae, S Cephei, T Lyrae, and V Aquilae. > > >While searching around early this a.m. I found > >this article (PDF) from the Northeast Florida > >Astronomical Society on Observing Carbon Stars > >http://nefas.org/index.php?option=com_remository

1 0

Observing Carbon Stars
by Jay Eads 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

While searching around early this a.m. I found this article (PDF) from the Northeast Florida Astronomical Society on Observing Carbon Stars http://nefas.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=42&func=fileinfo&id… I know what a carbon star is, I have just never really taken the time to view them. It also sounds like they are actually really cool to view/image so I am just wondering if anyone here has observed them, what your thoughts are about them and can I supplement my double star observing (which is what I do during the full man/waxing gibbous stages of the moon until I can get back to DSO's) with observations of them? Looking at the magnitude on that list I could see some and others may have to wait until after the full moon. Anyone have a list broken down by season on them? If not it might be a project that I want to do while I'm not teaching. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

3 2

Re: [Utah-astronomy] An image for you purists out there - Pelican Nebula in hydrogen alpha / grayscale
by Joe Bauman 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

Gee Tyler, when are you going to take any interesting pictures??? (This one was so uninteresting that it blew my shoes off and I'm trying to dig them out of the wall.) Best wishes, Joe --- On Tue, 7/7/09, Tyler Allred <tylerallred(a)earthlink.net> wrote: From: Tyler Allred <tylerallred(a)earthlink.net> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] An image for you purists out there - Pelican Nebula in hydrogen alpha / grayscale To: utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 3:54 PM Hi SLAS. I just posted a grayscale image of the Pelican Nebula in Cygnus to my SLAS gallery. It was taken last night under a very bright moon, but the hydrogen alpha filter allowed me to get a very deep image despite the bright sky. This area of the sky is packed with structure. I may try to add some OIII data tonight, but the moon may mess that up a bit. It sure was nice to get a clear night with relatively stable skies. Cheers, Tyler Here is the link to the small version. Click the thumbnail for the larger version. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2136 PS - I finally took time to look over David Rankin's gallery, and I am impressed! Nice work David. I really enjoyed it. I especially liked the Orion area widefield image. Tyler Allred President Allred Restoration, Inc. 5725 W 12000 N Tremonton, UT 84337 801-358-1868 cell <mailto:tylerallred@earthlink.net> tylerallred(a)earthlink.net _____________________________________________ _______________________________________________ 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://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

1 0

An image for you purists out there - Pelican Nebula in hydrogen alpha / grayscale
by Tyler Allred 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

Hi SLAS. I just posted a grayscale image of the Pelican Nebula in Cygnus to my SLAS gallery. It was taken last night under a very bright moon, but the hydrogen alpha filter allowed me to get a very deep image despite the bright sky. This area of the sky is packed with structure. I may try to add some OIII data tonight, but the moon may mess that up a bit. It sure was nice to get a clear night with relatively stable skies. Cheers, Tyler Here is the link to the small version. Click the thumbnail for the larger version. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2136 PS - I finally took time to look over David Rankin's gallery, and I am impressed! Nice work David. I really enjoyed it. I especially liked the Orion area widefield image. Tyler Allred President Allred Restoration, Inc. 5725 W 12000 N Tremonton, UT 84337 801-358-1868 cell <mailto:tylerallred@earthlink.net> tylerallred(a)earthlink.net _____________________________________________

1 0

LRO LROC images
by Canopus56 07 Jul '09

07 Jul '09

The flood of daily LROC his-res images has begun. Enjoy! - Kurt http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse

1 0