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

Wanted: Meade 909 APM
by Canopus56 29 Jul '09

29 Jul '09

I am trying to move my ETX 125 towards autoguiding. I understand that I need a now discontinued Meade 909 APM box to talk with my Shoestring GOUSB box. Does anyone locally (Utah) have one they would like to sell? - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae Underway
by Canopus56 29 Jul '09

29 Jul '09

Jay, it would be too obscure for the general public. eps Aur is still a very early morning object and the changes, like the pending catastropic binary U Sco, are too subtle. A table handout might be appropriate about "current weird things", e.g. - the Jupiter impact, eps Aur and U Sco. It would be more appropriate for an internal SLAS deep sky imaging special interest group - to use it as launch board to track the changes in its magnitude by digital imagery. IMHO, Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae Underway
by JayLEads 29 Jul '09

29 Jul '09

Here is the link for observing and providing Data on this event http://www.citizensky.org/ Would this be a good thing to perhaps share with the KSL/SLAS drive on August 8th or is it too much? Just thinking of a way to get someone new going with something exciting they can participate in even without a telescope or binoculars (though they would help). We could hand out some printed off copies of the PDF file. Anyway, just a thought.. Off to set up for the night, lets hope the seeing has improved. On 2009-07-29 01:52, Canopus56 wrote: > > This is major once (well twice) in a life-time event. For those using GOTO, the SAO number for eps Aur is SAO39955. Thanks for the heads up Jay. Clear Skies - Kurt > > > > > >

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae Underway
by Canopus56 28 Jul '09

28 Jul '09

This is major once (well twice) in a life-time event. For those using GOTO, the SAO number for eps Aur is SAO39955. Thanks for the heads up Jay. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae Underway
by Jay Eads 28 Jul '09

28 Jul '09

Not sure if anyone is watching this event or cares, but S&T is reporting that "Robin Leadbeater of Wigton, UK, has reported the beginning of the long-awaited eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae, one of the most remarkable eclipsing variable stars in the sky." http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/51804622.html Jay

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Fwd: PBS tonight
by Troy Davidson 28 Jul '09

28 Jul '09

Something my brother sent on to me and I'll pass it on to the group. ++++++++++++++++++ Troy Davidson ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: b <b(a)thezorfo.com> Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 7:47 AM Subject: PBS tonight To: NG LCROSS Team, Our LCROSS mission will be featured on PBS's "NOVA ScienceNOW" this Tuesday night (9pm on KCET Ch#28 in LA, right after "regular NOVA"). There will be some good video footage of our spacecraft being built here at Northrop & launched from Florida, and the host of NOVA, Neil deGrasse Tyson, makes things fun & informative. Here's the link to PBS's website with the LCROSS trailer, bonus videos, and "Ask The Expert" (in this case NASA's LCROSS Project Manager Dan Andrews...take it easy on him, ok ;-) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0405/01.html On another public interest topic, we have informally chosen the name "Cronkite" as the designation for the new crater that LCROSS's Centaur will make on the Moon. We felt this would be a fitting tribute to the newsman who meant so much to space exploration. The official designation requires a 3-year waiting period, but it's looking pretty good that our application to the IAU will be honored. Regarding LCROSS flight status, our MOS team successfully performed TCM#5a last Tuesday morning (a 29.83 minute burn that imparted 21.2 m/sec deltaV), and the spacecraft continues to cruise beautifully. It will begin the 2nd of 3 Earth orbits this coming weekend. The attached powerpoint slide shows its current location. Only 74 more days until impact! Keep thinking good thoughts for the spacecraft and for our crew who keeps it pointed the right direction. Go LCROSS!

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Hubble visibility
by Chuck Hards 27 Jul '09

27 Jul '09

Is the Hubble Space Telescope visible from Utah, or is the orbital inclination (if any) too low for us to spot it?

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ISS/STS tonight (Sunday)
by Patrick Wiggins 26 Jul '09

26 Jul '09

From CalSky: Appears 20h53m38s 4.2mag az:307.3° NW horizon Culmination 20h58m35s -4.3mag az: 35.6° NE h:73.8° distance: 367.2km height above Earth: 354.7km elevation of sun: -2° Disappears 21h02m46s -1.4mag az:123.2° ESE h:3.2° patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Sigh...
by Jay Eads 26 Jul '09

26 Jul '09

How about Bigfoot sightings at Wolf Creek? Perhaps if we took ice cream on our next trip to Wolf Creek the Aliens will show up singing Come Sail Away from Styx. On 2009-07-26 18:57, Chuck Hards wrote: > Actually, that's why Snellgroves closed some years ago. They were starting > to show-up there, so the government had to shut the place down before it > became common knowledge. It was a conspiracy at the highest levels. > > On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 8:19 AM, <erikhansen@???> wrote: > > > >Wouldn't they want the whole cow? How come we have never seen them at > > Snellgroves? > > > > > > > > > > >

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Starting to notice how horrible Utah skies are
by Brent Johnson 24 Jul '09

24 Jul '09

I have been a lifelong resident of Utah, but until recently paid little attention to the sky. Recently I got my first scope and began noticing how often Utah has horrible skies for astronomy. Cloud cover almost every other day. And on the days the sky is clear, seeing is aweful. Is there no hope? _________________________________________________________________ NEW mobile Hotmail. Optimized for YOUR phone. Click here. http://windowslive.com/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_CS_MB_new_hotmail_072009

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