January 2010 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Kepler Announces 1st 5 Planets Found
by JayLEads 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

I thought this was both interesting and news worthy for those who haven't seen it. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler-5-exoplanets.html They are basically hot Jupiters ranging in size from Neptune to larger than Jupiter. Orbits are 3.3 to 4.9 days. I have family in the SF Bay Area so I tend to follow up on some of the papers down there, one being the San Jose Mercury News. Here was there article on the announcement: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14120023 Not mentioned at the NASA site but in the paper is this quote: "and include one with a density as light as Styrofoam. They orbit so close to their stars that they may glow with the heat of a blast furnace. One searing world, Kepler 8b, burns at more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the melting point of iron." Styrofoam, interesting. Other interesting points . . . Scientists had thought there were two distinct types of planets — terrestrials and gas giants like Jupiter. The new Kepler data, Jenkins said, hints that intermediate size planets such as "Neptune and Uranus form in a different fashion than Jupiters and Saturns. There are finer distinctions in how these planets form." The probe also had reassuring news Monday for those who worry about the future of the source of all life on Earth — the sun. The spacecraft's observations show that a majority of the roughly 43,000 sun-like, G-class stars that Kepler observed are as stable as or more stable than the sun. And that I guess is good news as they search for Earth like planets in the habitable zone.

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Sale
by Steve FISHER 04 Jan '10

04 Jan '10

Just thought I'd post a note for some of you who might be looking for an accessory or two. Inkley's on State Street is having a 50% off sale on any of their in stock accessories. I've bought a few goodies and socked them away but for those of you who live in Utah and don't get in to see Bill very frequently you should know there are a few GREAT bargains left. It may not be what you need but I wanted to share the wealth. Steve

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Orion's Latest Super Dobs
by JayLEads 03 Jan '10

03 Jan '10

Anyone see this link: http://www.telescope.com/control/category/ ~category_id=tbdt It's also on their facebook page found here http://www.facebook.com/ oriontelescopes Those are some big mirrors and scopes. I imagine you'd need a roof top or a very large scaffold to observe from. I don't think the wife would approve of this for me though . . .

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103P/Hartley
by Patrick Wiggins 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Something to look forward to: I was looking through some online comet data and saw that 103P/Hartley will be well placed for viewing and could get up to mag 4 late this October. Unfortunately it peaks out the same times as the full Moon but still might be worth trying for a bit earlier in the month. patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] [sllug-members]: Newbie help on bash script move files
by Canopus56 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Utah Astro - My apologies - please disregard the posting error. Clear Skies - Kurt

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Astronomy vinyl stickers
by Dale Wilson 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Hi all. I've had many inquiries about my graphics on the window of my truck. I have had several made and would like to part with them. See my "gallery page" on the slas web site for details. thanks, Dale http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2756

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] [sllug-members]: Newbie help on bash script move files
by Canopus56 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Eric, Thanks. I have just grabbed and not yet tried your script. Here is what I was able to come up with last night - kurt@linux-mfxz:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Spectrum>20091230xcopy.sh ======================= #!/bin/bash mv captures/wav/* 2010010Radiometeorlisten/wav mv captures/* 2010010Radiometeorlisten rm -rf captures mkdir captures mkdir captures/wav echo "Files moved" - which properly copies and rebuilds the directories but which also gives this extra error message - kurt@linux-mfxz:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Spectrum>./20091230xcopy.sh mv: cannot move `captures/wav' to `2010010Radiometeorlisten/wav' : Directory not empty Files moved Any idea what is generating the error message? > As for running it from inside of Dolphin, try opening up Dolphin and > right clicking in the window. There is an option to add a link to a > script or something executable. Looked before but Didn't see it under KDE 4.5.3 or method to invoke the execution with the dot-backslash command ("./" as in "./20091230xcopy.sh"), but I'll go back and hunt more. Thanks again, Kurt

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S&T Article on interpreting weather forecasts Link
by JayLEads 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

In the Feb. 2010 issue of S$T is an article by Phil Creed on interpreting weather forecasts. The links for that article can be located in one place here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/visualobserving/ 79770137.html#URLlist The links are at the bottom of the page. A link at the top will take you below to just the links. Nice to have these in one place, in one link. Nothing really new, except like I said, many of the links used are in one place here.

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S&T index
by Patrick Wiggins 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Sky Publishing has released an index to all issues of S&T going back to the beginning. I just downloaded the searchable CSV version and found it contains over 35,000 entries. When I clicked on it it opened as an Excel spreadsheet. Searching was a snap. Searching on "Hards" I quickly found Chuck's articles and letters so then I tried Kelley and got Bill's stuff. Even my single entry, a letter to the editor entitled Breaking Up is Hard to Do (not what you think), was there as were several articles by my former bosses at Hansen, Dr. Littmann and John Mosley. More info here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/80282957.html patrick

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