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

New Orion Dobs 12, 10, 8 XTg with Tracking
by JayLEads 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

On Orion's Facebook they are discussing the new Orion dob that tracks, has GoTo and will still function as a manual dob. Here is the link to the comments with info in it. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3212996&id=87123139665&comments They state on their Facebook page: "Orion is pleased to give you a sneak peak into an exciting new product line we’ve been working on: the Orion XTg series of Dobsonian telescopes with full GoTo functionality. The 12” XT12g with full GoTo is coming soon. We expect an XT8g and XT10g as well. More details will be announced soon, but we wanted to let our Facebook fans know about this exciting new line before any information is posted on telescope.com." Ken Sablinsky from Orion's Facebook page states: "Hi Barb, yes it will have tracking so once the go-to system finds an object, it will continue to stay in the field of view. And Brandon, since the go-to is a closed loop system, it will locate and track, but still allow you to manually move the scope around without losing computer alignment. We'll have more info available shortly on our website, as well as here on facebook. Stay tuned!" Interesting.

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Mars tonight: Incredible!
by Patrick Wiggins 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

I got home from SLC late this evening and got a call from Bruce Grim suggesting I stop by his place to see Mars. He has a rather interesting way of observing planets. He points the scope in his observatory at the planet, installs a video camera in the scope and displays the image on a monitor next to the scope. Then he goes in his house and uses binoculars to view the monitor through the kitchen window. Well, I walked in the front door and casually glanced out the kitchen window and, bam!, even without binoculars I could plainly see the (south?) polar cap and Syrtis Major. Knowing how good it was on video we wondered what it would look like through the 200mm Bogdan so we jumped in my truck and raced to SPOC. Folks, I'm really not exaggerating when I say that neither Bruce nor I, in 40+ years of observing, have ever seen Mars as well as we saw it through the refractor. Even at 400X the seeing held steady. Truly incredible. Not even the great opposition of 2003 looked as good (probably because it was much lower in the sky then). There was even detail around the limb of the south polar cap. Even the north cap, though very tiny, could be seen (note, I may have my north and south reversed). I rang several people but only Roger Butz could make it over. I just wish there had been someone there who knew all the place names so we could put names to all the features we were seeing. Truly a good night, patrick

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Mars tonight: Incredible!
by JayLEads 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

I agree that for the three hours I was out it was terrific seeing tonight and Mars shone. Here are some links that could help: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/ Go to the Mars Profiler in Red in the text: http:// www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/planets/3307831.html Free Online PDF maps of Mars. http://ralphaeschliman.com/id22.htm On 2010-02-15 05:24, Patrick Wiggins wrote: > I got home from SLC late this evening and got a call from Bruce Grim suggesting I stop by his place to see Mars. > > He has a rather interesting way of observing planets. He points the scope in his observatory at the planet, installs a video camera in the scope and displays the image on a monitor next to the scope. > > Then he goes in his house and uses binoculars to view the monitor through the kitchen window. > > Well, I walked in the front door and casually glanced out the kitchen window and, bam!, even without binoculars I could plainly see the (south?) polar cap and Syrtis Major. > > Knowing how good it was on video we wondered what it would look like through the 200mm Bogdan so we jumped in my truck and raced to SPOC. > > Folks, I'm really not exaggerating when I say that neither Bruce nor I, in 40+ years of observing, have ever seen Mars as well as we saw it through the refractor. Even at 400X the seeing held steady. Truly incredible. > > Not even the great opposition of 2003 looked as good (probably because it was much lower in the sky then). > > There was even detail around the limb of the south polar cap. Even the north cap, though very tiny, could be seen (note, I may have my north and south reversed). > > I rang several people but only Roger Butz could make it over. > > I just wish there had been someone there who knew all the place names so we could put names to all the features we were seeing. > > Truly a good night, > > patrick >

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Libration summary chart for Lunation 1078
by Canopus56 14 Feb '10

14 Feb '10

Attached find a lunar libration summary chart for lunation 1078 (2-14 to 3-14). Note the exceptional 1st quarter altitude and imaging opportunity. Altitudes are good between 2-19 to 2-24 with the terminator sweeping E30 to W30. Good south pole presentation at 1st Qtr. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3001 Utah supplement: On 2-15-2010 6:00MST at 260 az, a silver crescent Moon will be visible with Jupiter and Venus hovering on the horizon. Masking of Jupiter and Venus is possible by the Oquirrhs is possible.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Big sunspot (more spots)
by Gary Vardon 13 Feb '10

13 Feb '10

Note that the sunspots are at a high solar latitude. As the solar cycle progresses the spots migrate to lower latitudes. Sincerely, Gary Vardon The book DO It Right will help you understand vital ideas leading to your greater success. GO to PublishAmerica.com Consulting For Profit is also available. Learn how to make money as a consultant.

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Now *that's* a laser
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Feb '10

13 Feb '10

I picked up a new instrument for my plane yesterday and while talking to the technician I learned he likes lasers. A lot. He even builds them. He referred to his 100mw laser as one of his weaker lasers. I asked about his strongest and he talked about punching holes through razor blades. Yikes. Turns out he's also an astronomy buff so I suggested he might want to bring some of his lasers to a SPOC star party this year and he agreed. Could be interesting. :)

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Is Mars watch on or off for tonight?
by Canopus56 12 Feb '10

12 Feb '10

Is the Mars watch with the 8" refractor at SPOC on or off for tonight? - Kurt

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The Known Universe by AMNH
by Chris 11 Feb '10

11 Feb '10

To the edge of imagination, and back again. Highly recommended at 720p and viewed full-screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U

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New Image - M108 (Galaxy) and M97 (The Owl Nebula)
by Tyler Allred 09 Feb '10

09 Feb '10

Hi all. I took advantage of the last two clear nights to do a little astrophotography from my new observatory. Murphy's Law kicked in right away. After waiting for weeks for a clear night, and checking and rechecking my equipment, the power supply on my FLI MicroLine ML3200 camera failed just as I was getting ready to focus. I lost some valuable time messing around with it before I decided it was dead. Thankfully, I still have my Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 camera, so I did a quick re-rack and forged ahead. I managed to get some decent data despite the less than optimal conditions. I took 18 frames at 10 minutes each for luminance on the first night, and then added 80 minutes each for the RGB channels. Here is a link to my "Latest Images" webpage: http://www.allred-astro.com/gpage8.html Be sure to click the thumbnail to get to the clickable full image. I am pretty happy with the image, especially with the number of small galaxies that are sprinkled throughout. I was also surprised to see just a hint of the faint outer shell of M97, which is rarely images. You need to look pretty closely to see it, but it is there nonetheless. It is fun to get two nice objects in a single frame. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Cheers, Tyler

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Another decent observing site
by Michael Vanopstall 09 Feb '10

09 Feb '10

Hello -- I'm back home warming up after discovering a new (to me) place to set up. I was going to go to my usual spot outside the gate of Rockport State Park, but there were two cars there already (?). So I decided to drive on. I followed the road into Oakley, and turned eastward on Weber Canyon road towards Smith and Morehouse campground. I stopped at the turnoff to the campground. I don't know what it's like underneath, but there was a good base of snow, so I just pulled off the road and set up. This was about 1:30-2:00, and I observed for about 1-1 1/2 hours, and didn't see a single car. Probably it's busier during camping season. Horizon is decent in all directions. No more than 10 degrees of obstruction, and mostly less. In the distant west, SLC looks like the sun is rising. The site is very dark. Milky way, M31, and M33 were set, so not much to go on there, but the Beehive was very large and conspicuous. Conditions were not good. I think it was fairly humid. There was a constant breeze, and I'd ballpark the wind chill at about -5. My notes are etched in the paper because all the ink in my pens froze. I observed for about 30 minutes, got back in the car and had a cup of coffee, and then went out for about 20 more minutes. I finished the Messier list with M83 (very bright, large), M85 (smaller, but with a very bright core), and NGC 5866 for an M102 replacement. I had picked up M49 from my backyard yesterday, forgotten on my last trip. I've been working on Caldwell objects from home, but don't have anything much except a few of the open clusters, the Eskimo nebula, and the easier of the two globulars in Delphinus. So I targeted some galaxies. I wish it hadn't been so cold. I could probably have done 25 objects. I could have taken advantage of being able to _see_ Camelopardalis. I got: NGC 4038/4039 (Antennae) NGC 3626/3067/3068 (yet another trio of Leo galaxies) NGC 4559 and 4565 in Coma B. For some reason I failed to see NGC 4889. I blame the wind. Anyway, the drive from Salt Lake is about 75 minutes. ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall(a)math.utah.edu

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