February 2012 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Passing our astro legacy to the next generation (Was: Pick one and stick with it)
by Chuck Hards 04 Feb '12

04 Feb '12

On Sat, Feb 4, 2012 at 12:19 PM, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > That or to a yard sale, or out into the dumpster. > > Probably, sadly, too true much of the time, Joe. We should all carefully consider if our heirs are even interested in our astro equipment and libraries. If they are not, there are more meaningful bequeathal options. Schools, clubs, or even some young enthusiastic kid we got to know at star parties. We can put our telescopes and reference materials into the hands of someone who will either have an immediate use for it, or can find such an eventual destination. A good telescope should never end up in a dumpster, that is too sad to contemplate.

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Pick one and stick with it
by Chuck Hards 04 Feb '12

04 Feb '12

A hypothetical question. If you had to pick just one telescope to use for the rest of your life, what would it be? Explain your reasoning.

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EPOD
by Joe Bauman 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

WOW! Cograts to Patrick for today's Earth Science Picture of the Day on a NASA site: Cool view from his plane showing ice patterns on Utah Lake. And my good friend Ray Boren had yesterday's EPOD. I'm proud of both -- two friends on EPOD, two days in a row. That's remarkable. Patrick's view: http://epod.usra.edu/ To see Ray's, hit the "previous" button at the top left. Way to go, both! -- Joe

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EPOD
by jcarman6＠q.com 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

SUPER photo Patrick. Didn't think it was possible for Utah lake to freeze, period, considering its size and depth. Especially because this hasn't been a particularly cold winter in Utah. The article mentioned planes landing on the lake - yikes- is there really enough ice - ever- to support, even a small plane? Wonder if anyone is asking where the salt comes from (see the article)? We in Utah know it is the Great Salt Lake, an anomoly on geological earth. Great comment about Ganyamede :)

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Life on Venus
by Chuck Hards 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

Man, this sure caught my attention: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-scientist-claims-signs-life-spotted-venus-070…

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Colbert on space
by Patrick Wiggins 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/colbert_psa.html :) patrick

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Life on Venus
by D P Pierce 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

Chuck, When we were boy scouts my brother and I subscribed to Boys' Life. I remember a fun story in it about a fictional boy scout troop on Venus going on a back packing trip in the tropical jungle covering much of the planet. They all carried machetes to kill big unfriendly insects such as 3 foot long dragon flies that would try to lay their eggs in the base of your spine! i was very disappointed when we found out life was impossible on Venus. Deloy

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Eye Piece Selection
by jcarman6＠q.com 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

Mat, you comments are duly noted. Didn't think about the focal lengths/ratio issue and you've made a good point. The 2" eyepiece in my possession has a 52 degree field and was excellent in the f/10, but it might not be so good at f4.5. DAMN - now I have to build the scope to check it out (thanks Mat ;-)) I receive Orion's catalog every few months and so took the time to wander through it. My wish list totals over $500 and my pie-in-the-sky wish list totals over $1,500. They sell Tele vue and the 14mm (I typed 14" first, now that would have be a mind boggling eye piece) radian is available for $240. Of interest was a solar filter for telescopes that fits over the front. I t is of glass with an aluminum cell and screws to fit tight (that's always been a worry of mine). If the picture is correct, it gives a "yellow-orange" sun (my mylar filter gives a blue sun), which would be nice to have - to fit a C8 - $104. Al so, there are "pairs" of these filters to fit binos (10x50 -$87) Also a "shorty" 2x Barlow for less than $40 and and 3X barlow for less than $50. They also have 2" barlows to fit a dobsonian. An attractive "deluxe" filter set for planetary study, including a "light pollution" filter and adjustable polarizing filter for about $100. I got such a basic set from Celestron many years ago and was extremely disappointed. I noted the Q70 eyepieces with relish, but now Mat's comments have tempered my zeal. I could go on and on. Now I can't buy anything until the dob is built just in case I get bad eyepieces --- thank's Mat (grrrrrr grin ).

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Nice exoplanet discovery
by jcarman6＠q.com 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

This is exactly what this board should be about ;-) V-e-r-r-y I-n-t-e-r-r-e-s-t-i-n-g! on so many levels. This planet was not discovered by Kepler. This planet is very close (astronomically speaking). The geometry of the system is complicated (down side), a lthough the article noted the other stars are far enough away. The 28 day "year" is also interesting. Someone beat me to a comment, but I was going to say something about how "long-lived" any life forms might be. The article did not mention (how could they tell) that the planet rotated - providing "days." Most likely, considering the speed at which it is moving around the star, it is locked, so one side always faces the star and the other sees only night. If so, the issue of life becomes even more unusual. Still, the ultimate point is there are many "planets" (no matter how you define it) out there and our galaxy (let alone universe) is far more complicated, interesting and thought provoking than earlier thought.

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Pick one and stick with it
by jcarman6＠q.com 03 Feb '12

03 Feb '12

This is exactly what this board should be about ;-) The responses have been interesting and humorous (friendly kidding). I was worried Brent didn't have any telesopes left to look through! Particularly laughed when Dan said he was a monster with Photoshop and he could work with the Webb data (lol) All kidding aside, I would go with a 10-12" dob (which I do not own) for portability and ease of use.

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