March 2013 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Scott Stringham's Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) over the Great Salt Lake
by David Bennett 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Scott Stringham got quite the shot of Comet PANSTARRS over the Great Salt Lake at: http://www.rustlingleafdesign.com/Art/the-SKY/23531920_c4B5fP#!i=2405960790…

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Saw Comet Panstarrs
by Dave Gary 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

Saw the comet last night. Looked pretty good. Sadly, no pictures. Tonight, I may take out the little 6” scope and attach the Nikon Coolpix 4500 and get a shot of it. Dave

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Mars rover to image astronauts
by Patrick Wiggins 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

I'm watching a replay of yesterday's MSL/Curiosity news conference. Exciting to learn that they've now confirmed the Mars was once habitable and they've found everything needed to form what we think of as life (though no evidence of life has been found). But one of the scientists said something I found fascinating. He was asked how long might Curiosity survive. His answer was that with the rover's power source having a half life of 84 years the rover could last long enough to shake hands with the first astronauts on Mars. Granted, he was grinning when he said it and there was laughter in the room so I don't know how serious he was. But with MER-A & MER-B having lasted 10s of times longer than their planned 90 days missions, if Curiosity manages to live an equal number of times past it's planned 2 Earth-year mission I can almost imagine seeing images coming back from the rover of humans approaching. Neat stuff. patrick This next is OT but there are enough pilots and would be pilots on the list that I couldn't resist posting this: Lainey's first airplane ride (note the open door and windows. That kid is fearliess!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8JU-1ZrRAg&feature=youtu.be Ok, now who wants to go for their first airplane ride? It's free. Just ask!

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ISON tonight, 2013 MAR 13
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

Here's my latest of ISON: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/C_2012_S1.2013MAR13.JPG Pan-STARRS looks better. :) Speaking of Pan-STARRS, a reminder that SLAS is holding a public comet watch tomorrow evening (Wednesday) at SPOC from 6 to 9. Moon and Jupiter watching until it gets dark. Based on what we saw tonight I'm guessing the comet probably wont come into view until just before 8 and it will set about 8:45 or so. patrick

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PANSTARRS photos
by Jared Smith 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

http://smithplanet.com/astro/solarsystem/comets/ It was pretty hazy with lots of clouds, but I still managed some photos of PANSTARRS this evening (3/12/13). It looked pretty cool next to the very new moon. Jared

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Pan starts from spoc
by Patrick Wiggins 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

Looking ok in the Bogdan but hopeless naked eye, 4.5 degrees to left of Moon. patrick

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Big Mosquitoes at SPOC
by D P Pierce 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

One night I out there 2 mosquitoes grabbed me. One asked the other "Should we eat him here or take him home?" The other replied "If we take him home the big guys will take him away from us!" Deloy LARGE bored member

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NGC 2362 (Tau Canis Majoris Cluster)
by Dave Gary 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

I decided to try and nab NGC 2362. I wanted to check my mount‘s guiding characteristics and see if the stars would look nice and round after an 8-minute exposure. It seems to be OK. I tried to do some post-processing and no matter what I did it still looked the same. I guess if I want more color I’ll have to do 10-minute exposures with the William Optics GT81 or use the 10” LX200. I sure like the ease of polar alignment of the iEQ30 mount. Maybe I’ll get an 8” Astro-Tech astrograph and still use the iEQ30. Something to save for. If any of you have suggestions about processing data please give me some pointers. You can contact me off-list if you prefer. Any help would be appreciated. I go through the tutorials on the Nebulosity web site, do what it says, stand back and say, “Great, what did that do? Looks pretty much the same.” Of course, my data may suck, too. Dave http://www.flickr.com/photos/78046474@N06/sets/72157632977427591/

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Daylight Savings Time
by Chuck Hards 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

Sky & Telescope agrees with many of you: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/Too-Much-Ado-About-Daylight-Saving-Time… My reasons for liking it have nothing to do with astronomy. Hey, there are still the same number of hours of darkness, what's the big deal? Many (most) of us have occassions during the year when we go to sleep an hour or more later than, or an hour or more earlier than, our normal times. Again, what's the big deal? I often have to go to bed well before the sun goes down in summer, but I wear a sleep mask year-round, so that doesn't bother me either. As I said, I like it so I have time for outdoor activities that must come after a work day and require light. DST definitely benefits those who like to work and play with growing things and the soil. If you hate changing the clocks twice a year, get an atomic one that changes itself AND shows UT. Or let's keep DST year-round. 4:50 PM sunsets in winter is bogus. ;-) (gets down off soapbox...for now...)

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OT (I Guess) DST
by Ray Druian 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

One of the topics of discussion at last Saturday's L&O Subcommittee Meeting was DST, as freuently happens at this time of year. With all the grumbling and moaning, I need to remind everyone that it' only twice a year, and that is applies to just about everyone except those who have the misfortune of living in the Brewer State, Arizona. Back when I was a kid it wasn't all that simple at all. In 1954, my brother, a friend of ours and I set forth upon a journey on some 3 day weekend during DST from the urbane bounds of the city of Chicago to the wilds of southern Wisconsin, to what was then a privately owned park called "Blue Mound." Blue Mound was some sort of glacial leftover that formed a hill by western standards, but was a huge mountain by midwestern standards. I think it must have been ove 100' tall! At that time, Illinois (or at least Northeast Illinois, where Chicago is, was on DST and Wisconsin was not. So we piled into the car and drove up there, deciding that we'd buy our groceries after we arrived and set up camp. While setting up camp, it occurred to us that the local groceries might already be closed if we didn't hurry, since CST was an hour later than DST. So we scrambled back into the car and made it into town just in time to realize that it was actually an hour earlier, and not an hour later than we thought. Since we had only a primitive ice box for cooling, we purchased as much as possible that didn't require refrigeration. In those days margarine, which we referred to as "oleo," wasn't the sophisticated tasting stuff like "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," or some other stuff that contained a bit of actual butter to improve the taste. It was just some oily stuff that vaguely tasted a little like butter So there we were, getting out the pots and pans, and unpacking the grocery bags when, Jack, our friend, explodes, and tosses the container of margarine across the campsite, with fire boiling out of his eyes. It seems that in those primitive days, not only did Wisconsin not obey DST, but being the ultimate dairy state, they did everything they possibly could to discourage the use of margarine and to encourage the use of butter instead. Among their little persuasive manouvers was a law that prohibited margarine from being artificially colored. The stuff was stark white, like lard! Fortunately the brand we purchased was a bit advanced over their competitors. Most brands of margarine came equipped with a little packet of coloring matter. The margarine was to be placed in a bown and the coloring added, then the whole mass was to be stirred with one utensil or another until the coloring mixed into the grease. Our brand had a dot of color on one side of it and the entire thing was enclosed in a plastic wrap that needed to be cut with aknife or scissors to be opened. After it was for a while in its wrapper, it softened soewhat, the the user, i.e., we, were required to squeeze the package and twist and turn it until the little dot of color expanded and spread around and mixed into the rest of the oleo until it took up a color that resembled butter. I don't remember it tasting partiularly good, but it didn't taste bad either, and the next morning it seemed to work rather well for greasing up pancakes. Actually, there IS something related to astronomy in this tale of misery and woe. That first night out at Blue Mound Park was the first time in my life that I actually saw something I had been told about in school by my teachers. It was a band of light that ran across the sky, called "The Milky Way." Sorta made up for uncolored margarine and for the iniquities of changing back and forth fro CDT to CST to CDT all in the same weekend. Thanx, *Ray *

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