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ISON tonight (2013 MAR 02) / Mars comet
by Patrick Wiggins 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

No image reduction tonight. Skies are so good even these raw images look good. Nice little fuzzy tail sandwiched in between a couple of very faint stars. http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/C_2012_S1.2013MAR02.JPG Regarding the Mars comet, there's some talk on MPML today that with new astrometric data coming in the miss-distance is increasing. patrick

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2012 DA14 parallax demonstration
by Patrick Wiggins 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

I recently posted a request on the Minor Planet Mailing List asking to hear from anyone who happened to be imaging 2012 DA14 at the same time I was. My hope was to find a picture taken at the same time as one of mine and to use the two images to show the effects of parallax. Happily a guy who had been using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona that night to shoot 2012 DA14 replied and we were able to determine that one of his many images had been taken within half a second of one of mine. The FOV of his image was smaller than mine so I had to do a bit of Photoshopping to align the two and then add a third image taken from the STScI Digitized Sky Survey to show context. I thought that since there is about 800 km between our two sites and 2012 DA14 was still pretty close (~210,000 km) I'd see some parallax but was actually surprised at how much: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68&g2_page=8 Clear skies, patrick

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New short lived radiation belt was discovered
by Thomas Sevcik 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Found this interesting article about a temporary belt discovered by scientists last year. http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17134882-new-radiation-belt-aro… BTW, if by some miracle that comet does hit Mars, let's hope it hits on the Earth facing side! It it was to hit along the rim (from our point of view) I'd presume it could make for a very interesting dust plume?! Tom Sevcik

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What a chunk (meteorite) rock!
by jcarman6＠q.com 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

How would it be - tooling around Anarctica on a snowmobile. Zipping along at 25 mph (English units) and seeing something dark, black on the surface of the snow. Stop - YEP! another one. The team found 425 meteorites in 40 days! And they may have found a Martian meteorite and one from Vesta to boot. What a haul!!! And they probably got paid for doing this. Where do I sign up? Sorry all your meter-ites out there 40 pounds sounds a lot more impressive than 18 kilograms. :)

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Phil Plait
by william baker 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Is anyone planning on attending the Phil Plait lecture at Clarke Planetarium on 11 April? Here is a link to the Clarke Website. http://clarkplanetarium.org/phil-plait-is-coming/

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Possible Mars comet collion 2014
by D P Pierce 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17107085-comet-just-might-hit-m… Wow! Deloy

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Here's a quiz for the kids (of all ages)
by Thomas Sevcik 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

Haven't taken it yet, but sounds interesting. Maybe a good incentive for kids if they're rewarded a small prize? http://www.space.com/15351-earth-quiz-planet.html Good Luck! Tom Sevcik

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What a chunk of (meteorite) rock!
by Thomas Sevcik 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

Just saw this on msn's science page...look at the size of this one! (meteorite that is) http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/8/17135230-rock-on-rare-40-pound-m… Maybe we should organize at SLAS trip to either the North or South pole? :) Tom Sevcik

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Possible Mars comet collision
by D P Pierce 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

I wanted to know more about Robert McNaught and I am amazed! With this latest comet he has 75 discoveries of comets and 476 asteroids! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._McNaught I thought Caroline Shoemaker's 32 comets were the record. Deloy

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Spica graze tonight
by Chuck Hards 28 Feb '13

28 Feb '13

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/The-Moon-Meets-and-Hides-Spic… We're too far north to see an occultaion, but it's going to be a VERY close graze.

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