I began the celebration day with a visit 2 to 4 pm visit to the South Physics Building at the University of Utah and the U of U Astronomy Club's solar party. The top of the South Physics building houses four pier mounted Meade 10" LX200s, an 11" Celestron and a Meade 12" LX200 under roll-off covers. The old Ealing dome houses a 14" Meade LX200. The scopes were funded with an Eccles grant. A fifth pier holds a 3 meter radio telescope, but the dish is removed for repairs. The weather was problematic - broken clouds - but started to clear towards 4pm. Even so, the current phase of Venus was easily seen at a high 150-200 power. Three U astronomy students had the dome Meade on Venus, a PST on a relatively active Sun and 3 Meade LX200s on a featureless white-light solar disk. The solar disk in the PST H-alpha was featureless, but 5 or 6 good sized sprite prominences were seen. This was a nice display for a near solar minimum and considering the Sun's quiesence over the last few months. See Stephen Ames notes on the Cloudy Nights Solar forum - http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1559358/pag... One of the students, Paul Ricketts, showed me the department's test set-up to measure atmospheric turbulence at the U's proposed Boulder Mountain robotic telescope site. They are testing the turbulence measuring device on top of the South Physics building before field testing in central Utah. The device is a small 1 x 2 feet aluminum box with a window in the side that allows for a small one or two inch objective. A 2 x 3 foot solar panel sits off to one side. The box and objective are fixed on Polaris.. The device basically makes and stores continuous images of Polaris for later FWHM evaluation. Even though this is a site comprised by light pollution, photos by Ricketts and other U students on their website and taped to the interior of the Meade dome demonstrates their ability to take DSO astrophotos from this site. During the summer as the University term ends, the U Physics Department holds weekly Wednesday night star parties on the roof of the South Physics Building that are open to the general public. Presumably, the general public access is related to their Eccles grant. The Wednesday night star parties for this year have started. See the calendar at - http://web.utah.edu/astro/ Being older and too lazy to set up my Orion 10" after work during the week, I inquired with Paul whether it would be appropriate to show up on Wednesday nights with my box of lenses to use a pier mounted scope on the general public observing night. Paul said that could be accomodated. A 7pm weather satellite image check indicated things did not look good. A heavy weather front was over western Nevada heading towards Utah. At 8pm I drove out to SPOC and toured the line of 10-15 telescopes. The 4.6 day-old waxing Moon's crescent was bright with a good ashen Earthshine. The Moon did not set until after 10pm. The DSOs were washed, so most of my notes and interest went to lunar targets using a 10" DOB manned by Bill Cowles, Nate Goodman's 4.25 refractor and Bruce Grimm's LX100. Prominent at the south lunar pole was a single peak in the Leinbitz Mountains that stuck up into the sunlight from the unilluminated dark portion of the disk. These are the south lunar pole peaks that NASA is talking about for potential lunar power stations, since these high peaks remain in almost continuous sunlight. Leibnitz Mountains near South Lunar Pole LPOD 12/04/2006 Rukl 74 http://www.lpod.org/?m=20061204 On the floor of Mare Fecunditatis, the ray of Messier and Messier A was easily seen with crisp resolution. Messier and Messier A ray LPOD 5/20/2004 http://www.lpod.org/archive/archive/2004/05/LPOD-2004-05-20.htm Rima and Rupes Cauchy were exceptional in both the 10" DOB and a 4.25" refractor. Lunar domes Tau and Omega Cauchy had good definition in the 10" and to the practiced eye could just be seen in the 4.25". Rima Cauchy, Rupes Cauchy, Tau and Omega Cauchy LPOD 10-12-2006 Rukl 36 http://www.lpod.org/?m=20061012 Towards 9:30pm the weather cleared with some low clouds in the western horizon. I then drove to This is the Place Monument (TITPM), arriving at the tail end of the star party after 10pm. SLAS President Bob was being interviewed by Channel 4. He said there had been about 26 scopes set up earlier in the evening. The wind was quite high - 5 to 10 mph - off the mouth of Emigration Canyon, with the wind chill sending temperatures effectively into the low 30's. The TITPM plaza has an excellent physical layout to support lunar, solar and double star parties where a 3 to 4 mag light polluted sky that limits DSO viewing is not a controlling consideration. A paved circular plaza, about 150 feet in diameter overlooks the city lights but is sufficiently removed from the 800 South street and Hoogle Zoo night lighting. The parking lot pavement abutts the plaza and allows for easy loading and unloading. Tourist parking can accommodate several hundred cars. It was dark, so I was unable to see if there were any outdoor power cord outlets on the plaza. There is a large two story building north of plaza, but it was unclear whether it is only a concession stand or whether it contains a room suitable for public lectures. A club member, I believe Randy Goodrich, had a Meade ETX on the Moon, which was still bright and 30 degrees above the horizon. Due to wind conditions, applicable for high magnification was not possible. Vallis Rhetia and its nearby fractured floor crater - Janssen - were prominent. Rhetia Valley LPOD 2/2/2006 Rukl 68 http://www.lpod.org/?m=20060202 Coopermine image by George Tasroudis http://lpod.org/coppermine/displayimage.php?pos=-106 Janssen LPOD 6/19/2004 Rukl 68 http://www.lpod.org/archive/archive/2004/06/LPOD-2004-06-19.htm The prominent central peak of 89km dia. crater Vlacq was seen sticking up into the sunlight from the shadowed depths of the crater. Vlacq - LPOD 3/25/2005 Rukl 75 http://www.lpod.org/archive/LPOD-2005-03-25.htm At home after 1:00am, I took a short peak outside. The Moon had set and the Virgo Realm of the Galaxies was well-placed on the zenith. The sky was clear and calm to the horizon. I suspect those SPOC members who toughed it out into the early morning hours where having a good time on DSOs. - Kurt fna Canopus56 _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net