Re: [Utah-astronomy] Any obs reports on the Pit N Pole session last weekend
Six people were out there on Friday night. Early on we saw Mercury, Saturn, and the springtime galaxies in Leo and Virgo. We then had a short weather interlude that the weatherman would call "virga with downdraft". This ended at 1:30am and the sky roll up clear from the south gave a preview of Summer attractions, including Vesta, Jupiter on the meridian and the Trifid Nebula and the Veil. It was my most active night so far this year with visits to over fifty items in the night sky. DT ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php
Daniel and anyone else who went to the Pit N Pole, I am interested in knowing if the soil was too soft at P&P. At Vernon, not too far from that location, I thought I was having trouble with legs of the tripod settling deeper. But maybe I wasn't. I kept losing pointing accuracy and having to realign. Later I assumed it was because the soil was soft and that made the tripod shift. Recently I tightened the dec adjustment (added a bolt to each side) and I didn't have the difficulty when I went out again. But that time I was on a hard surface, so I still don't know if the soil at Vernon caused a problem. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks, Joe
Hi Joe, On 22 May 2007, at 10:10, Joe Bauman wrote:
At Vernon, not too far from that location, I thought I was having trouble with legs of the tripod settling deeper.
So you were out by Vernon last weekend? Did you happen to run into anyone else from SLAS? I understand a new subscriber to this list (Mark Hanning-Lee) that lives at Dugway was planning on being out that way. As for the soft ground situation, my standard solution for years now has been nothing fancier that round pieces of thick plywood I cut out with a hole saw. They are 15 cm in diameter and have always worked for me even on damp soil and even loose sand. pw
No, I didn't go to Vernon because I was worried about soft ground. But I really like the idea of buying stone from Western Garden. I like your idea too, but I would never dare use a round saw. Thanks, Joe
Hi Joe,
On 22 May 2007, at 10:10, Joe Bauman wrote:
At Vernon, not too far from that location, I thought I was having trouble with legs of the tripod settling deeper.
So you were out by Vernon last weekend? Did you happen to run into anyone else from SLAS? I understand a new subscriber to this list (Mark Hanning-Lee) that lives at Dugway was planning on being out that way.
As for the soft ground situation, my standard solution for years now has been nothing fancier that round pieces of thick plywood I cut out with a hole saw. They are 15 cm in diameter and have always worked for me even on damp soil and even loose sand.
pw
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participants (3)
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daniel turner -
Joe Bauman -
Patrick Wiggins