Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54
Robert said: "Thank you Joe, I didn't want to get into that but there is no scenario where Al Gore won that election, he lost plain and simple and fought hard to try to take it from Bush. If there was a scenario where Gore wins I have yet to hear it." Robert, Then why did they not let a full recount move forward? Jon
My first post.... Would it be too much to ask to have the discussions limited to astronomy? After yesterday, I wonder if I really want to be on this list. Jim Harvey Trying to enjoy a new hobby. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of stormcrow60@xmission.com Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:51 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54 Robert said: "Thank you Joe, I didn't want to get into that but there is no scenario where Al Gore won that election, he lost plain and simple and fought hard to try to take it from Bush. If there was a scenario where Gore wins I have yet to hear it." Robert, Then why did they not let a full recount move forward? Jon _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Planning a galaxy observing session for tomorrow morning. Probably start about 4:00, somewhere east of the city. Looking for NGC galaxies in Leo and Messiers in Virgo/Coma cluster. If someone in your family is getting up early to go to Walmart or Target or something anyway, I'd love to have someone around to tell me when hypothermia is setting in. I'm willing to drive about 1 1/2 hours from Salt Lake, if anyone has any suggestions. It looks like transparency will be OK, but not great. About the same as this morning. From town, M81/82 were fairly bright this morning in OK transparency (for once, I couldn't find M78 from my backyard, though). So I think if I can gain 1-2 naked eye magnitudes, I'll be able to find something. If anyone wants to join me, we could talk about global warming while we're freezing cold... ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
Michael, I can't go in the a.m. but next time you go give me an email, I sent you one. Would love to get an early start on some Herschels that are in those areas at a dark, cold site. Jay On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu>wrote:
Planning a galaxy observing session for tomorrow morning. Probably start about 4:00, somewhere east of the city. Looking for NGC galaxies in Leo and Messiers in Virgo/Coma cluster. If someone in your family is getting up early to go to Walmart or Target or something anyway, I'd love to have someone around to tell me when hypothermia is setting in.
I'm willing to drive about 1 1/2 hours from Salt Lake, if anyone has any suggestions. It looks like transparency will be OK, but not great. About the same as this morning. From town, M81/82 were fairly bright this morning in OK transparency (for once, I couldn't find M78 from my backyard, though). So I think if I can gain 1-2 naked eye magnitudes, I'll be able to find something.
If anyone wants to join me, we could talk about global warming while we're freezing cold...
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
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Hello, all -- I had an interesting morning of observing today. Some aspects might be interesting. First, the where: I went to Rockport State Park, pulled into the drive, and set up before getting to the gate. There's a sign that says something about fishermen only. This spot has decent horizon to the N, E, and S. There are some lights to the E from the gate, which would probably interfere with more serious observing. On the way, there's a scenic viewpoint that may have been darker. I didn't really hear much traffic, so that may have been OK. Rockport is under 40 minutes from my home in west Murray, and I timed it as about 26 minutes from the 1300 E onramp to I-80. I would go back. Decent darkness. I wouldn't look west, because of glow from the city, but if I wanted to look west, I'd go to Clover Springs. Temp was probably about 20. I was too afraid to go anywhere higher altitude, but the cold didn't really bother me in the end. I got there and set up. I searched my bag everywhere -- I had left my finder at home. Ouch. Anyway, I decided to press on without it, which made life a lot more difficult. All observations I made were with a 6" equatorially mounted f/5 reflector and a 25 mm Plossl. It was "galaxies only" day. To see how well I could dead-reckon without a finder, I started with M51 and companion - both were very bright. So the site seemed dark enough. Moved to the Leo Trio - also easy. My goal was to finish the Messier list. I almost made it. I had to clear out the Virgo cluster. Since Vindemiatrix was barely above the horizon, I thought I'd start from Denebola and go the other way. This failed miserably. I _could not_ find M98. After about 15 minutes, I thought I'd try from the other direction. This also didn't go well, since it was harder for me to decide I had actually gotten Vindemiatrix in the eyepiece. Finally, when I was about to look back at my chart, I noticed two galaxies in the eyepiece. They turned out to be M59/M60 (I thought I saw one more - which would be NGC 4638 based on where it was located, but I'm not sure). Not being sure that I had started from the right place, I wasn't sure if they were M59/60 or M86/84. I panned west and found another, then another, then another pair. So, problem solved: first pair was M59/60, then I got M58, then M87, then M86/84. I backed up and found M89/90. I got a little lost after this. Eventually I got myself back to M86/84 and tried to creep north and west. I eventually saw a sliver and hoped that something in that neighborhood was edge-on. Yep, M98. Got M99 and M100 from there, then backtracked to M88/M91. Spica wasn't up yet, so I used Corvus to find M104. I moved over to Saturn and made about 10 tries of hopping from Saturn to M61, which finally worked. The last ones on my list were M83 and M85. M83 wasn't up and wasn't going to be up, so I left that for later. I made some attempt to find M85, but it seems that all the somewhat bright stars in Coma are about the same magnitude, so I couldn't be sure I was pointing correctly without a finder. So I left it behind as well. One lesson I learned from this is how much easier all of this was because for once I decided to polar align (well, I just put the north leg of my tripod in the right general direction). Without my reflex finder, I was actually hopping by trying to count degrees (starhopping absolutely perplexes me - I can only use the red dot). This worked quite well, given that I was looking for a number of objects in the same area arranged more-or-less E-W. Without the alignment, I think I would have seen the galaxies, but not have been able to make the IDs. So I write this for beginners like myself, who have read, as I have, all of these things from more advanced observers, but never do them. I never polar-align or hop to anything. For those more experienced - I set up my 6" after the drive without collimating, and the mirror is really dusty, but I still got decent results, so I think this says something to recommend the site. It's really close to Salt Lake. In addition to the Messiers, I found about 6-8 more NGC galaxies, so I guess it was dark enough. Good times. ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
Nice observing report! What time did you set up? And how long did you stay at it to accomplish so much? Thanks, Joe --- On Fri, 11/27/09, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> wrote: From: Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Black Friday galaxy hunt results To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 6:32 AM Hello, all -- I had an interesting morning of observing today. Some aspects might be interesting. First, the where: I went to Rockport State Park, pulled into the drive, and set up before getting to the gate. There's a sign that says something about fishermen only. This spot has decent horizon to the N, E, and S. There are some lights to the E from the gate, which would probably interfere with more serious observing. On the way, there's a scenic viewpoint that may have been darker. I didn't really hear much traffic, so that may have been OK. Rockport is under 40 minutes from my home in west Murray, and I timed it as about 26 minutes from the 1300 E onramp to I-80. I would go back. Decent darkness. I wouldn't look west, because of glow from the city, but if I wanted to look west, I'd go to Clover Springs. Temp was probably about 20. I was too afraid to go anywhere higher altitude, but the cold didn't really bother me in the end. I got there and set up. I searched my bag everywhere -- I had left my finder at home. Ouch. Anyway, I decided to press on without it, which made life a lot more difficult. All observations I made were with a 6" equatorially mounted f/5 reflector and a 25 mm Plossl. It was "galaxies only" day. To see how well I could dead-reckon without a finder, I started with M51 and companion - both were very bright. So the site seemed dark enough. Moved to the Leo Trio - also easy. My goal was to finish the Messier list. I almost made it. I had to clear out the Virgo cluster. Since Vindemiatrix was barely above the horizon, I thought I'd start from Denebola and go the other way. This failed miserably. I _could not_ find M98. After about 15 minutes, I thought I'd try from the other direction. This also didn't go well, since it was harder for me to decide I had actually gotten Vindemiatrix in the eyepiece. Finally, when I was about to look back at my chart, I noticed two galaxies in the eyepiece. They turned out to be M59/M60 (I thought I saw one more - which would be NGC 4638 based on where it was located, but I'm not sure). Not being sure that I had started from the right place, I wasn't sure if they were M59/60 or M86/84. I panned west and found another, then another, then another pair. So, problem solved: first pair was M59/60, then I got M58, then M87, then M86/84. I backed up and found M89/90. I got a little lost after this. Eventually I got myself back to M86/84 and tried to creep north and west. I eventually saw a sliver and hoped that something in that neighborhood was edge-on. Yep, M98. Got M99 and M100 from there, then backtracked to M88/M91. Spica wasn't up yet, so I used Corvus to find M104. I moved over to Saturn and made about 10 tries of hopping from Saturn to M61, which finally worked. The last ones on my list were M83 and M85. M83 wasn't up and wasn't going to be up, so I left that for later. I made some attempt to find M85, but it seems that all the somewhat bright stars in Coma are about the same magnitude, so I couldn't be sure I was pointing correctly without a finder. So I left it behind as well. One lesson I learned from this is how much easier all of this was because for once I decided to polar align (well, I just put the north leg of my tripod in the right general direction). Without my reflex finder, I was actually hopping by trying to count degrees (starhopping absolutely perplexes me - I can only use the red dot). This worked quite well, given that I was looking for a number of objects in the same area arranged more-or-less E-W. Without the alignment, I think I would have seen the galaxies, but not have been able to make the IDs. So I write this for beginners like myself, who have read, as I have, all of these things from more advanced observers, but never do them. I never polar-align or hop to anything. For those more experienced - I set up my 6" after the drive without collimating, and the mirror is really dusty, but I still got decent results, so I think this says something to recommend the site. It's really close to Salt Lake. In addition to the Messiers, I found about 6-8 more NGC galaxies, so I guess it was dark enough. Good times. ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
On Fri, 27 Nov 2009, Joe Bauman wrote:
Nice observing report! What time did you set up? And how long did you stay at it to accomplish so much? Thanks, Joe
Thanks. Mostly I wanted to share with anyone who hasn't gone there that Rockport isn't so bad a place. I set up at about 3:30, maybe a little earlier. I started observing right away, without letting the mirror cool. The first objects were a little fuzzy because of that, and maybe that's why I couldn't find M98 on my first try (also, I hadn't looked to see that it was edge-on, so I think I was looking for a different shape). I was out about 2 hours. The session was sort of smash-and-grab. Sometime when it's a little warmer I'd like to spend more time examining the galaxies. I spent a little time trying to see the lane in M104, but I can't say for sure that I did. If I had had the finder with me, I would have stayed a little longer. The double cluster and the beehive were naked eye, so I would have liked to look, but pointing was tedious. Anyway, for such a short drive, I'll just go back sometime. For being on the shore of a lake, with moderate humidity and low temperature, dew and frost were not a problem. ---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
Michael: Very good observing report, I wouldn't consider you a beginner with this level of skill. We have all done the "left it home" dance. Consider it a rite of passage. What I do is have a box that contains all the small items necessary for observing and these objects live in that box. I may take them out to work on them but when done with them I put them away in the box. Then when it's time to go observing, I only have to remember the box. DT --- On Fri, 11/27/09, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> wrote:
From: Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Black Friday galaxy hunt results To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 11:09 AM On Fri, 27 Nov 2009, Joe Bauman wrote:
Nice observing report! What time did you set up? And how long did you stay at it to accomplish so much? Thanks, Joe
Thanks. Mostly I wanted to share with anyone who hasn't gone there that Rockport isn't so bad a place.
I set up at about 3:30, maybe a little earlier. I started observing right away, without letting the mirror cool. The first objects were a little fuzzy because of that, and maybe that's why I couldn't find M98 on my first try (also, I hadn't looked to see that it was edge-on, so I think I was looking for a different shape). I was out about 2 hours. The session was sort of smash-and-grab. Sometime when it's a little warmer I'd like to spend more time examining the galaxies. I spent a little time trying to see the lane in M104, but I can't say for sure that I did.
If I had had the finder with me, I would have stayed a little longer. The double cluster and the beehive were naked eye, so I would have liked to look, but pointing was tedious. Anyway, for such a short drive, I'll just go back sometime. For being on the shore of a lake, with moderate humidity and low temperature, dew and frost were not a problem.
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
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Impressive, great job. Especially good to know about that site, thanks! On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 2:23 PM, daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> wrote:
Michael:
Very good observing report, I wouldn't consider you a beginner with this level of skill.
We have all done the "left it home" dance. Consider it a rite of passage. What I do is have a box that contains all the small items necessary for observing and these objects live in that box. I may take them out to work on them but when done with them I put them away in the box. Then when it's time to go observing, I only have to remember the box.
DT
--- On Fri, 11/27/09, Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> wrote:
From: Michael Vanopstall <opstall@math.utah.edu> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Black Friday galaxy hunt results To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 11:09 AM On Fri, 27 Nov 2009, Joe Bauman wrote:
Nice observing report! What time did you set up? And how long did you stay at it to accomplish so much? Thanks, Joe
Thanks. Mostly I wanted to share with anyone who hasn't gone there that Rockport isn't so bad a place.
I set up at about 3:30, maybe a little earlier. I started observing right away, without letting the mirror cool. The first objects were a little fuzzy because of that, and maybe that's why I couldn't find M98 on my first try (also, I hadn't looked to see that it was edge-on, so I think I was looking for a different shape). I was out about 2 hours. The session was sort of smash-and-grab. Sometime when it's a little warmer I'd like to spend more time examining the galaxies. I spent a little time trying to see the lane in M104, but I can't say for sure that I did.
If I had had the finder with me, I would have stayed a little longer. The double cluster and the beehive were naked eye, so I would have liked to look, but pointing was tedious. Anyway, for such a short drive, I'll just go back sometime. For being on the shore of a lake, with moderate humidity and low temperature, dew and frost were not a problem.
---- Rev. Michael A. van Opstall Department of Mathematics, University of Utah Office: JWB 313 opstall@math.utah.edu
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
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Jim, I think we've all resolved to do just that. I have anyway, and I was one of the worst offenders. -- Joe --- On Thu, 11/26/09, Jim Harvey (UDN) <harvey.james@utahdatanet.com> wrote: From: Jim Harvey (UDN) <harvey.james@utahdatanet.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54 To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 10:05 AM My first post.... Would it be too much to ask to have the discussions limited to astronomy? After yesterday, I wonder if I really want to be on this list. Jim Harvey Trying to enjoy a new hobby. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of stormcrow60@xmission.com Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:51 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54 Robert said: "Thank you Joe, I didn't want to get into that but there is no scenario where Al Gore won that election, he lost plain and simple and fought hard to try to take it from Bush. If there was a scenario where Gore wins I have yet to hear it." Robert, Then why did they not let a full recount move forward? Jon _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Hi Jim: I was involved in yesterdays madness also. I apologize. How new are you to the hobby? Have you looked at or joined Cloudynights.com? I think you would find it a great site for getting going on your "new hobby". It is family friendly and serves beginners very well and intermediate level amongst us. It is a little tame for the hardcore folks but I'd invite you there and also invite you to accept my apology for yesterday and to stick around here. Steve
From: harvey.james@utahdatanet.com To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:05:29 -0700 Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54
My first post....
Would it be too much to ask to have the discussions limited to astronomy? After yesterday, I wonder if I really want to be on this list.
Jim Harvey Trying to enjoy a new hobby.
-----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of stormcrow60@xmission.com Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 9:51 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Utah-Astronomy Digest, Vol 81, Issue 54
Robert said:
"Thank you Joe, I didn't want to get into that but there is no scenario where Al Gore won that election, he lost plain and simple and fought hard to try to take it from Bush. If there was a scenario where Gore wins I have yet to hear it."
Robert, Then why did they not let a full recount move forward?
Jon
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Jim, I've been in this hobby for over 41 years, although currently it's more of an armchair interest than active hobby due to family matters, and what little time I have means that 90% of the list postings must go unread. It's too bad that when I do sit-down and try to weed through them, I get emotionally-laden, politically-invested garbage instead of amateur astronomy. This crowd has done it before- and I include myself in those shout-offs past. But it is out of place at this level, especially when no data is ever cited, just opinions and distillations from each side's favorite oracles. Thanks for speaking up, I agree with you. I've taken the pledge and am sticking to it. On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 10:05 AM, Jim Harvey (UDN) < harvey.james@utahdatanet.com> wrote:
My first post....
Would it be too much to ask to have the discussions limited to astronomy? After yesterday, I wonder if I really want to be on this list.
Jim Harvey Trying to enjoy a new hobby.
participants (9)
-
Chuck Hards -
Craig Smith -
daniel turner -
Jay Eads -
Jim Harvey (UDN) -
Joe Bauman -
Michael Vanopstall -
Steve FISHER -
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