March 2004 - UVAA - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [UVAA] John's new passion
by JOHN K LUNDWALL 14 Mar '04

14 Mar '04

thanks for the note. I of course think eye pieces will be high on my priority list. thanks for the tips. I have already been web searching today and looking at some of these. The more I come to these star parties the more I'll see what I want. BTW, "M105-3bc-wherethehellisiteskimopie" is right next to the M31-mywife'sgoingtokillmeforspendingallthismoney super star cluster ! I think you've got a lot of takers on your idea for showing up early to get some basic astronomy lessons. I know I'll be sitting front row. When are we getting together again? St. George is out for me, but the pit n pole is great; don't know where the gravel pit is, but the warmer the weather gets and the clearer the skies, the more excited I am. I spent last night looking up at the new constellations I had learned about, what was visible, and binocularing the planets. It was fun! Thanks again your new friend John ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Gibson<mailto:jimgibson00@yahoo.com> To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association<mailto:uvaa@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 2:43 PM Subject: [UVAA] John's new passion John That was a really funny post. I think you invented a new word and a new astronomical object. Collimation is what you do to align the optics of you telescope and Callimnation is what your wife does when she rubber stamps on your telescope. I am going to have to google up M105-3bc-wherethehellisiteskimopie on the web, but if its out there, Mike Bailey and Bob Taylor can find it. Tom can only find it if it's in the database in his hand control :)), but if it is in there, he will be the first to see it. You know by now that Mike is on this list and so is Tom Watson but I dont know about Bob Taylor, so his address is: robtaylor3661(a)comcast.net<mailto:robtaylor3661@comcast.net> . Tom keeps up with what is going on but he keep a very low profile. Your wrote: >I am a newbee and I feel kind of bad showing up and using other people's equipment >without contributing anything I have Dont feel bad, we all did it once and that is part of what Star Parties are for. We encourage people to come and try out as much as they like before they go and plunk down big $$ only to be disapointed. There are too many choices and maybe only a few of them are right for you. You will know after you have experienced a few things and have asked a lot of questions what is right for you. As for your list of items: A. A telescope--making a 10" dobson. B. A laser thingy just like Jim's. C. A pair of binoc's just like Tom's. D. An infared camera just like Bob's. E. An astronomer's torture chair just like Mike's. Next to your telescope, some of the most important things you can invest in are good eyepieces. I would suggest that you start looking at that before you look ad B, C, D, or E. Deciding on eyepieces will not be easy because if you ask questions about eyepieces you will get a variety of different answers. A Star Party is a good place to take a look at different eyepieces. Another good place to look for guidance would be in books. I would suggest getting The Backyard Astronomers Guide by Dickinson & Dyer. It covers a lot of basics including eyepieces, and there are other good books as well. You might want to consider starting with 3 eyepieces. One in the 25mm range, 12mm and 7mm. They dont have to be exactly those focal lengths but something near that and then you can decide how to fill the in-between ones later. For the shorter focal lengths (under 15mm) I would suggest the University Optics Orthoscopic eyepieces or Uos. They are known to focus really well in the center so they are good for planetary work and smaller deep sky objects. Brand new they run about $50.00 but you can get them used (but like new) for about $40.00 on Astromart (http://www.astromart.com/classifieds.asp?c=6&page=1<http://www.astromart.com/classifieds.asp?c=6&page=1>) In the longer focal lengths price may be the determining factor. AT Orion (good site)( www.telescope.com<http://www.telescope.com/>) you can by a 25mm Plossl for $33.00 See: http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=264&itemTyp…<http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=264&itemTyp…> Or you could spend $620 for a 31mm Nagler at Anacortes (good site) http://www.buytelescopes.com/store.asp?s=2<http://www.buytelescopes.com/store.asp?s=2> See Nagler 31mm at: http://www.buytelescopes.com/search.asp?q=31mm+Nagler&s=2&x=14&y=9<http://www.buytelescopes.com/search.asp?q=31mm+Nagler&s=2&x=14&y=9> They all have there pros and cons besides price. My best advices for right now is to, SLOW DOWN. Come to Star Parties and look then figure out what it is going to take to placate your wife. There are some good resources right here on this list. Paul Witte, and Rich Tenney who run the UVAA web site (www.uvaa.org<http://www.uvaa.org/>) and Debbie Whitakar in St. George who is an amazing woman with a wonderful technical knowledge of about anything you would want to know about astronomy. That's only for starters. Have fun. Jim Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailtag_us/*http://mail.yahoo.com> - More reliable, more storage, less spam_______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa

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RE: [UVAA] Workshop
by John and Lisa Zeigler 13 Mar '04

13 Mar '04

Count John and me in. We would love to participate even though we aren't really members of UVAA and we live in Salt Lake county. But we don't really belong to any group, we just like to hang around with anyone who is into stars and telescopes. I think doing the presentations is a great idea since everyone should learn the things you mentioned, and no one teaches Star Gazing 101. It would be nice if some of you could con your wives or kids into coming with you once in a while. We always bring along a movie, drinks and cookies for the kids since we almost always need to bring our children with us. Maybe you could make your wives realize how educational this is, and if they learned some of it they would enjoy it as well. The out come might be them letting you spend more money on your hobby than on scrap booking supplies. : ) I know I cant be the only wife who is crazy enough to let her husband spend all the extra money on telescopes. Lisa Zeigler <http://www.johnstelescopes.com/> -----Original Message----- From: uvaa-bounces+john=johnstelescopes.com(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+john=johnstelescopes.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 9:33 AM To: UVAA List Subject: [UVAA] Workshop You know what I think would be fun is some evening before dark meet out at the Pit 'n Pole or the Gravel Pit and have a workshop while the sun is still up. I was thinking of doing something like this in connection with UVAA. Since UVAA doesn't have regular meetings and I get all the meetings I need at SLAS it would be kind of nice to see everybodys face in the light and people can demonstrate some aspect of astronomy that works for them; just basic stuff. You know, bring your Subway sandwiches and munch while for a while, nothing really formal. The problem with suggesting such a thing usually means the suggestor gets the job, and I dont mind as long as it doesnt become a regular job. It would probably fizzle after a while, after the willing in the group had their chance, but what the hey. There seems to be a lot of new blood in Utah Valley and Old Timers like Rich Tenney could teach us a lot (he he he). Actually everybody ought to have something that works for them and could demonstrate it. We ought to be able to show how collimation basics are really done with and with out a laser pointer. We ought to spend some time (after the sun goes down) just pointing out constellations. We ought to show what sky chats work well, what interesting objects are in current constellations, what comets are around, asteroids, telescope building, binoculars, all kinds of fun things. I am thinking that it would have to be on an off weekend when SLAS wasnt having a Star Party and the moon didnt come up till after 10 or 11 or something. Or when the moon goes down at 2AM we could meet at 2:30 AM uhhh. What? No taker on that one. Just throwing this out to everyone on the list to see if there is any interest. This could beat the heck out of a meeting. Even Rob on Maui could come, or better yet, Rob could through down some futons and we will visit him. Jim Do you Yahoo!? <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailtag_us/*http://mail.yahoo.com> Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam

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Re: [UVAA] Workshop
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 13 Mar '04

13 Mar '04

Hi Jon I enjoyed meeting you. You are always welcome to share my scope at star parties and stuff. You just have to promise to make me feel important and smart. Hey, you said what you and you're wife would do with all the guys' toys, but you didn't say what you would do with my "torture" chair... maybe I don't really want to know. Your friend, Mike Bailey olhomorto(a)aol.com or mikeb(a)granitefurniture.com

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Re: [UVAA] Workshop
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 13 Mar '04

13 Mar '04

Yeah, I might could get into that! Mike Bailey P.S. I thought the Pit 'n Pole was a great site. Can't wait to do it again.

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Re: [UVAA] Workshop
by Rob Ratkowski 13 Mar '04

13 Mar '04

The invitation is always open e komo mai (welcome to my house) Aloha from Maui Rob

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Re: Impromptu Star Party Thursday night
by Olhomorto＠aol.com 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

Ditto Mike Bailey

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Re: [UVAA] Impromptu Star Party Thursday night
by Rob Ratkowski 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

Jim A great site for Bluberries. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/flight-director/March_11_Chen_T1.mov aloha Rob

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Re: [UVAA] Impromptu Star Party Thursday night
by Richard Tenney 12 Mar '04

12 Mar '04

Jim, Nice report, wish I had the time last night to join y'all; had a previous appointment I couldn't break, and didn't get home until 10pm. I can't go down to St. George next weekend, but I may try the gravel pit in a week (Friday) if the weather is favorable. Rich --- Jim Gibson <jimgibson00(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > The impromptu little gathering we had last night > turned into somewhat of a bigger event. Mike Bailey > and Bob Taylor decided to go out Thursday night and > 7 additional people show up. Two of them are new > guys, and one of the two is taking a telescope > making class from John Zeigler and is building a 10 > Dobson. > > > > I didnt really want to take all of my stuff but I > ended up taking my bino/parallelogram combo, the > Orion ED80, and my Dobson. Bob Taylor was > interested in the parallelogram and wants to build > one himself. > > > > The sun had just gone down as we arrived at the Pit > n Pole. There was a slight breeze from the north so > we lined up our cars and mad a wind break that > worked really well. Tom Watson set up his Celestron > NextStar 11GPS scope. Next in line I had my 12.5 > Dobson, with bions and Orion 80ED behind. Mike > Bailey set up his 15 Dobson truss tube mount that > he just finished over the winter and although he set > it up in his driveway a couple of times, we didnt > count that, so he had first light at our little > party and we all got to check it out. Bob Taylor set > up his 10 Orion, and John Zeigler set up I think it > was a 12.5 truss tube Dobson. John Lundwald and a > fellow named Jeff (forgot his last name) didnt have > scopes yet. So that was the layout. > > > > The evening began with collimation duties. We > showed John Lundwald how to find the concentric > circles through an open focuser. After we tweaked > every thing as best we could we followed up with the > laser collimation tool for good measure. By the time > we got through with collimation of all the scopes it > was good and dark. > > > > The only trouble I had during the evening was > finding the eyepiece I wanted only to find that it > had been pressed into service on the Orion. I kept > the 9mm in my pocket but I was left with going from > 22mm to 9mm a jump I had not anticipated. > > > > I had the 13mm Nagler on the 12.5 Dobson for a > while and while looking at Jupiter I thought I could > see the red swirl in one of the bands, but when I > went to the 9mm I couldnt see it. > > > > The Cassini division was very crisp on Saturn with > the 9mm and the small shadow on the ring behind > Satrun was very apparent. > > > > >From there things were really fun. Tom, Mike, Bob, > and John were finding all these great objects and we > just went from one telescope to another gawking at > things. > > > > Tom Watson helped me locate NGC 2392 (Eskimo) > nebula. Tom punched in the NGC number in his hand > control and before I could walk over to his scope it > was on it. Tom Grinned. Since I didnt find it > right off in my own scope I checked to see where his > red dot finder was pointing and even at that it took > me an inordinate amount of time to locate it. I > chalked it up to winter rustiness. > > > > I asked if anyone had ever seen color in any of the > deep sky objects. John Zeigler commented that he > could detect a very slight greenish tint in M42, the > Orion nebula. We all looked at it in his Brent > Watson class truss tube Dobson. Other people could > see it, but I didnt either recognize it for lack of > comparison with other objects or I just couldnt > distinguish it. We all paused to see how many stars > we could see in the spiral asterism west of Polaris > that goes in magnitude 4.2, 4.7, 5.2, 5.6, 6.2, 6.7, > and 7.2. I could only see down to 5.2 but Lisa > Zeiglers young eyes could see at least down to 6.2 > if not better. So we could say that the seeing was > good, but Tom Watson noted that it wasnt especially > steady. > > > > One of the things that everybody seemed to enjoy was > the green laser pointer. It saw heavy duty all > night. Even when John Zeigler got lost trying to > find the road out in the dark, the laser pointer > seared a line to the spot. I dont know Lisa > Zeiglers background, but she displayed an amazing > knowledge of the sky and traced a line around many > of the constallations. John Lundwald doesnt know > the sky yet but he knows the mythology behind each > constellation. > > > > We thought that the moon was going to be the > limiting factor due to come up after midnight, but > as it turned out the dew did us in. By about 10 > Oclock the temperature had dropped into the 20s and > dew started forming on everything. People started > packing up and leaving, but Bob, Mike, Tom, and I > held out tell 11PM. We were engaged in trying to > locate M104 when the dew just got to bee too much. > We did find NGC 4565, which is always a treat. > > > > All in all it was a really fun evening and all the > excitement for the first outing of the year after a > long cloudy winter was apparent. As they say, a good > time was had by all. > > > > Jim > > > > --------------------------------- > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster.> _______________________________________________ > UVAA mailing list > UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com

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Re: [UVAA] Friday night Starparty
by Rob Ratkowski 11 Mar '04

11 Mar '04

Hi Jim Got mylar filters for the binocs but w/ a 17 or 21mm EP I get real good views on my scope. Just ordered a Siebert 5.4mm EP and I really hope they are as good as I hear. I'll let you know ........ and it may be 5-6 weeks because of back orders. Aloha from misty Maui Rob

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RE: [UVAA] Friday night Starparty
by John and Lisa Zeigler 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

I have Jims email telling us where to go. The map link worked earlier today. ________________________________________ The directions to the Pit n' Pole are listed below; however for those who haven't been there before I was planning on suggesting we meet at Albertson's in Lehi (just off the exit on the south side) about 5:45 PM and leave at 6PM, Friday night. If it's good we might go Saturday night too. If you can't make it that early then the directions should be sufficient. Jim Directions to the Pit 'n Pole (Rush Valley Site) See Mapt at: <http://www.utahastronomy.com/JimS/Pit_nPole> http://www.utahastronomy.com/JimS/Pit_nPole >From I-15 get off at the Lehi exit by the Lehi Roller Mills. That is exit #282 or the UT-73 exit. Go west through town on State Road 73. Continue west across the Jordan River, straight through the intersection of Red Wood Road by Smith's, up the hill passed Eagle Mountain and out to Cedar Fort. The road will turn south for 5 miles to Fairfield then West again for about 5 miles up to 5-mile pass. At 5-mile pass you should see motorcycles and 4-wheelers having a good time (if it's light). As you top the hill at 5-mile pass you will see the road slope down and curve to the North. About a quarter of a mile or less after the top take the first paved road left (West). Look at your odometer and figure out what it will be in 4.2 miles. Go west for 4.2 miles. You will know that you are almost there when the road turns slightly to the left (about 4 miles) and there is a small rise in the road. After the rise, the road dips and about 100 yards or so later is another rise. Turn left (South) on the road that takes off at the top of that second rise. Go south about a quarter of a mile and as the road bends to the right there will be another dirt road, obscured by sage brush until you are right on it, going to the west (right). Take that road west until you see a poll sticking out of the ground with a pit near by. The Pit 'n Pole is only about a quarter of a mile from the last turn. Get there before the sun goes down so you can see the sunset over the Onaqui Mountains; it's gorgeous the way the blues and oranges come together. Then you can chase double stars until it gets dark enough for other targets. _______________________________________________ Lisa Zeigler -----Original Message----- From: Heather Wilde [mailto:danther2wilde@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 3:22 PM To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association Subject: RE: [UVAA] Friday night Starparty I think this star party will be held at the Rush Valley site out west of Lehi. and the Albertsons is the one just off the freeway in Lehi. there was an earlier post with a map but I have lost that. hope that clears things up a bit for you Dan. Mark Burns <mark_burns(a)byu.edu> wrote: Star-Folks: I'm new to this in this area and just signed up for the list awhile ago. If I recall from the posts I've read, this place for the star party is up near Park City, but which Albertson's are people referring to? mb Mark K. Burns Brigham Young University Dept. of Humanities, Classics, and Comp. Lit. 3010 JKHB Provo, UT 84602-6013 (801)422-1855 _____ From: uvaa-bounces+mark_burns=byu.edu(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+mark_burns=byu.edu@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 12:52 PM To: Tom Watson; Mike Bailey; UVAA List; Robert Taylor Subject: [UVAA] Friday night Starparty The whether forecast is not looking good for Friday nights Star Party. There is a pretty large front coming in very early Saturday morning, which will be preceded by high serous clouds sometime Friday afternoon with increasing cloudiness Friday night by 8 PM. The storm will be a fast mover and looks like it will cleared out by Saturday night. The bad news is that the storm is moving fast because of high winds, which may linger. For those planning on going to the Star Party, I have not given up hope. I am ready to try both nights (Friday and Saturday). I will still go to Albertsons by 5:45 Friday night. If it is really cloudy or really windy and no one shows, then I wont go out either. Jim _____ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what youre looking <http://search.yahoo.com/?fr=ad-mailsig-home> for faster. _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa _____ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you're looking <http://search.yahoo.com/?fr=ad-mailsig-home> for faster.

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