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Beautiful green bolide Friday night, 11:29 pm.
by Richard Tenney 11 Jun '04

11 Jun '04

I witnessed a spectacular, bright (~mag -2?) green bolide Friday night at 11:29. It was traveling West out of Virgo, and really lit up the sky. I actually wasn't sure it was real, thinking in fact that it might be local fireworks (because of the distinct green color and how it faded) until my Sister in law that lives up in Heber confirmed yesterday that she saw it too. Anyone else on the list happen to be out at that time? Seems there has been a fair amount of meteor activity lately; my wife and I saw another fairly bright (~mag 0) meteor last night heading South-West out of Ursa Major about 10 pm or so. Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/

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RE: [UVAA] Beautiful green bolide Friday night, 11:29 pm.
by Lambert, Aaron 07 Jun '04

07 Jun '04

I was out Friday night hunting faint fuzzies in the Virgo cluster from 10 PM until just after midnight. (Just finished my A.L. messier list - yay!) I didn't notice anything like what you described, but then I was intently staring in the eyepiece and at charts, so it wouldn't surprise me if I just missed it (and it would just be my luck, too). I did notice quite a few satellites wander through my FOV, though. :) Aaron > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] > Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 9:34 AM > To: Utah-Astronomy; UVAA > Subject: [UVAA] Beautiful green bolide Friday night, 11:29 pm. > > > I witnessed a spectacular, bright (~mag -2?) green > bolide Friday night at 11:29. It was traveling West > out of Virgo, and really lit up the sky. I actually > wasn't sure it was real, thinking in fact that it > might be local fireworks (because of the distinct > green color and how it faded) until my Sister in law > that lives up in Heber confirmed yesterday that she > saw it too. Anyone else on the list happen to be out > at that time? Seems there has been a fair amount of > meteor activity lately; my wife and I saw another > fairly bright (~mag 0) meteor last night heading > South-West out of Ursa Major about 10 pm or so. > > Rich > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. > http://messenger.yahoo.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > UVAA mailing list > UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa >

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Re: [UVAA] Question on GO-TO scopes
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

Here is what "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide" has to say on it. Do You Need a "Go To" Telescope? For the $300-to-$500 cost of a good beginner's scope, should you buy one with the "Go To" capability, such as a Meade ETX-AT or DS-2000 model? They are seductive. Just press a button, and away they go. They make it fun to explore the sky with kids. In the low-cost "Go To" scopes, what you sacrifice is image quality for any object you do find. For the same $300 to $400 that a small 70mm-to-80mm "Go To" telescope costs, you could have any of the following: a larger 90mm-to-105mm Maksutov, a 90mm long-focus refractor, a 130mm Newtonian reflector or a 6-inch (150mm) reflector on a Dobsonian mount. All will shoe brighter, sharper images, provided you do the work to find objects. Star-hopping guides and charts are the low-cost alternative to "Go To" computers. Using them to star-hop across the sky requires that you learn the sky, essential knowledge for cultivatin a long-term love affair with the stars. Debbie

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here's the return address...
by Richard Tenney 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

Sorry for the multiple mails folks; seems either Yahoo or the mail list is being weird about this guy's message getting forwarded (I need to check the settings). Anyway, if you want to respond to him/her, here's the return address: rfrachtling(a)pol.net Thanks and sorry about this hassle, Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/

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Fwd: Request assistance
by Richard Tenney 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

Let's try this again; somehow the message didn't get attached. Here it is: =============================== Hi, I'll be travelling to southern Utah (Bryce Canyon, Zion) in early August. I'm interested in renting a telescope when I get to Utah. I was wondering if you or anyone in your club might know where I might be able to do so. If you know of any other astronomy experiences to be had in the area I would like to hear about them. We live in North Carolina and I am looking forward to a real night sky; something that is scarce on the east coast. Thanks, R.Frachtling Chapel Hill, NC Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/

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Fwd: Request assistance (this is not spam from Nigeria!)
by Richard Tenney 04 Jun '04

04 Jun '04

Anyone (especially folks down south like Debbie) want to show this guy some Utah hospitality? Rich Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com/

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Star Gazing session
by John and Lisa Zeigler 29 May '04

29 May '04

We are helping out the Girl Scouts in July with a star gazing session for some of their camps. The Trefoil lodge just up the hill from Bridal veil falls is the location, its a great dark sky sight just outside Provo. If anyone is interested in assisting us at these sessions on July 26 and July 29 from 7 pm till about 11 pm, please let us know if you can come and what equipment you have. We will be taking a 12.5" F8 truss Dob, a 10" F4.5 Coulter rebuilt into truss tube, 8" F4 Sonotube Dob, and a 120 mm Vixen refractor on a GEM (we may have a Zeiss BinoViewer by then), and 20X60 Pentax Binocs. We would love to have any additional equipment present, and someone to help us show the girl scouts the stars. Thank you! Lisa Zeigler

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Weekend weather
by Jim Gibson 20 May '04

20 May '04

It doesnt look real good for viewing in Northern Utah this weekend. Southern Utah will have the best skies Thursday night and not quite as good Saturday night. There is a weather system moving in on Friday night pretty much state wide. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70/year

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Weekend observing report from Gravel Pit & Rush Valley
by Richard Tenney 19 May '04

19 May '04

Friday night proved to be pretty good from the Gravel Pit. Three scopes showed up; my 16, Daniel "Galaxy Hunter" Turner's 17.5" and Lou Griffin's 20-inch, joined later by a group of enthusiastic young adults. The seeing was poor/fair until the clouds fully departed about 10:30, and seeing was decent as we lingered until about 1:30. I managed to log about 25 H-400 objects there, mostly open clusters and galaxies in Orion, Auriga, Cam. and Gemini, and one nice PNe, NGC 1501. The weather was downright balmy. Over 40 degrees at least until midnight, and I never even donned the gloves. The most difficult object of the night was NGC 2185, a diffuse nebula in Orion. Very challenging object. Anyone on the list have any luck with this one? I barely saw the nebulosity, but the seeing was poor and it was low in the sky. Any personal observing notes on this as to what to expect with good seeing would be appreciated. Saturday at the "pit 'n pole" in Rush Valley the sky was much clearer. Unfortunately I arrived late and a bit frustrated from getting lost (sorry to bark at you Jim!), joining a large group (including my 2 compainions from the night before) that was quickly dissipating about 10-ish. While it has a better South-Western horizon than the gravel pit (in spite of some light pollution from the chem depot), overall isn't a better site, and was actually much colder than the gravel pit ironically. Again I managed to bag approx another 25 objects, spending most of the night hunting galaxies in Leo and UMa; some nice galaxy cluster surprises, e.g., NGC 3681,3684, 3686, and 3691 in the same eyepiece field (@115x in the 22 Nagler), and 3185, 3190, and 3193 in another view, etc. Lots of fun multiple galaxy pairs, trios, and quads, including groups near NGC 3395 and NGC 3607. Saw the beautiful dual transit on Jupiter (with superb color banding in the 17.5") about 11:20, and was treated to an easy find of Omega Centauri (my first view ever) skimming along just above the horizon approx. 2 a.m. (just two of us left by then). I'd sure love to see that baby overhead before I die in a big dob under clear dark skies... Tired (yet happy) after two nights of getting to bed after 3am and not being able to sleep in past 8. Yawn. (Sorry, I suspect this post is a yawner too), -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html

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Comet NEAT easy binocular target even in the city
by Richard Tenney 12 May '04

12 May '04

The comet was an easy find in my 9x binoculars last night when the clouds parted just after 10 pm from my rather light-polluted home in Lindon. Soon as the weather clears you should check it out if you haven't seen it already. (see the link below to a nice map) Debbie W. also snapped some good pics of it; hopefully we'll see them in the gallery shortly (hint hint). -Rich http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/article_110_1.asp __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2' http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/movie?mid=1808405861

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