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Weekend Weather
by Jim Gibson 12 May '04

12 May '04

There is a high pressure moving in which will keep most of the clouds away over Utah From Thursday night until Saturday night state wide. The Vernal Area could be bad for viewing Thursday night. By midnight Saturday a weather system will be coming in from the Northwest. There will be some wind ahead of the storm Saturday night, but there may be a few good hours of viewing before it gets here. The weather report did say partly cloudy during the day and mostly clear during the night both Thursday and Friday nights. Thursday and Friday nights look very promising. Saturday night is iffy. JG --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - Buy advance tickets for 'Shrek 2'

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Question on GO-TO scopes
by David Trevino 07 May '04

07 May '04

I would like to ask those that have GO-TO scopes their opinion on them. Looks too me that one could spend more time observing that trying to find objects. (although some argue that finding them is half the fun). Anyway, here is my train of thought: Last year I bought a 4.5" dobsonian. It is not the greatest, but some nights the viewing is good from my driveway, enough to keep me interested (and better eyepieces helped tremendously). But my greatest frustration is trying to keep it pointing in the right direction. I can find planets and other objects just fine at low/medium power, but when I get to high power, it is really hard to keep them in view. (the mount may not be as good as it could be since a little bump or push when trying to focus is enough to move it off target). Anyway, I see that Walmart has the Meade DS-80AT for under $250. I know it is smaller aperture than my current scope, but I am atracted by its computer controls. If it indeed can find and track objects as described, then I can spend my time learning how they actually look (most photographs are taken with larger scopes so they don't look the same). I am not worried about the aperture since I am in John and Lisa's telescope class, so later this summer I'll have a 12" scope. In this case the Meade would aid in pointing me in the right direction, so I can recognize my target in the finder for the larger scope. Any comments or ideas on this or other affordable computerized mounts will be greatly appreciated. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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Scouter needs star party help this summer
by Richard Tenney 07 May '04

07 May '04

If any of you are available and of the mindset to do some good public service, your help is needed on select Wednesday evenings this summer starting in June. At least 2 people (and scopes if you have them) are needed to assist at Camp Maple Dell near Payson Lakes for the following Wednesday nights: June 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. July 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th. August 4th. Mr. Rasmussen, the scouter that's hosting these writes: "If your members could choose just one or two dates that they'd like to volunteer to bring up their scopes, that would mean we'd have 4 scopes for the scouts to see with (including my 2 scopes). I average 60-70 boys taking the Astronomy merit badge per week, but have about 100-150 people show up to just enjoy the night classes that start at 10:00pm each night. With that many people, viewing through one scope at a time creates extremely long waits. If someone doesn't have a scope, I have two scopes myself (10" LX200 and 6" dobsonian). Camp Maple Dell is located about 15 minutes up Payson Canyon, just below Payson Lakes (Utah County). We have a large viewing area (called the "Bowl") that has no lights around and vehicles with the scopes will be allowed to drive (5 mph) up to the area. If the volunteers' phone numbers are given to me, I can remind each of them before the came how to get there. Thanks, Mr. R. (a.k.a. Kerry Rasmussen) Ogden, UT (801) 393-9306 thedane(a)relia.net rasmussenk(a)m.ogden.k12.ut.us Please RSVP directly to him if you are available any of these nights. Please CC me when you email him so I have an idea how many respond. -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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RE: [UVAA] Russell Eyepieces
by Griffin Louis A Civ OO-ALC/MAKGBA 03 May '04

03 May '04

Jim, after reading that review, I'm going to get a couple myself and do some comparisons - I also want to get that 85mm for my Dob - hoping to get all of the Pleadies in the FOV -----Original Message----- From: uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil(a)mailman.xmission.com [mailto:uvaa-bounces+louis.griffin=hill.af.mil@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Jim Gibson Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 4:37 PM To: john(a)johnstelescopes.com; Utah Valley Astronomy Association Subject: [UVAA] Russell Eyepieces John I ordered a 15mm and a 19mm eyepiece, both 2" from Gary Russell today. Thanks for the info. Lisa Good luck tomorrow. Tomorrow at this time it will all be over. Jim --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa

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Wrokshop/Moon Watch Report
by Jim Gibson 03 May '04

03 May '04

A little report on our Workshop/Moon Watch get-together last night. I got to the park a little early and set up my binoculars on a Chuck Hards parallelogram. Daniel Turner came early also and we had a chance to talk over several interesting topics before things really got rolling. Daniel is a do-it-yourselfer and quite knowledgeable in astronomy. He is an avid galaxy hunter. People starting showing up at 7:30 and Paul Witte and his young son Brandon came with their 10 Meade. We put the Meade to work on the moon and we could see Aristarchus and Herodotus really well out on the terminator. We could also see the lava tubes coming out of Herodotus very clearly in Pauls scope among many other moon features. We had several walk-ins that enjoyed looking at things as well. Before things got started a young gal (UVSC student) named Kammie (sp?), a fellow by the name of Dave Jenkins, another fellow who I am embarrassed to say I forgot his name, and a fellow named Don also were there. John and Lisa Zeigler came and with only about 9 or 10 people there we started your eyepiece workshop. John presented an interesting discussion on how eyepieces work. I had the enjoyment of taking a few minutes and talking a little bit about the moon. Then we broke up and started looking at sky objects with the 5 or 6 scopes that were set up there. At that point there were so many little interesting side events/ discussions going on, it was just fun to roam around at try and get in on each one. I was able to get with John Zeigler for a while and we did some eyepiece comparisons. John has some eyepieces that are very well made, light and inexpensive compared to some of the well-known brands. The eyepieces compared favorably with the Naglers and are go alternative for less than ½ the price. John will get the URL to the wegbsite for those who may be interested. This was the first time I had met Dave Jenkins and he is an avid double start enthusiast. Dave and I got on my little Orion 8mmED and went to some doubles that Dave is familiar with. Surprisingly to both of us, with a 9mm University Optic eyepiece at 97x we were able to split the double star Castor (Alpha Gemini) which constituents are only about 2 arcseconds apart. We also took a look at Izar (Epsilon Bootes [pronounced Boe-OH-teez]) which is a 3 arcsecond split and whos constituents are yellow and bluish-green. We cranked the power up to 250x by using a 6mm University Optic and a 2.5 Powermate. Dave was able to fine tune the focus until we could see the diffraction rings and a airy disc. Double star splitting is still great on a moonlit night. Daniel Turner found several deep sky objects including M3, which is a beautiful globular cluster. But, with the moon so bright it was hard to resoulve any of the individual stars. I love Star Parties. I learn so much from the people there. Jim Gibson --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs

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Moon Wathch/Workshop
by Jim Gibson 01 May '04

01 May '04

Last reminder that there will be a work shop on the light train and eyepieces tonight at Fort Utah in Provo tonight Go west of I-15 on Center Street in Provo and at the 2nd light (Geneva Rd) trun right and go about a block. You will see the park on the right. I have about 25 CD on moon features that I made and I plan on giveing them away. Jim Gibson --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs

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FS: Meade ETX-90EX w/ Autostar
by Paul Witte 28 Apr '04

28 Apr '04

Although it holds some sentimental value, I have finally decided to part with my Meade ETX-90 telescope. It includes an Autostar controller as well as several other accessories including: Tripod, Solar Filter, Rigel Quickfinder. I'm asking $450 OBO for everything. I have made a web page with more details and pictures: http://www.uvaa.org/etx.html Thanks, --Paul

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Outstanding speaker tonight (Tues.) at SLAS
by Richard Tenney 27 Apr '04

27 Apr '04

I managed to talk Dr. Ben Bromley, a physicist at the University of Utah, into speaking at SLAS tonight on his research on Planet formation. I heard this talk late last year and thought it was excellent. If any of you non-Salt Lake Astronomical Society members out there want to come please do -- there are plenty of seats. SLAS meets at the 10th East Sr. Center in SLC ( 237 South & 1000 East ) starting at 7:30 pm. Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover

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Another comet article
by Jim Gibson 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

This is a NASA atricle on comet C/2001 Q4. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_166.html Jim --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢

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Comets now visiable
by Jim Gibson 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

For those willing to get up early (like 5AMish), the Bradfield and Linear T7 comets have emerged from behind the sun. http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1238_1.asp http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1229_1.asp Jim --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢

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