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From The Editor
For some time now you may have been receiving my electronic astronomy newsletter News via a forward from UVAA's Rich Tenney. As you probably know Rich recently set up the UVAA mailing list and has asked that I consider posting News directly to the list rather than through him. Not wanting to be thought of as a "Junk emailer", up to now I've only sent News to members of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society and to those who have requested it. So, since there may be those on the the UVAA list that do not wish to receive News, I'm adding this preface to today's issue. If you are reading this and would not like to receive News via the UVAA list please let me know. Carpe Noctem! Patrick ****************************************************** News, 04 AUG 2003 Mars Reaches 23.0 Arc Seconds Today +++++ Binoviewers Anyone? Following yesterday's Mars Watch where several SLAS members got to use a binocular viewer attached to the Brandt refractor (and very much enjoyed the experience) Siegfried Jachmann, elyrae@aol.com, submitted the following: At least 2 of us are interested in purchasing a binoviewer from Denkmeier Optical, Inc. ( http://deepskybinoviewer.com/index.html ) They offer their binoviewer in two levels, with the Denkmeier 2 being the better model. It's list price is $799. It was explained to me that this model has slightly better prisms and coatings. According to one of the owners it's worth the $200 difference in price. I don't know but am leaning that way. Russ, one of the owners, said, if we buy two they would take $100 off each price. If we get more maybe they would go lower. If you are at all interested please visit their site. You can order diopter correction on one or both of the eyepiece units (like what's on binoculars). The cost is an additional $60 per channel. I am going with at least one, maybe two (TBD). +++++ Close Encounters Of The Stellar Kind NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has confirmed that close encounters between stars form X-ray emitting, double-star systems in dense globular star clusters. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/ngc6266 +++++ Mars In Opposition: One For The Record Books On 27th August, Mars will be at its closest to Earth for almost 60,000 years. On that date, the Red Planet will approach to within 55,758,006 km -- 145 times the distance of the Moon. http://www.ras.org.uk/html/press/pn0330ras.html +++++ China's Three Gorges Dam Water churns through diversion holes in the world's largest dam -- China's Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River, imaged here by ESA's Proba satellite this week. http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM4PFYO4HD_FeatureWeek_0.html +++++ More Amateur Shots Mars http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/mars.html Several shots with a prototype SBIG STL Large Format Camera http://willmclaughlin.astrodigitals.com/new.htm Deer Lick Group NGC7331 http://www.geocities.com/rcshouldis/NGC7331.html Narrowband Pelican http://howell-ltd.com/Astronomy/html/IC%205070.html Some images caught on film http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro2.htm Barnard 86 http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pjward/oc/barnard86.jpg Milkyway with 8mm Sigma fisheyelens and Canon 1Ds http://www.procyon.net/fisheye.jpg +++++ My Herb Garden Runneth Over Ok, so this last item has nothing to with astronomy but I guess being editor I get to do this sort of thing now and then... <grin> I have an herb garden next to the house that is doing VERY well (bordering on out of control). So well in fact that there's no way I can use all the herbs growing in there. So my choices are to get out the garden shears and throw away the excess or find someone(s) who would like to come harvest some. So, if you'd like some free herbs, just reply to this email. +++++ ************************************************** News is being sent to you because of your affiliation with an astronomy club in Utah or because you asked to be subscribed. To unsubscribe please send your request to paw@trilobyte.net. News Internet access provided by: Trilo BYTE, http://www.trilobyte.net. Check out my NASA Solar System Ambassador web site at: http://planet.state.ut.us For astronomy clubs in Utah see: http://planet.state.ut.us/utahclubs.html For the Utah Astronomy Listserve see: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy ************************************************** -- Patrick Wiggins NASA Solar System Ambassador to Utah http://planet.state.ut.us 435.882.1209 (observatory) 801.918.9092 (cell)