Space Forum / Amateur Astronomy / June 2006

I started this morning by setting up the scope outside and turning on its
fan to run all day; wanted that mirror to be in perfect thermal equilibrium
by night fall. . .fourteen hours of fan action should do the trick.  At
this point the sun is less than ten minutes away from setting ...

June 27, 2006
The June 27, 2006 Associated Press (AP) article titled "Scientists OK
Gore's Movie for Accuracy" by Seth Borenstein raises some serious
questions about AP's bias and methodology.

Night Seven, the final night of our stay for 2006, was the culmination of
full-contact public astronomy. More scopes added to the mix, a bit less
visitor traffic, more time for each cluster of people coming through. Nice
way to end our share of this year's GCSP.

I've posted at
http://home.freeuk.com/m.gavin/digsky.htm
images by colleague James Weightman taken with his Canon 300D Rebel
digital camera coupled to Canon's best 'astro' lens the 85mm fl f/1.2

The "Cats Eyes" are easily seen at this time of the year in the tail of
Scorpio. Anyone know of other such lesser known asterisms good for sky shows?
         Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
             (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. ...

Latitude: between 45 and 46 degrees North
Telescope: 13cm (5.1 inch) f/6 apochromat
Zenithal Naked-Eye Limiting Magnitude: 6.4
Seeing: IV to V on Antoniadi Scale

As you probably know, the asteroid 2004 XP14 is due to make a very close
flyby to earth on July 3 (Sunday July 2 local time in the western U.S.)
See http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060626_asteroid_close.html .
While it's faint because of its small size, its magnitude will be ...

Ok people, I want everyone to get those old useless broken down tascos out
of the closet and taken out and be used for a burnt offering over the BBQ,
maybe THAT will drive away this overcast hot and muggy weather S.Calif. is
having now!

A friend of mine said recently that he looked at the Sun through what he
thought was a Ca-K (Calcium-Potassium) filter, and he didn't see much.
He thought it was because his eyes weren't sensitive enough to get much
from this filter.

Space Weather News for June 28, 2006
http://spaceweather.com
NEW SUNSPOTS:  After several days of utter spotlessless, the face of the Sun is changing.  Two new sunspots have
emerged: one is large and the other is growing with wild abandon.  It's a good show for solar observers.  So ...

Chandra solves black hole mystery (Jun 22)
  http://physicsweb.org/article/news/10/6/10
   The way in which black holes suck in matter from neighbouring stars is a
   fundamentally magnetic process and not just caused by gravity. That's

June 27, 2006
GPS TRACKS EARTH'S INSTANTANEOUS POLE
New investigations show the capability of GPS to detect the short-term
wobbling of the instantaneous rotation axis of the Earth. Read full press

I am looking for folk's favorite multiple stars with separations < 2
arcseconds, visible from latitude 44 degrees north the NorthEast USA and
especially those visible in the summer and fall.  Thanks.
Dennis

Want to help out your fellow amateurs in search of a good dark sky location
from which to observe?  "Dark Sky Locations," the newest page of The Astro
Post, allows you to do this.  There, you can post your spot - along with
directions and other pertinent info - as well as a picture ...

Does anyone know if AstroStuff.com is just temporarily down or what?
I've not yet tried to call, since I don't have a number handy (and it's
on his website! :-), but I can't get to any of Rex's websites. I ordered
a pair of binocs about 10 days ago, got the email order ...