Posts Made By: Maurice Clark

Hi all,

Saw this the other day. Maybe there is hope for the HST yet.

http://www.space.com/news/griffin_hearing_050412.html

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Some of you might find this article interesting. I ceretainly felt it raised some interesting questions.

http://www.libertymagazine.org/article/articleview/492/1/2/

Regards

Maurice

Hi all,

Just read this on the BBC news. It seems like a texas-based oil tycoon has been indicted over the UN oil-for-food programme.

Given the vitriol and hatred towards the UN espoused here by some contributors, I wonder what they will say when some of their own are found to be involved?

Regards,

Maurice

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4445073.stm

Hi all,

Considering some of the posts that our esteemed sitemaster puts here, I think this is the best place for this one. This must set a new standard for the title of "The Craziest Reason to Sue". It is all over the NASA "Deep Impact" mission to comet Temple 1, part of which includes a collision with the comet to blast out a crater so that the interior of the comet can be studied.

In a lawsuit she filed last month with the Presnensky district court in Moscow, Bai is demanding that NASA call off its $311 million operation, with the spacecraft already in its cruise phase. She also wants 8.7 billion rubles (the ruble equivalent of the entire cost of the mission) in compensation for moral damages.

“The actions of NASA infringe upon my system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with the natural life of the universe, and the violation of the natural balance of the Universe,” Bai said in her claim.

http://mosnews.com/feature/2005/04/19/deepimpact.shtml

Herb, I think we could use a "banging your head against a brick wall" emicon!

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

JPL have just released images of a new Saturnian moon within the Keeler gap that makes waves within the rings.

Really nice movie!

Cheers,

Maurice

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06238.html

Hi Ray,

Don't forget the $4m to be saved by axing the Voyager mission and several other long lasting space missions!

The joys of war!

Regards,

Maurice

This will be an interesting one for the USA. Will this guy be deported or not? Given the strong stand advocated by the Bush administration regarding terrorists it will be interesting to see if they go against all those cuban voters in Florida.

Either way it has been a great properganda coup for Castro.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1371038.htm

Regards,

Maurice

Hi all,

Found this animation of images of the Temple 1 impact. Very nicely done.

http://gtn.sonoma.edu/public/news/07_06_05.php

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Just got back to the USA from 4 weeks back home in West Oz. After 4 years away, it was great to see the southern sky again.

I managed to spend 11 nights out bush at the Chiro Observatory. Some nights were partly cloudy and there was very heavy dews, and at times the temperature dropped to around 5C. (winter, and the wet season!) However on each night I was able to get in at least 4 hours of observing and on many nights I was able to observe for a full 12 hours.

The skies were fantasticly dark. Using regions in Pavo and Crux, the limiting magnitude was always better than 7.5. For the Pavo region, 32 stars equates to a limiting mag of 7.5. The first night I counted 38. Other nights gave counts over 40, with the best being 43! With such high numbers, I doubted that I was counting correctly so I checked what I counted against SA2000 and it was correct. NGC 253, the Heliex, Centaurus A, were all comfortable naked eye objects, the zodiac band was visible all across the sky, except where it was drowned out by the Milky Way in Scorpius and Sagittarius, and the sight of the going from horizon to horizon was breathtaking!

One night I decided to see how many globular clusters I could see with the naked eye. Here is the list going from easiest to most difficult. omega cent, 47 tuc, 6752, M22, 6397, M13, M5, M55, M15, 362, 2808, M4, M10, M2, M3 and M12. M19, M9, and M14 were not visible. One interesting result from this exercise, I was surprised to find M15 easier to see than M2, until I checked the quoted magnitudes. After over 40 years in astronomy, I had not realised the M15 is brighter than M2! It is surprising what you can learn!

Another night I decided to see how many Messier objects I could see with the naked eye. I managed M2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10,11,12,13,15,16,17,21,22,23,24,25,31,33,41,42,45,and 55. Not visible were M9,14,18,19,20, and 28. Twilight prevented observing M35,36,37,38,44, 46, 47, and 48, all of which I have seen on other occassions.

Most of my time at the observatory was spent on asteroid photometry, however I was able to spend some time taking "pretty pictures" which I will share over the coming weeks as I get time to process them. I have attached one to this message. It is NGC 300, a moderately bright, low surface brightness member of the Sculptor group of galaxies. It is a combination of 5, 3-minute images, using a 300mm f/6 newtonian and an ST9XE CCD.

Dark skies, mostly good weather, Sagittarius overhead, it was great to be back!!!! If you have never been to Oz to view the southern skies, you owe it to yourself to make the trip at least once.

Cheers,

Maurice

Hi all,

Here are a few of the images I took during my recent trip to West Oz. (http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=359373&poll_id=&news_id=&page=)

This one is one of my favourite objects, the Tarantula nebula, NGC 2070. It is a combination of 15, 2 minute images using a 300mm f/6 newtonian and an ST-9.

Enjoy.

Maurice