No. I think it was either Howard or Rod who asked. (I’m not sure, but they were
both part of the conversation.) I’m pretty sure it was a club member, not an
attendee.
That detail was taken from a magazine article so there may be copyright issues.
Besides, what I said below was pretty much all there was to it..
I do, however, have a Bookman’s review for you:
—BEGIN---
I met a really nice man named James who brought along his new 5” Newtonian
telescope on a manual equatorial mount. He had seen one or two objects through
it, but soon discovered there is a lot going on that he didn’t understand. He
Googled “How do I align my new telescope?” and (lucky for him!) PAS caught his
eye. Especially, he noted, because there was a free telescope workshop that
very weekend.
We got it all assembled and tightened down, and talked about how an equatorial
mount works. How, once aligned to the north star, the slow motion controls
could be used to track an object as it seemed to move across the sky. We talked
about the geometry and a little history of his telescope, and aligned the
spotter scope with the telescope itself. We took a look at the eyepieces that
came with the scope and compared them to the much higher quality set that he
purchased separately, along with a couple of filters. He seemed a bit
overwhelmed, as we all did when we first learned about our new telescopes.
I got the impression he was very happy to have found us, that he intended to
join PAS and that he was really anxious to get outside to put all this new
knowledge to good use. I look forward to seeing him again at our next club
meeting in September.
—END---
Alex
On Jun 1, 2015, at 11:54 AM, Terri <starstuff@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Alex,
Was the person asking this question, one of the attendees of yesterday's
event, with a telescope? If so, i have their email and can forward this data
to them, if you wish me to.
Also, did you want to take this info you provided here, and turn it into an
article for the newsletter? Would love to include this research as an
informational article in our own newsletter, for others to read. : )
Terri
On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 7:19 PM, Alex Vrenios <axv@xxxxxxx
<mailto:axv@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
Someone at the Bookman’s Workshop this afternoon asked about the “safe
distance” one would need to be to see the Meteor Crater Impact, yet not be
adversely affected by it. I thought that sounded familiar.
Sure enough, on page 44 of the June issue of Astronomy Magazine (the Ask
Astro” column) there is an answer to that very question.
David King suggests that a nice safe distance of 40 miles, perhaps near the
top of Mt. Elden would provide a safe, spectacular view. He goes on to say
that the 20 megaton blast would be instantly lethal to any living thing
within a 4 mile radius. The pressure of the shock wave would cause severe
lung damage to anyone within 6 or 7 miles. And the high winds (900 mph within
a 4 mile radius, and 60 mph up to 12 miles away) would pick up dust and
debris, acting like a shotgun blast, taking down mammoths, mastodons and
giant ground sloths along its path.
Should we be so unlucky as to have another opportunity to witness such an
event, I expect the technology would allow us to pinpoint the location of the
impact, giving us plenty of time to get settled in some safely distant
location with a particularly good view. In fact, the logistics of publishing
and setting up travel opportunities to such sights might make a good plot for
a Sci-Fi movie!
Alex
--
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see them, but you always know they are there.
Terri Phoenix Astronomical Society <http://www.pasaz.org/> Event Coordinator
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